PLOT: Passions are inflamed and a marriage is complicated because the Druze in Majdal Shams straddle the disputed border between the Israeli-held Golan Heights and Syria.
The personal politics are far more important than the national politics in the excellent film, The Syrian Bride. This Israeli effort is a humanistic drama -- shot through with believable, everyday comic moments -- that personalizes the political agenda in the Middle East.
The essential plot sounds pretty simple: A Druze woman (Clara Khoury) in a pro-Syrian village in the Golan Heights is planning to marry a soap opera star from Damascus.
Of course, the situation is rife with controversy. The village falls on the Israeli side of the disputed border. To complete the union, the woman must be surrendered by her family at the border crossing, get an exit visa from the Israelis, be accepted on the Syrian side and meet her groom. In addition, she will never be allowed to return to her home village again because the rigid bureaucrats on both sides won't allow it.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing because of a political demonstration in the village. The bride's father (Makram Khoury, also her real-life father), is out of jail after serving as a political prisoner of the Israelis. So he is banned from both the demo and the border by a pompous Israeli security officer.
A myriad of personal agendas also cloud the brilliantly sunny, desert day. Two of the bride's brothers have serious issues afoot. And the bride's sister (the extraordinary Hiam Abbass) is at war with her small-minded husband while their daughter flirts with a pro-Israeli Druze boy.
Peppered with subtle flourishes that make the setting highly realistic, the film is a deft balancing act of all its issues. None is given too much prominence, yet none is ignored. You feel as if you are a witness to the intimacies of a real family. As a result, we are allowed to rail against the absurdity of the bureaucracies on both sides. We get angry about the brutal stupidity of the military on both sides. We wince as the United Nations official (a terrible Julie-Ann Roth in the film's only bad performance) fumbles the conciliation effort.
On the personal family level, the film touches on complex issues such as the racism of the village elders, the sexism of men who need to control their wives, the stubbornness of fathers who cannot listen to their children.
Co-writer and director Eran Riklis offers no facile solutions. He does not even resolve some of the film's main plot points, wisely making this the story of the bride's empowered sister more than it is the saga of the bride.
In the end, The Syrian Bride is an elegant piece of cinema that is beautifully acted by its mostly Palestinian and Israeli cast. Often with a minimum of dialogue, the actors bring intense, profound moments of human contact to life. As a co-production of France, Germany and Israel, with scenes playing in Arabic, Hebrew, English, Russian and French with English subtitles, The Syrian Bride is also a very international film. In other words, it serves no one's narrow-minded, political agenda.
(This film is rated G)
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