Elia Suleiman's first feature, made in 1997, is a wry and ironic assertion that the Arab population of Israel is losing its national identity. Winner of the Luigi De Laurentis award for best debut film at the Venice Film Festival and nominated for a Tiger Award at Rotterdam, Chronicle of a Disappearance masterfully blurs the line between fiction and documentary.

After living in New York for several years, Palestinian-born Suleiman travelled to Israel, using his privileged position as half-insider, half-outsider to shrewd effect. Through his quasi-aimless roamings, we become acquainted with Suleiman's circle of family and friends, a set of characters who lead a seemingly marginal existence in an occasionally surreal world. Moving between the roles of character and spectator, mediator and narrator, Suleiman as actor and filmmaker emerges as a striking and necessary voice in world cinema.

D/P/S Elia Suleiman WS Flach Pyramide International L Arabic, French, Russian, Hebrew w/English subtitles TD 35mm/Col/1997/84mins