Friday, February 9
The Syrian Bride(maps 1, 2)
dir. Eran Riklis, Israel 2004

A Druze woman from Golan Heights, Israel (Not Israel, but Syria. That is an issue for long debate in this film) is engaged to marry a Syrian television star whom she has never met. If she moves to Syria, however, she will never be able to return to her home. A woman's impending relocation to marriage to her Syrian beau living in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights who commits to marrying a Syrian TV star, but after she crosses into Syria will never be able to return home again.

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Ideology trumps all in this immensely memorable collaboration between an Israeli director, a Palestinian screenwriter and a cast of mixed origins.

Though Mona (Clara Khoury) would love to be an ordinary bride, geography, politics and culture have conspired to make her wedding day the saddest of her life. She is being married to a Syrian stranger, and once she leaves her Druze village in the Golan Heights, she will never see her family again. Meanwhile, her feminist sister and conservative brother-in-law are fighting fiercely, while her Arab-activist father alternately baits and avoids the local Israeli police chief.

Despite the occasional lapse into finger-pointing, director Eran Riklis and his co-writer, Suha Arraf, take impressive care to create a sensitive and thoughtful examination of each character (and country's) deeply held bias. The result is both tragic and darkly comic - in this complex environment, blame and sorrow are locked in a partnership of absurdity. - Elizabeth Weitzman, nydaliynews.com