“Divine Intervention,” a feature film about Israeli-Arab life, was screened last week as part of the Israeli Film Festival, sponsored by the Center for Judaic Studies.
The festival, which screens movies every Wednesday, ends March 2.
“Divine Intervention” is a satirical and surreal look at Israeli Arabs living in Nazareth.
In the film, there is rarely dialogue and there is much more gestural language. Actions and sounds let the audience know what is going on without needing the characters to speak.
The film is fantastical, but disturbing.
The film opens with a repetition of short scenes focused on specific people performing their daily tasks.
Later, some of the characters come together and create new incidents. These repetitions could represent the ongoing war in Israel.
The music is incredibly significant to set the mood of the film.
A good amount of the film is somewhat similar to performance art.
Because there is so little dialogue, the film depends on facial expressions, gestures and silence. These help the audience to understand what is going on.
The theme of the film is the interaction between Israelis (Jews) and Palestinians and the dispute of who can cross the checkpoint border from Ramallah to Jerusalem. This is a commentary on the community these people live in.
Although the filmmaker is an Israeli, he is also an Arab and he portrays the Israeli soldiers in a negative light.
There is some violence and troubling images that make the film even stronger in the way that it is controversial.
Despite all the unsettling aspects, there is also some humor and comic relief to give the audience a break from the harshness of the reality of the ongoing war.
One funny, but relatively disturbing part takes place in a hospital where many patients, doctors and nurses are all smoking in the hallway.
This scene is ironic in its message.
Another theme in the film is love.
There is a confusing relationship between a man and a woman. One is Israeli, but an Arab and the other is Palestinian.
This woman takes a lot of action in the film. In the beginning she walks through the checkpoint after making eye contact with the Israeli soldiers. Toward the end, she becomes a ninja fighting the Israeli soldiers.
They only can meet at the checkpoint because this is the only place where both can coexist.
This film leaves the audience wondering if an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is possible, or if the people are so locked into their roles that it will never end.
