{image1}How could a film set, in large part, along the armed borders between Palestinian and Israeli areas be comedic? You wouldn't think it possible, but director Elia Suleiman pulls it off in "Divine Intervention," which kicks off the new season at UWM's Union Theatre, located on the second floor of the student union, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Slim on dialogue, the film features a variety of sometimes smile-inducing scenes from daily life in the Middle East. Two lovers meet near an Israeli checkpoint, one man tosses his daily rubbish over the fence into his neighbor's yard and is angered when she tosses it back. "What kind of person does such a thing to a neighbor," he asks her.
A man collects bottles on his roof so that he'll have ammunition when the police come to try and stop him from destroying walls and driveways. A group of young kids chases a man in a Santa suit and day after day a man waits for a bus that isn't coming. When a woman asks a policeman for directions, he brings out a blindfolded prisoner, obviously from the neighborhood, to help.
Underlying the vignettes is the story of a man from Jerusalem (played by the director) whose father is dying. He struggles to deal with this and he gains strength from daily meetings in a car with a beautiful woman (Manal Khader in her debut) from Ramallah. They never kiss, they never even touch except for his right hand and her left, which caress each other tenderly. Meanwhile bombs explode, machine guns fire and IDs are checked at the border.
It takes a while to figure out exactly what is going on. Rather than relying on words, Suleiman focuses on the expressive and often deadpan faces of the actors and on a political subtext most of us are already familiar with.
There are fantastical moments, such as when the Palestinian superwoman battles the Israeli commando group and when the man in the car lets fly a red balloon bearing the image of Yassir Arafat, but the film's political loyalties are otherwise, fairly subtle (save for one scene when an Israeli border guard -- apparently drunk on either alcohol or power, or both -- humiliates the Palestinians waiting in their cars to cross the border).
Variety magazine, hitting the mark, called the film, "an entertaining, good-looking confection that pushes all the right buttons for sympathizers of the Palestinian cause without actually getting its hands dirty."
"Divine Intervention" screens Fri.-Sun., Aug. 29-31 at 7 and 9 p.m. There are also 5 p.m. showings on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5. Call (414) 229-4070.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
