It Must Be Heaven

Elia Suleiman plays a version of himself, a filmmaker from Nazareth who leaves Palestine in search of a new home, only to find that where he comes from seems to follow him wherever he goes. His travels take him to Paris and New York, cities whose parks, streets and daily routines keep producing strange echoes of the life he left behind. The hope of a fresh start turns into a series of absurd encounters, and the film blends comedy with documentary and drama as it circles questions of identity, nationality and belonging, asking where a person can truly feel at home.

It Must Be Heaven was released in 2019 and runs 103 minutes. Suleiman wrote and directed it, his third feature after Divine Intervention (2002) and To Each His Own Cinema (2007), and he produced it with Thanassis Karathanos and Édouard Weil. The cast includes Ali Suliman, Gael García Bernal, Stephen McHattie, Kwasi Songui and Grégoire Colin. It was a co-production involving Germany, Canada, Qatar, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Turkey, France and Palestine.

On IMDb the film holds 6.9 out of 10 from about 6,100 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.5 out of 10 from roughly 182 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 52 reviews places it somewhat above those audience scores. The worldwide box office came to about 2 million dollars.