{ "id": "epayef5bwy", "slug": "it-must-be-heaven", "title": "It Must Be Heaven", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2019-to-2020", "label": "Comedies of 2019 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2019-to-2020" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2019-to-2020.yr-2019", "label": "Released in 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2019-to-2020.yr-2019" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.mena.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Middle East and North Africa · 2001 to 2020: Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "path": [ { "id": "geo.mena", "label": "Middle East and North Africa", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t2001", "label": "Middle East and North Africa · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t2001.culture.performance.screen" } ] } ], "excerpt": "It Must Be Heaven (2019) is Elia Suleiman's Cannes Special Mention tragicomedy in which his alter ego ES travels from Nazareth to Paris and New York seeking film funding and a homeland.", "snippet": "It Must Be Heaven (2019) is Elia Suleiman's Cannes Special Mention tragicomedy in which his alter ego ES travels from Nazareth to Paris and New York seeking film funding and a homeland.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2019-to-2020.yr-2019", "markdown": "# It Must Be Heaven\n\n**It Must Be Heaven** is a 2019 tragicomic feature film directed, written by, and starring the Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, who plays a fictionalized version of himself called ES on a journey from Nazareth to Paris and New York in search of funding for a new film and, more broadly, an alternative homeland.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/) • [2](https://aijac.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/AIR-45-8-digital.pdf) It competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a Special Mention from the international jury and the FIPRESCI Prize.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359842/awards/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director, writer, star | Elia Suleiman, playing his recurring screen persona ES[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/) • [4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/cteq/revelation-sumud-and-the-ethics-of-the-gaze-in-suleimans-it-must-be-heaven/) |\n| Premiere | In Competition, Festival de Cannes, 24 May 2019; Special Mention and FIPRESCI Prize[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359842/awards/) • [5](https://www.crew-united.com/en/It-Must-Be-Heaven__241548.html) |\n| Runtime | 97 minutes per the Cannes listing; some festival and exhibitor listings give 102 minutes[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/) • [6](https://www.ica.art/films/it-must-be-heaven) |\n| Production countries | France, Qatar, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Palestinian Territories; lead producer Rectangle Productions (Paris)[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359842/awards/) • [1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/) |\n| Languages | Arabic, French, and English[7](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/qz/s4/w9/li/NZIFF19_Wellington_WEB.pdf?k=49dc89f5e0) |\n| Cast | Elia Suleiman, with Gael García Bernal in a cameo as himself[8](https://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/film/it-must-be-heaven) • [9](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/it-must-be-heaven) |\n| Critical scores | 94% Tomatometer from 53 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 68 (\"Generally Favorable\") on Metacritic[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_must_be_heaven) • [11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-must-be-heaven/critic-reviews/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and structure\n\nThe film follows ES, Suleiman's recurring alter ego identified only by his initials, on a circular journey from his hometown of Nazareth to Paris, then New York, and back again.[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/cteq/revelation-sumud-and-the-ethics-of-the-gaze-in-suleimans-it-must-be-heaven/) The stated premise is that ES escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine is trailing behind him: however far he travels, something always reminds him of home.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/) Nominally, he is seeking funding for a new film, helped ineffectually by the Mexican star [Gael García Bernal](https://www.edgepedia.org/gael-garcia-bernal), who appears as himself.[12](https://www.dogandwolf.com/2021/06/it-must-be-heaven-2019-film-review/) • [9](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/it-must-be-heaven)\n\nThe story is told largely through comical, choreographed vignettes rather than continuous plot. In Paris, a producer played by the real-life producer and sales agent Vincent Maraval tells Suleiman that he likes the proposal but will not invest in it, because the script is not \"Palestinian enough\": its episodes could even take place in France.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/it-must-be-heaven-elia-suleiman-palestinian-in-paris) Elsewhere, a New York taxi driver is excited to be driving a real Palestinian, and a supermarket visit reveals shoppers carrying automatic weapons.