Writer & Director
Elia Suleiman

Starring
Elia Suleiman

How do I describe a film that plays out more as a montage with no discernible plot, minimal dialogue and features a single reoccurring character who merely observes one awkward, random and outlandish thing happening after another? Well there you go, I just have!

It Must Be Heaven is a film you never need to see, yet seeing it will mean you need never to forget it and won’t necessarily mean you regret doing so either! The straw-hatted, glasses-wearing and smoking middle-aged main character of this film is Palestinian-Israeli writer, director and star Elia Suleiman portraying himself. For most of its 102 minutes, we accompany Elia as he walks the streets of his hometown, before flying to Paris and later New York, for some purpose he mostly keeps privy while often gazing and lazing about.

One of the several visual eccentricities in this film are countless shots of empty streets and famous landmarks in big cities usually brimming with people. This is so prominent, I couldn’t help but wonder if Elia Suleiman filmed It Must Be Heaven while these cities were in lock-down during the COVID-19 pandemic and had its release fast-tracked! At times, It Must Be Heaven’s structure and sparsity of dialogue reminded me heavily of an episode of Mr Bean, albeit substituting that television production’s iconic slapstick style of comedy for a series of arbitrary skits.

Focusing specifically on this film now, this Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or Nominee and Special Mention and FIPRESCI Prize Winner isn’t the postcard presentation and visual tour through the streets and landmarks of the cities it is filmed in that I’d hoped for. It Must Be Heaven is no The Trip movie. I do admit to having this aspect letting me down here. I also felt that Elia Suleiman’s reactions to the many eccentricities he witnesses were too one dimensional and just always the same. Especially considering the attention he is seeking to attract from audiences! Aside from the protagonist, some elements do reoccur, such as amusing scenarios featuring police officers involved in peculiar chases and sequences. However, two individual sequences stand-out above the rest for my liking in this harmless, yet pointless comedy. Without stating what is actually depicted in these scenes, one of them is in fact It Must Be Heaven’s opening scene and the other begins at a grocery store in New York City. The latter is downright hilarious, a highlight in cinema in 2020 and the film is almost worth seeing for this scene alone!

3 stars

Viewer Discretion
M (coarse language)

Trailer
It Must Be Heaven

Moviedoc thanks Potential Films for providing the screener link to watch and review this film.

It Must Be Heaven is released in selected cinemas across Australia from July 2.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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