It Must Be Heaven is a 2019 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film directed, written and starred by Elia Suleiman.[1] It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.[2][3]

It Must Be Heaven
Cannes release poster
Directed byElia Suleiman
Written byElia Suleiman
Produced byÉdouard Weil
Laurine Pelassy
Elia Suleiman
Zeynep Özbatur Atakan
Martin Hampel
Thanassis Karathanos
Michel Merkt
Serge Noël
StarringElia Suleiman
Narrated byElia Suleiman
CinematographySofian El Fani
Edited byVéronique Lange
Production
companies
Rectangle Productions
Pallas Film
Nazira Films
Possibles Media
Zeynofilm
Distributed byLe Pacte
Release date
  • 24 May 2019 (2019-05-24) (Cannes)
Running time
97 minutes
CountriesFrance
Germany
Canada
Qatar
Palestine
Turkey
LanguagesArabic
French
English
Spanish
Hebrew

It was selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[4]

Plot

edit

A Palestinian man travels abroad. He encounters strange and familiar scenes.

Cast

edit

Reception

edit

As of October 2021, the film holds a 96% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "An entrancing blend of the poignant and the absurd, It Must Be Heaven finds writer-director Elia Suleiman returning to action in peak form."[5] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 69 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable".[6]

Awards

edit

At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, It Must Be Heaven received the Special Mention from the Main Competition Jury,[7][8] and the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film In Competition.[9]

At the 2019 Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF), the film was awarded 4,000 € in broadcasting rights in Belgium.[10]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "It Must Be Heaven". Cineuropa. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Cannes festival 2019: full list of films". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  3. ^ "The Screenings Guide 2019". 9 May 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  4. ^ Day, Emma (21 August 2019). "Oscars 2020: Filmmaker Elia Suleiman to represent Palestine in Best Foreign Language Film submission". The National. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  5. ^ "It Must Be Heaven (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  6. ^ "It Must Be Heaven". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Bong Joon-ho's Parasite Wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes". Variety. 25 May 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  8. ^ Pulver, Andrew (25 May 2019). "Bong Joon-ho's Parasite wins Palme d'Or at Cannes film festival". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Cannes: 'It Must Be Heaven' Takes FIPRESCI Critics' Prize". The Hollywood Reporter. 25 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Awards 2019". BRIFF. 30 June 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
edit