The Syrian Bride
Screening on Film
Directed by Eran Riklis.
With Hiam Abbass, Makram J. Khoury, Clara Khoury.
France/Germany/Israel, 2004, 35mm, color, 98 min.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, Russian, French with English subtitles.
With Hiam Abbass, Makram J. Khoury, Clara Khoury.
France/Germany/Israel, 2004, 35mm, color, 98 min.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, Russian, French with English subtitles.
In the Israeli-occupied Druze township of Golan Heights, Mona (Khoury) is spending time with her large extended family on the night before her arranged marriage to a Syrian television star. By law, once Mona leaves for Syria she can never return to Israel again. As her friends and relatives come to say their final good-byes, the gathering becomes a forum for the revisiting of old problems and the revival of old grudges. Though The Syrian Bride can be read as an allegory for Israeli-Palestinian relations, its combination of tragedy and humor humanizes the problems caused by political unrest in the Middle East.