“IS THIS PARADISE?”
BY ELIA SULEIMAN
AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL FROM JUNE 12
AND VIDEO-ON-DEMAND FROM JUNE 19
MAISON 4:3 and Possibles Media announce the expected release of the film awarded the special prize awarded by the jury at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival, IT MUST BE HEAVEN (French version: C’EST ÇA LE PARADIS?) by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman ( Divine Intervention, The Time That Remains). Starting June 12, the film will be available on digital and in partnership with the Cinéma du Parc and the Cinéma Moderne in Montreal. Then, it will also be available on video-on-demand on all platforms from June 19.
A 50-year-old Palestinian leaves his country to find peace. Fleeing his identity, he wants to blend into a new society. But no matter where he goes in Europe or America, he finds what he is trying to flee: a military apparatus that is glorious but laughable; ridiculous police officers who seek to justify their futility; bizarre and unlikely social tensions; a wacky and Kafkaesque checkpoint, he is confronted everywhere with caricatures of what was overwhelming him in Palestine. He who anticipated calm and security finds himself in countries in a state of emergency, as if an undeclared occupation were spreading all over the world. Elia Suleiman’s wanderings, between flight and introspection, pose this fundamental question in a tone of humor: what is this place that can be called “home”?
Awarded a special prize by the jury at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival, IT MUST BE HEAVEN also received the International Critics’ Award from the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI). It also won the Eurimages Award for Best European Co-Production at the 16th edition of the European Film Festival in Seville and Best International Co-production at the 2020 Foreign Press Enlightenment.
IT MUST BE HEAVEN is Elia Suleiman’s fourth feature film, unveiled on the international scene as a follow up to his trilogy of films about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Chroniques d’une disparition (Best First Film Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1996), Intervention Divine (Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002) and Le Temps Qu’il reste (official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 2009). Mixing in his style which is a combination of burlesque, fantasy and drama, Elia Suleiman has managed to impose a unique cinematic style where he once again puts himself in the lead role.
Shot in part in Montreal, after the director-actor’s wanderings in Nazareth and Paris, the feature film was produced in Quebec by Possibles Media (Serge Noel), in France by Rectangle Productions, as well as by Zeyno Film (Turkey) and Pallas (Germany).
The film is available, in its original English version and in its french subtitled version, on digital from June 12, in partnership with the Cinéma du Parc and the Cinéma Moderne in Montreal. It will also be available on video-on-demand on ITunes, Illico, Bell, Shaw and Rogers platforms, among others, starting June 19.
