ONE OF THE TOP TEN FILMS OF THE YEAR! - Richard Corliss, TIME

TOUCHING, PROVOCATIVE AND WONDERFULLY STRANGE! - A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

HYSTERICAL AND DEVASTATING! - Lorraine Ali, NEWSWEEK

Avatar Films’ latest release, the critically acclaimed Divine Intervention, opens on Friday January 17, 2003, at the Angelika Film Center in Manhattan.

Winner of many prestigious international awards, including both the Jury Prize and the Fipresci Prize at the 2002 Cannes International Film Festival, Divine Intervention, directed by Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, delivers an intense, hallucinogenic and extremely adept exploration of the dreams and nightmares of Palestinians and Israelis living in uncertain times.

The film weaves together the stories of a sick father, a stalled screenplay and an unrequited love affair with a beautiful Palestinian woman (Manal Khader) living in Ramallah. An Israeli checkpoint on the Nazareth-Ramallah road forces the couple to rendezvous in an adjacent parking lot. Their relationship and the absurd situations around them serve as metaphors for the lunacy of larger cultural problems, and the result is palpable, bottled personal and political rage.

We need your support for this important film, the first Palestinian work to receive a full American release. It is of utter urgency that theatergoers attend this film in large numbers during the first weekend (and first week) of its release. The box office numbers will determine how long the film will play as well as act as a bellwether for other theater owners across the country that have yet to book the film. So come out in support of Divine Intervention, and help us spread the word by forwarding this email to anyone (friends, family, neighbors, coworkers) who might also be interested.

For more information on DIVINE INTERVENTION, please visit our website.

More praise from critics

“It is impossible not to marvel at Suleiman’s knack for turning rage and hopelessness into burlesque. His wry, ultimately humane fatalism suggests that Palestinians and Jews are, in some respects, not so far apart.” - A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

“Suleiman uses the most subversive weapon of all - humor - to portray the tumultuous mood in his homeland. In the laughter Suleiman creates from such bleakness, he and the viewer experience a euphoric sensation of triumph in the face of adversity!” -Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Elia Suleiman’s ‘DIVINE INTERVENTION’ is a very personal meditation on love, life, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In turn laconic, witty and outrageous, Suleiman works in slow, poetic scenes that build to hilarious climaxes!” - Jurgen Fauth, ABOUT.COM

“Suleiman’s ideas work spectacularly well - as in the sequence of a red balloon festooned with Yasser Arafat’s smiling face floating across the Jerusalem cityscape…” - Derek Elley, VARIETY

Other upcoming playdates

If you live outside of New York City these are some* of our upcoming playdates:

January 24 - Cinema Arts Centre - Huntington, NY
January 24 - Malverne Cinemas - Malverne, NY
January 24 - Kew Gardens Cinemas - Queens, NY
January 24 - Roberts Wellmont Triplex - Montclair, NJ
January 31 - Visions Cinema Bistro Lounge - Washington, DC
January 31 - Upstate Films - Rhinebeck, NY
February 14 - Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre - Buffalo, NY
February 21 - Landmark’s Varsity Theatre - Seattle, Washington
March 14 - Metropolitan Theaters - Santa Barbara, CA
March 14 - Laemmle’s Music Hall - Los Angeles, CA
March 28 - Landmark’s Opera Plaza - San Francisco, CA
March 28 - Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas - Berkeley, CA
March 28 - Rafael Film Center- San Rafael, CA

* Note:A regularly updated list of coming dates, including Film Festivals which are not given above, is available at www.avatarfilms.com/releases/divine_intervention.html

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