divine intervention

In the RuneQuest RPG, a character may request Divine Intervention from any deity of whose cult the character is a member. This is extrapolated as a percentile die roll: if the player rolls under the character's POW characteristic on d100, the diety intervenes on the character's behalf. The deity will then usually "accept a donation" of some of the character's POW, a number of points as rolled on a d10.

If the character's POW does not exceed the d10 die roll, he dies. The referee has some leeway in modifying the deity's "fee" of POW; if the D.I. was gratuitous, or in pursuit of something contrary to the deity's nature (i.e. requesting a resurrection from Humakt the Death God), the character may be punished with a limiting vow, or lose divine magic until he atones somehow. By the same token, when making D.I. requests in pursuit of goals in accord with the deity's nature (asking Yelm the Sun God to boost a spell to dispel a great magical darkness), the character may be additionally rewarded with spells or powers from the deity in question.

What happens to the POW that the deity takes? It is nowhere officially explained, so I figure the deity redistributes power gained from D.I. transactions back to his cultists at High Holy Day ceremonies, where all attending cultists can gain 1 point of POW.

In early versions of RuneQuest, Divine Intervention worked differently; a character of Priest or Rune Lord status could sacrifice a point of POW to gain a 10% chance of Divine Intervention. In this respect it fit better in the Divine Magic system, where POW is sacrificed to gain a use of a given Divine spell. POW sacrifice could be stacked, such that sacrifice of 10 POW meant pretty-much-automatic success when the D.I. was invoked. Again, requesting intervention in a manner contrary to the deity's nature would severely modify the chance of success; at best the offending character would simply lose that "charge" of Divine Intervention.

Divine Intervention: A Chronicle of Love and Pain was directed by Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman (also the star), and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002, as well as the Fipresci Prize. The film centers on some of the more absurd aspects of the interaction between Israeli citizens and Palestinian citizens: neighborhood feuds, walking across innumerable access points just to meet a friend, et cetera. The movie was extremely well-received in Europe, winning all manner of awards and frequently described as a "masterpiece". It is a comic film, while exposing satirically the irony of the questionable status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A great deal of controversy surrounds this film, however; the Academy Awards have so far refused to include Divine Intervention in its considerations for Best Foreign Film, using highly variable logic. At first, it was claimed that DI could not be entered because Palestine was "not a country." Accusations of racism rapidly began to fly from both sides; the Academy had previously considered films from other territories for the category (including Hong Kong and Taiwan). Palestine's international status is arguably better than Taiwan's, which holds no seats at the United Nations (Palestine holds an observer seat). The Academy soon retracted its statement, replacing it with one saying that DI was never formally submitted into the competition. This was acknowledged by the filmmakers; however, they say that the Academy's negative response prompted them not to submit the film.

Divine Intervention does not appear on the nomination list for the Academy Awards, so it would appear that the Academy has won. Nonetheless, outcry continues on the subject.