In the preface to his Anthology of Black Humor (1940), the French Surrealist writer and cultural antagonist André Breton describes black humor as “a superior revolt of the spirit.” As we explore black humor in the films Divine Intervention (2002) and Where Do We Go Now (2011)—written and directed by the Palestinian and Lebanese filmmakers Elia Suleiman and Nadine Labaki, respectively—this word "revolt" will be our key. For in the midst of colonial oppression and religious violence—situations that would seem to warrant despair—these filmmakers’ comedic choices are a weapon of resistance. More than just “humor” in general, both Suleiman and Labaki turn specifically to surreal humor. Here we define surreal humor not only as black humor, based on Breton’s preface to his anthology, but also as that humor that turns at times to the magical or the fantastic. As Breton writes in his first Surrealist manifesto, “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a sur-reality.” As we will see, both Suleiman and Labaki resort to the dream-like or to the fantastic as a way to reimagine the respective realities of Palestine and Lebanon. In this way the surreal becomes explicitly political, even utopian. For both filmmakers, humor is a means not only of ridiculing the institutions that oppress, but also of gesturing towards an alternative, more hopeful reality. But whereas Suleiman dreams of a nation-state, or at least of a home for Palestinians, Labaki ultimately surpasses the vision of a nation-state, choosing instead to elevate the local. With attention to cinematic form and the work of postcolonial theorists Hamid Dabashi and Ella Shohat, this paper contributes to the growing body of work on Middle Eastern film.