Heaven Sent

Description

With its absurdly funny sequences and memorable visual set pieces, Heaven Sent is a delightfully different film from the Middle East. Debuting director Wissam Charaf reaps great rewards in combining the sly and paradoxical humor of Elia Suleiman (Chronicle of a Disappearance, Festival 1997) with a political sensibility all his own. His protagonist is a heavyset bodyguard and bouncer in Beirut named Omar who gets the gig of his dreams when asked to guard an eye-catching female television presenter turned politician. An even bigger surprise comes when his brother, who fought in the civil war and has been missing since the mid-’90s, reappears in strange circumstances and with a dangerous mission. Besides these new changes in job and family circumstances, Omar also contends with a building manager who constantly pesters him for money and a rude and noisy neighbor across the way. Charaf inventively balances the quotidian nature of these petty annoyances against a city that has seen several wars and is continuing to struggle with its fraught history. With brevity and clarity, he shows how Omar’s frustrations lead to irreversible actions and, in so doing, creates an unforgettable portrait of life during wartime.

Film Details