The Time that Remains

Subtitled “Chronicle of a Present Absentee,” this humorous, heartbreaking film—the final installment in a trilogy that includes Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention—is set among the Arab community in Israel and shot largely in homes and places in which director Elia Suleiman’s family once lived. Inspired by his father’s diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation, and the director’s own recollections, the film spans from 1948 until the present, recounting the saga of Suleiman’s family in elegantly stylized episodes. Inserting himself as a silent observer reminiscent of Buster Keaton, Suleiman trains a keen eye on the absurdities of life in Nazareth.