Divine Intervention

In Nazareth a man goes through his post methodically every morning, then has a heart attack. His son visits him in hospital. The same son meets a woman at the Al-Ram checkpoint near Jerusalem; they sit in a car, hands touching, saying nothing. A balloon drifts loose, rubbish goes over a wall, Santa Claus runs from youths with knives. With almost no dialogue the film assembles daily life under occupation scene by scene. Elia Suleiman wrote it, directed it and acts in it. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002. Its Oscar submission was not accepted: the widely repeated explanation was that Palestine is not a recognised country, while the Academy's own account was that the entry had not been submitted through a proper selection committee.