Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

cyborg-of-eternal-prospe The very idea of this movie is disgusting, heart-wrenching. There was never a black comedy movie made about the wiping out of the Jews by the Nazis, and yet you people have the heart to have a snort at anything happening in this movie? What is happening in this movie is real, raw events. The very fact that this movie was made and the very fact that you audiences are appreciating it is gross. Compare, what if this movie was exactly the same but about the Nazi occupation then you all would be raging about how heartless this was. When it's the jews, people sympathize with them as if they had survived the absolute end of the world. What about the arabs oppressed by the jews? Don't Palestinians die daily?

Camilla Stein Sometimes, life throws at us things that over the years become too big to comprehend. Such are natural disasters, pandemic diseases, nuclear explosions, and wars.In his movie, released in 2009, Elia Suleiman sets on a journey to explore the genre of black comedy, so as to reveal to us the secret of coping with a tragedy of which the magnitude is overwhelming.It is the nature of human mind to always look for some form of normality, maybe a little static, but nevertheless, a feeling that your bases are covered, your life has a purpose and your entire existence in a certain place and at a certain time is not meaningless. This is what we, humans, do when gun battles, tanks and security surges are suddenly a persistent part of the daily routine. And this is exactly the focus of The Time That Remains. Half a century of tragedy is squeezed into an hour and a half of a laconic and precisely targeted shock therapy.Despite its smoothness and an accurately placed hint of suspense, this movie doesn't truly give you a moment of rest. There's no wallowing in self-pity here, no destructive mind blowing imagery; even the garden of executions is so well carved into the texture of the surrounding neighborhood that it appears natural despite your mind telling you that what you are looking at is a yelling contradiction to what is humanly acceptable.There's also no conflict, in a traditional sense of the word, around which the story would evolve. All there is is a deceptively distanced and only seemingly uninvolved bitterly comic narration about generations of painful struggle to remain human in a filled with nonsense reality, where even a direct participant finds himself merely an observer, trying to just be.The movie strikes as grotesque, largely satirical, very reflective and detailed. This effect doesn't wear off till the very last scene.When telling the truth becomes a taboo, the sensationalism of this movie is found in the peculiar way of drawing attention to what should not be discussed, because the subject makes us uncomfortable.Elia Suleiman resorts to various means offered by cinematography in order to break the unbreakable, to jump over the wall.There are no loud graphic scenes in this movie, nothing at all that an adult cannot handle; yet, it is heavily loaded with incredible emotions that run deep in the film's canvas, leaving you gulp for air at times.When deciding whether or not to watch this movie, don't hesitate. Just watch. And prepare lots of tissues, even if you are known for having a thick skin.

jotix100 This is an evocative film by Elia Suleiman that was shown at IFC recently. The story takes us back to the city of Nazareth where the director was born. It is a chronicle of the events in that part of the world and the changes that have occurred there. It is basically an account of the life of Mr. Suleiman's parents as they lived the events that go back a number of years in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that befell that area.Life as an Arab in Israel is examined by Mr. Suleiman at key points as they happened. Fuad, the father in the film, must deal with what comes his way. Life in the city goes through changes as history comes to change things for the family. There is a running joke about food sent from an aunt that no one wants. The main events happened in 1948, as the state of Israel was being born. Later periods take a look at other aspects of the life of what one feels is the family of Mr. Suleiman.The atmosphere of Nazareth, wit its amazing light is captured by the cinematographer Marc-Andre Batigne. Saleh Bacri, who plays Fuad, shows why he is one of the prominent actors working today. He made quite an impression in "The Band's Visit". The director, Mr. Suleiman shows up toward the end in an enigmatic segment where he seems to be absorbing the history he and his family witnessed in Nazareth.

nyshrink This film, like most Elia Suleiman films, uses real time, absurdity, symbolism and scenes from Suleiman's life, at the same time portraying history and current events. As typical of Suleiman it is also a very personal film, the most personal of the ones I've seen (Divine Intervention, Chronicle of a Disappearance). It is a reminiscence of his family from the time of 1948, when the state of Israel was created on the land called Palestine, to the present day.The film covers events including the war of 1948, the death of Nasser, the resistance against Israeli occupation, and the deterioration of Palestinian society in recent times. It is filled with Suleiman's typical tragicomic scenes of interaction between Israelis and Palestinians. It is a very sad film, however, the humor that runs through the film, and the suspense that is created by filming in real time, keep the film engaging even though like Suleiman's other films the pace is somewhat slow.