
The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
“On The Edge of Fiction”: Elia Suleiman’s Cinema of Belonging
When
Wed 15 Oct - Wed 22 Oct 2025
See below for additional related events
Elia Suleiman (1960–), who appears in many of his own works as his alter-ego “E. S.”, can be viewed as a filmmaker who incorporates the personal and autobiographical into all of his films. Born under Israeli occupation in Nazareth, Palestine, Suleiman moved to New York City and discovered the work of Robert Bresson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jacques Tati and Yasujiro Ozu, amongst others, all subsequent influences on his filmmaking practice. It was in New York, as a self-taught artist, that he made his debut film, Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990), a wonderful critical collage of Western representations of the Middle East.
Returning to his homeland, Suleiman was instrumental in creating the Film and Media Department at Birzeit University. A subsequent film trilogy emerged that chronicles Palestinian existence after the 1948 Nakba, made implicitly and explicitly as works of resistance against a colonial state. These three features – Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), Divine Intervention (2002) and The Time That Remains (2009) – in focusing on experiences of displacement, exile and belonging, address the statement by postcolonial theorist Hamid Dabashi that “[a]t the core of the Palestinian historical presence is thus a geographical absence”.
Known for his experimentation and magical realism, with his work often compared to the deadpan comedy of Tati and Keaton, Suleiman’s cinema is distinguished by its charm, warmth and effervescence.
In addition to the key trilogy, this season also includes Suleiman’s most recent feature – It Must Be Heaven (2019) – together highlighting an oeuvre that, though consistent in its political awareness and visual design, seeks to further the story of a nation.
About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
