The Competition Continues with “The Time That Remains” by Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman in the running for the Palme d’Or with "The Time That Remains"
With the Competition feature The Time That Remains, Elia Suleiman is back on the Croisette two years after participating in the Out-of-Competition collective film, To Each his Own Cinema. This time the Palestinian director, who was on the Jury in 2006 and who received the Jury Prize for Divine Intervention in 2002, brings to audiences a sort of autobiography in four chapters revolving around his family, from 1948 until recent times. Mixing his own memories with those of his parents, The Time That Remains portrays the daily life of those Palestinians who remained and were labelled Israeli-Arabs, living as a minority in their homeland.
"My films are inspired by my everyday life. When you live in a sensitive area like my country, politics are simply a part of life,” related Elia Suleiman. “It happens that Palestine has been subject to overexposure in the media which has left it open to ideologues on the Left and the Right. I felt my challenge was to deviate from this simplistic approach by making a film in which there is no history lesson to be learned. I focussed on moments of intimacy of a family, hoping for nothing more than to give pleasure to the audience and to achieve a certain cinematic truth. If this should trigger a feeling of involvement with the political dimension, the audience can go to a bookshop or the library – instead of watching TV – and learn more about the lives of the characters that have moved them."