[8](https://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/film/it-must-be-heaven) • [14](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/24/it-must-be-heaven-review-palestines-holy-fool-lives-the-dream) The film opens in [Nazareth](https://www.edgepedia.org/nazareth) with a nighttime Christian procession led by an Orthodox bishop locked out of his own church, and closes in a nightclub where young people dance to a techno arrangement of the song \"I am an Arab\".[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/cteq/revelation-sumud-and-the-ethics-of-the-gaze-in-suleimans-it-must-be-heaven/) • [2](https://aijac.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/AIR-45-8-digital.pdf)\n\n## Style and themes\n\nSuleiman's persona on screen is virtually mute, a hat-wearing, eyebrow-raising observer who passes through staged episodes and symmetrical tableaux with an air of studied bemusement.[6](https://www.ica.art/films/it-must-be-heaven) • [15](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/the%20time%20is%20new/2021/09/11/it-must-be-heaven/) Critics have compared the style to the silent-era deadpan of [Buster Keaton](https://www.edgepedia.org/buster-keaton) and [Jacques Tati](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-tati), though Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* notes that Suleiman's setups rarely resolve into a specific visual gag; instead the comedy points toward a political situation.[7](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/qz/s4/w9/li/NZIFF19_Wellington_WEB.pdf?k=49dc89f5e0) • [14](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/24/it-must-be-heaven-review-palestines-holy-fool-lives-the-dream)\n\nSuleiman himself framed the film's inversion of his earlier method: \"If my previous films tried to present Palestine as a microcosm of the world; my new film *It Must Be Heaven* tries to show the world as if it were a microcosm of Palestine.\"[16](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/173/73/215469/presse/it-must-be-heaven-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf) In each location the film observes national quirks: France's policing of café terraces and military hardware paraded on 14 July, and America's private gun ownership, while each place ignores its own inequalities and remains oblivious to ES and the fate of Palestine.[17](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/12/04/le-paradis-un-prince-une-ouvriere-et-brooklyn-les-films-de-la-semaine_6021547_3246.html) • [12](https://www.dogandwolf.com/2021/06/it-must-be-heaven-2019-film-review/) In interviews, Suleiman connected the film to what he called the \"Palestinisation of the world\", a global condition of violence and surveillance he linked to his own experience of sirens in Paris after the November 2015 attacks.[15](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/the%20time%20is%20new/2021/09/11/it-must-be-heaven/)\n\n## Production and release\n\nIt Must Be Heaven was Suleiman's first feature in ten years, following *[The Time That Remains](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-time-that-remains)* (2009).[8](https://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/film/it-must-be-heaven) It was a major international co-production led by France's Rectangle Productions, with Nazira Films (France), the Doha Film Institute (Qatar), Pallas Film (Germany), Possibles Média (Canada), and Zeynofilm (Turkey), with participation from ZDF/Arte and TRT.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/) • [15](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/the%20time%20is%20new/2021/09/11/it-must-be-heaven/) Sofian El Fani was the cinematographer and Véronique Lange the editor.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/)\n\nThe film premiered at Cannes on 24 May 2019 and later screened at festivals including Toronto, where it was nominated for Best Canadian Feature Film, and Busan.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359842/awards/) • [18](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=44492&pyear=2019) It received a theatrical release in France on 4 December 2019 and in the United Kingdom on 18 June 2021.[19](https://www.unifrance.org/film/47488/it-must-be-heaven) • [13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/it-must-be-heaven-elia-suleiman-palestinian-in-paris) A poster credit badge identifies it as Palestine's representative for the 2020 Oscars.[20](https://maison4tiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/M4.3_ENGL-Catalogue_JANUARY2024.pdf)\n\n## Critical reception\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 94% Tomatometer from 53 reviews, with the site's critics consensus calling it \"an entrancing blend of the poignant and the absurd\" and finding Suleiman \"returning to action in peak form\".[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_must_be_heaven) On Metacritic it scored 68 from 10 critics, six positive and four mixed, with none negative.[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-must-be-heaven/critic-reviews/)\n\nReviewers were divided on the film's episodic method. Eric Kohn of IndieWire (83) called it a poignant, minor-key work from a filmmaker carrying the torch of silent comedy into the 21st century, while *Screen Daily* (60) found some sketches little more than space-fillers in a film that is both enjoyable and frustrating.