Film Review : The Syrian Bride

On Monday I went to see the film The Syrian Bride [Flash site] (IMDB entry) at the National Film Theatre. Set in the Druze community of the Golan Heights, it tells the story of the day of Mona's wedding to Tallel, a Syrian television star she has never seen. The film is a hardhitting one, highlighting the difficulties of life amongst the Druze - not least of which families split either side of the Israeli-Syrian border, unable ever to visit one another to any greater extent than shouting greeting across the half-mile of no-mans-land. When Mona goes to Syria for her wedding, she will never be able to come back. In addition her father is harrassed by the police, and has been forced by the village elders to cut off his son off for marrying out. Yet the film is not unremitting bleak, and is livened by a sharp sense of humour.

The film presents an intriguing window into the life of a community I know little of. We see the older generation clinging to their traditional way of life; we see the younger generation acculturated into western custom (most obviously through their dress) without being assimilated. We learn how the Druzes' passports read "No nationality" - presumably a compromise agreed with the Israelis so they will not suffer the wrath of the Assad regime if the Golan Heights are ever handed back to Syria.

The landscape of the film is striking - high hills and chaparral - and the music (which plays as background to the film website^*) combines Arabic characteristics with an emotive swelling string accompaniment more characteristic of European music.

The version I saw was subtitled in English - indeed, the titles and credits were also in English: this print must have been assembled for the international markets - but if you pay attention to the dialogue, you can hear a total of five languages used in it: Arabic, Hebrew, French, Russian and English (in that order). I don't think I've ever seen a film before in which I've been able to follow so much in as many languages. (ObLinguisticsGeeking: Now, whilst I don't know any Arabic myself (bar a few recognisable words such as sidi), I could still do a fair job of listening for obvious cognates of Hebrew words - such as sma`i (or something) for "listen", cognate to שמע shǝma, and the Druze village the story is set in, Majdal Shams, means "Tower of the Sun" (Heb. מגדול שמש Migdol Shemesh), etc.)

In summary, I found it a highly moving film, and one well worth seeing, if you find yourself in the position to be able to. I'm sure there was much more I was bursting to write about this film when I came out of the cinema last night; if I remember it, I'll contribute further to this thread.

* Oooh, <excited> This is the first time I've ever had music coming out of my machine upon visiting a website. Yes I know, I'm finally joining the 1990s...