“I'm not in the business of saying just one thing about just one place. If you only see Palestine in my films, then I've failed because then I'm just a provincial filmmaker.” IfsFilmOne ThingFilmmakerJust OnePalestine Author:Elia Suleiman
“Palestine is an extremely familiar place to me. Someone like me who lives everywhere in the world cannot be contained. If my hope and ambitions are in the right place, you can judge that in my films. I want to make films that diffuse any local notion. Cinema criss-crosses borders and check points. If the film is good, then it's universal.” IfsWorldWantFilmJudgingAmbitionCrossesUniversalNotionChecksLocalsFamiliarLike MeBordersCinemaPalestineRight PlaceFamiliar Places Author:Elia Suleiman
“If a person just takes what is socio-political and geographical from the themes of my films then that's not enough. But if the person goes out of the theatre and, for example, makes the dinner he's eating later on, extra nice then I feel that I have succeeded. We have this urge to anaesthetize the moment we're living in.” IfsFeelsPersonsEnoughMomentsFilmPoliticalNiceExampleEatingDinnerTheatreExtrasThemeUrges Author:Elia Suleiman
“Israel, the Israelis, and the rest of the world have been brainwashed. They don't think of pre-1948, they have no idea Palestinians were in Israel, who we were before '48. As if we were born in 1948 according to them. They have no notion that we had a country, houses, rebelled against the Ottomans and the British. They think history in that region started in that moment.” IfsThinkingWorldHas BeensIdeasCountryMomentsHouseBornNotionIsraelBritishNo IdeaRegionsThat MomentPalestinianBrainwashedOttomansCountry Houses Author:Elia Suleiman
