It Must Be Heaven (2019) review

Suleiman - playing "himself" - wanders around his native Palestine taking in the wonderful strangeness - a man stealing lemons from him, patrons of a restaurant complaining about the wine in food, cops swapping sunglasses while driving around a prisoner - before heading off to France and then the United States, where things are just as off-kilter (his vision of America, where people carry machine guns to buy groceries, is hilarious).  This has been compared to Tati and Wes Anderson - and compositionally I agree with the latter - but I feel it's closer to Aki Kaurismäki's work: there's a lot of sad, deadpan humor and while a few of the bits don't quite fit together, his message of "we're all in this together whether we like it or not" is resoundingly clear.  Considering the political situation surrounding Israel and Palestine, the light comedy is a good way to poke fun at the extreme daily tension, and this is certainly the work of a man who - I get the feeling - is a little exhausted with life.  You gotta let the kids dance, Elia.