Chronicle of a Disappearance

Chronicle of a Disappearance Arabic is a 1996 drama film by Palestinian director and actor Elia Suleiman. Suleiman stars in the film along with his family members, his relatives, and other nonactors. Dhat Productions produced the film. The film features no real storyline or character arc. Suleiman plays himself returning to Israel and the West Bank after a long absence which is followed by a series of barely connected vignettes and sketches, which are intended to convey the feelings of restlessness and uncertainly from Palestinian statelessness. The films tone varies through these scenes such as Nazareth Personal Diary, which has a light and domestic tone, and Jerusalem Political Diary, which has a more ideological tone.

The film is set in the tense period in the IsraelPalestinian peace process shortly after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu, with the strained relations implied but not explicitly depicted. It is divided into two major sections, all loosely tied together as the story of Suleimans return to the West Bank and Israel. The character of Suleiman in the film is described only as E.S. E.S. returns from a twelveyear exile in New York City and is now in unfamiliar territory. Within the film, no real plot or character development emerges. A series of mostly unconnected scenes take place one after the other in documentary film like fashion. The gradual accumulation of images and dialogue start without conclusion presenting an unsettling kind of feeling, which was meant to convey the quality of life led by Palestinians given their statelessness.The first, and lightest, section is the Nazareth Personal Diary, featuring warm observations of his family and his relatives lives. Some of the notable vignettes include the dull yet comedic routines of the proprietor of a souvenir shop called the Holyland in which he fills bottles of alleged holy water from his own tap and fails to keep a cheap camel statuette from falling over on his shelves. E.S. and the shop owner spend time sitting in front of the stop waiting futilely for tourists to stop by. A boat full of Arab men fish, as one of the men bashes various Palestinian families that his friend does not belong to while praising the one that his friend does belong to. Suleiman also interviews a Russian Orthodox cleric who rails against the tourists polluting the Sea of Galilee. ........

Source: Wikipedia