"Chronicle of a Disappearance"

"CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE is a journey in search of what it means to be Palestinian. It is a compilation of possible truths, transgressing genres and blending fact with fiction to explore the intertwined boundaries of storytelling, history and autobiography. The character E.S. is the filmmaker himself. He and the other characters wander through a social and political labyrinth in an attempt to break free from their ghettoized existence. The film explores the effects of ghettoization and marginalization on the Palestinian psyche." -Elia Suleiman/ http://www.itvs.org/pressroom/pressRelease.htm?pressId=13 (ITVS)..

http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_suleiman_elia_970328.html:
iW: Were there things that you felt were sacrificed in the actual making of the film?
Suleiman: Always. I think filmmaking is probably the closest metaphor for comformism. If we try to present it as a tool of resistance, I have too many doubts about that form of resistance. I think it's very digressive, because, in fact, what happens, is you're always inside the system. You're always bought and sold, and you're always packaged and packaging. Of all strategies, actually, that one thought at some point would do something for the world, it did not work for me. Whether it's from the first work or the second work or the third, there's always a no exit situation, and there's always something that torments you about the way you position yourself and the way you're positioned. I don't know how the fight can be taken, in fact . . . . I think what I do is listen, but when I listen, I can only reflect on myself and can only stretch the moral questions to myself. . .
(And not to an audience. . .)
Well, myself will always translate somehow. As long as you're trying to communicate and there's that impulse, there's that desire to actually communicate to others, I think, you're constantly testing yourself, researching yourself and eventually raising the moral questions to yourself about your political positioning in film and the way you want to change the world. And I think if you don't ask those questions to yourself, you'll end up cheating and you know what? The audiences will pick it up when you're being a liar . . . and you're going to be labelled a con-man. I don't want that to happen, not because of my career, I think it's because (can I have my cappuccino now?) because the little rest and peace I derive from this very turbulent world is when I'm honest. . . . Which is what I try to do in the film.
more thoughts to come