Divine Intervention

Santa Claus tries to outrun a gang of knife-wielding youth. It’s one of several vignettes of Palestinian life in Israel – in a neighborhood in Nazareth and at Al-Ram checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Most of the stories are droll, some absurd, one is mythic and fanciful; few words are spoken. A man who goes through his mail methodically each morning has a heart attack. His son visits him in the hospital. The son regularly meets a woman at …