[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-must-be-heaven/critic-reviews/) Jonathan Romney, reviewing for *Sight and Sound*, judged that the film's consistent theme is that the world, not just Suleiman's home, is a funny place, but that the humor here feels tired and often mirthless compared with the earlier features.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/it-must-be-heaven-elia-suleiman-palestinian-in-paris) Wendy Ide of *The Observer* called Suleiman \"a master of slow-burning, cumulative humour; this is the kind of comedy that creeps up on you\".[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_must_be_heaven) The Film Stage's dissenting review (42) criticized the ending, in which ES returns home, as a lazy note.[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-must-be-heaven/critic-reviews/)\n\n## Context in Suleiman's career\n\nSuleiman, born in Nazareth in 1960 and of Greek Orthodox background, has built his four features since 1996, beginning with *[Chronicle of a Disappearance](https://www.edgepedia.org/chronicle-of-a-disappearance)*, on strings of deadpan vignettes in which he plays a rueful version of himself observing the tensions and absurdities around him.[2](https://aijac.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/AIR-45-8-digital.pdf) • [13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/it-must-be-heaven-elia-suleiman-palestinian-in-paris) *It Must Be Heaven* extends that method internationally for the first time, moving the setting out of Palestine to test whether the conditions he satirizes at home are in fact global.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/it-must-be-heaven-elia-suleiman-palestinian-in-paris)\n\n## References\n\n1. [It Must Be Heaven, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/it-must-be-heaven/)\n2. [The Cine File, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIR 45-8)](https://aijac.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/AIR-45-8-digital.pdf)\n3. [It Must Be Heaven (2019) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359842/awards/)\n4. [Revelation, Sumud, and the Ethics of the Gaze in Suleiman's It Must Be Heaven, Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/cteq/revelation-sumud-and-the-ethics-of-the-gaze-in-suleimans-it-must-be-heaven/)\n5. [It Must Be Heaven, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/It-Must-Be-Heaven__241548.html)\n6. [It Must Be Heaven, ICA](https://www.ica.art/films/it-must-be-heaven)\n7. [NZIFF 2019 Wellington programme catalogue](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/qz/s4/w9/li/NZIFF19_Wellington_WEB.pdf?k=49dc89f5e0)\n8. [It Must Be Heaven, Istanbul Modern](https://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/film/it-must-be-heaven)\n9. [It Must Be Heaven, Asia Pacific Screen Awards](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/it-must-be-heaven)\n10. [It Must Be Heaven, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_must_be_heaven)\n11. [It Must Be Heaven critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-must-be-heaven/critic-reviews/)\n12. [It Must Be Heaven (2019) film review, Dog And Wolf](https://www.dogandwolf.com/2021/06/it-must-be-heaven-2019-film-review/)\n13. [It Must Be Heaven: a Palestinian in Paris, Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/it-must-be-heaven-elia-suleiman-palestinian-in-paris)\n14. [It Must Be Heaven review, The Guardian, 24 May 2019](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/24/it-must-be-heaven-review-palestines-holy-fool-lives-the-dream)\n15. [It Must Be Heaven, BFI Southbank programme notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/the%20time%20is%20new/2021/09/11/it-must-be-heaven/)\n16. [It Must Be Heaven press kit (English), UniFrance](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/173/73/215469/presse/it-must-be-heaven-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)\n17. [Le Monde, films de la semaine, 4 December 2019](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/12/04/le-paradis-un-prince-une-ouvriere-et-brooklyn-les-films-de-la-semaine_6021547_3246.html)\n18. [Busan International Film Festival 2019 archive](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=44492&pyear=2019)\n19. [It Must Be Heaven, UniFrance](https://www.unifrance.org/film/47488/it-must-be-heaven)\n20. [Maison 4:3 catalogue, January 2024](https://maison4tiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/M4.3_ENGL-Catalogue_JANUARY2024.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2019 to 2020 › Released in 2019*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"It Must Be Heaven\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[It Must Be Heaven](https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven](https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"It Must Be Heaven\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/it-must-be-heaven. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "It Must Be Heaven is Elia Suleiman's Cannes Special Mention tragicomedy in which his alter ego ES travels from Nazareth to Paris and New York seeking film funding and a homeland." }