The Time that Remains [DVD]

The Time that Remains: Chronicle of a Present Absentee is a film that falls back to the classic roots of film making that will give you and your friends much to talk about after watching. And watch it many times you will. By melodically guiding you through the life and times of a young father and his family trying to live a normal existence in very abnormal circumstances, Suleiman tells the story of his own childhood during the creation of the State of Israel, and portrays events documented in his fathers diaries. We view these events through Suleimans own eyes and sometimes with us as the other person in the room, and go with him from boyhood to present day.

When you have finished you feel as though you have been taken on a real journey, not in the same sense as that of a Hollywood Studio flick that fires you up and then shoots you back down with a crash - the pace of the picture is much slower, allowing us to take in each shot that has been definitively structured, and appreciate the feelings and sentiment of the characters and the absurdity of the situation that they find themselves.

It is upon reflection that you start to question which parts are based on fact and which are purely symbolic. Memorable scenes include the policeman on patrol trying to enforce a curfew on the young revellers, and then the young mother who is told to 'go home' by the occupying forces as she walks through a stand off between them and the Palestinian freedom fighters - the irony is not lost.

Suleimans on screen persona has been compared to that of Tati and Keaton in terms of the silent observer there for comic relief, and there are many crossovers. That being said The Time that Remains is by no means a rip off, and the droll deadpan nature of Suleimans acting compliments his structured directorial style perfectly, instilling a sense of order to the madness of the surroundings.

I read in an interview with Suleiman that he said "I don't think it is a film you have to understand but one you have to feel". Something that defines TTTR's is the lack of dialogue and narrative, which allows you to make your own decisions instead of being guided purely by what you are told - you are allowed to observe and make up your own mind, and it is this that I love.

This is a film that will be a film remembered on its own merits not as the third in a trilogy that follows Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention, and will cherished by lovers of film and budding film makers alike for its technical and artistic brilliance. A future classic.

If you are interested in spreading your cinematic wings then this is the one that you should try. A new world of International Cinema awaits!

this is the third in a series of three semi-autobiographical tales of the life of an indigenous Palestinian from Nazareth, whose family managed to remain intact during '48 war. the Director, Elia Suleiman's family is seen thru his childhood recollections of family community and invading occupiers. This director has an uncanny ability to communicate the surreality of this invasion, interspersed with family life in anything but a dour manner...his expressionless face serves as a canvas for the viewer to paint one's own feelings. Words cannot convey the significance of seeing the presentation of the Nakbah portrayed in film....especially for the North American audiences who will minimally get to see this film...therefore I was grateful to be able to purchase and view this brilliant film thanks to Amazon UK . Loved it!.

Elia Suleiman's film The Time That Remains is a masterly drawing from his father's memoirs,sketching out in fragmented vignettes of brilliantly composed tableaux and dead-pan episodes of humour the pain of Palestinians(here"Arab-Israeli's")living under occupation in Nazareth, from 1948 to the present.The spirit of Tati and Keaton reign supreme.This is not a blow-by-blow account but a microcosm of noises-off,of mini-theatrical happenings, especially in the personal slant on his family.Scenes have been shot where events took place.

We rarely think about ordinary life under occupation or the culture shock of suddenly finding yourself living in an Israeli-conquered town for Palestinian Arabs.With the precision and verve of silent comedy,Suleiman rearranges the chaos of reality into aesthetic order,patterns of inter-related harmonies, through translation into cinematic moments,language.The film is structured into 4 parts after a prologue of Suleiman's visitation of his widowed mother, the drive from airport to Nazareth,an existential void,following the fall-out of 1948,hence'getting lost'.

1948 is the Big Bang for the Palestinian people.The Mayor of Nazareth signs an unconditional surrender of Nazareth to the Israeli troops.Palestinian soldiers flee throwing off their keffiyehs.This historic starting point allows Suleiman to voyage around his father,Fuad's(Saleh Bakri) life.One very powerful scene when after capture,he is blind-folded and made to kneel in an olive grove full of other detainees.We get rustling leaves,crickets,birdsong, breezes,the beauty of Palestine's landscape,but a gun to his head and a count to ten.The title is a warning.

Many of his family have departed for Amman.In the 1970s Fuad has high blood pressure,a bad chest,Elia at school, being chastised for calling the Americans `imperialists'.A mad neighbour continually douses himself with petrol to protest the hard conditions of life to be rescued by Fuad.Israeli children sing colonialist songs. Israeli patrols question Fuad's night-fishing,repeatedly,until they arrest him at home for `smuggling arms'.There are tender family memories,a communicating neighbourhood,full of anecdotes,collections of stories,images of feelings.

In the 80s after open-heart surgery Fuad is off hunting and playing back-gammon.Refuge is piling up through strikes,auntie Olga's sight is deteriorating to comic effect.Prostitutes dress as Israeli soldiers to pullclients. Elia sits around with his mates in cafes when not being threatened with deportation.Protests by Palestinians vs. Israel's annexation of land in Nazareth are met by being shot at by Israeli soldiers.Soldiers tug trolleys in hospital from medics to get wounded people who they suspect.And to the present day,Suleiman is the silent

narrator,the insider-outsider,the `present absentee',sitting around cafes with his old mates.His father is dead. His mum is diabetic and secretly eats ice-cream at night,told off by her home nurse.Elia watches fighting in the streets below between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.A big tank's turret follows a neighbour's movements as he empties his rubbish.A peaceful disco is met by loudspeaker curfews.The insanity of existence is impeccably framed. The most moving scene is when he tends his hospitalized mother.Using humour to hint at the buried stories

that the powerful control with their narrative, to keep that history untold:the displaced,the refugees, the annexations,the settlements.This is better than his last film'Divine Intervention',because it uses the anguish of oppressed people everywhere using ghetto humour,to dislodge the mask of injustice,to make the viewer feel with all senses the powerful tool that cinema is to forge new identities,through pleasure and coherence.We are not just telling history,but from the stones up we are reliving the tragedy of a people.Cinema of eloquent humanity.