Syrian Bride (2004) User Reviews

A Wedding as a Humanistic Microcosm of Complicated Global Politics

[noralee · 8/10 · 28 November 2005]

"The Syrian Bride" uses the familiar comic genre of the colliding tensions in an extended family wedding to humanistically illuminate Middle East political, gender, generational, religious, modernization and economic tensions coming down to human relationships vs. bureaucracies.

Co-writers Suha Arraf (a Palestinian journalist) and Israeli director Eran Riklis pile almost too much on to this one Druze (Israeli Arab) family living in the occupied Golan Heights in order to make the personal political. The tensions, poignancy and symbolism of a wedding are heightened because when this bride leaves her home for her arranged marriage with a Syrian celebrity, she will not be able to return home.

Every complicated character has a complicated background, whether theirs or their parents' politics or their religiosity or their dress or their educational or romantic aspirations-- and is in a complicated relation to every other character and the authorities.

In addition to the return of prodigal sons from overseas, the larger community intrudes on the intra-family tensions, from robed tribal elders and the police who each bring warnings of proper behavior to a comical videographer. My dependency on English subtitles lessened some of the impact of hearing characters switch from Arabic to Hebrew to French to Russian to English to communicate, as part of the interactions are based on who can understand different languages and who can't. This complex in-gathering all symbolically happens the same day as a demonstration in support of the change over of power in Syria from the father the dictator to the son, while a flat tire leads to a crucial delay. The ubiquitous television, and government attention, however, is focused on the West Bank, making this border a forgotten zone as well as a no (wo)man's land.

What makes it all hang together amidst this human comedy is the central focus from the start to the finish on the almost silent bride, dressed in Western white, and her more verbal older sister, rebelliously in slacks, and both played by powerful actresses. Each has made choices in the past they regret and each chooses their future now, despite the efforts of all their male relatives, let alone global politics, to thwart them and make them helpless.

Even with the heavy-handed baggage of all the "Crash"-like coincidences, the film beautifully makes the point that politics isn't just ideology but affects how people get on with the basics of their lives.

Middle East Conflict Personalized by a Family Dramedy About an Arranged Marriage

[EUyeshima · 7/10 · 17 June 2006]

This deceptively modest 2004 film lingers in the memory because of the bigger sociopolitical context that Israeli director Eran Riklis provides in setting his story in the Golan Heights, an area occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. Over the course of one day, the story revolves around an extended Druze family in the northern village of Majdal Shams where they are preparing for the wedding of youngest daughter Mona. The catch is that she has never met the groom, a distant relative who happens to be a big Syrian TV personality in Damascus. It sounds like the source of comedy hijinks, but there is a sad undertone because once married, Mona officially becomes Syrian and cannot return home to her family.

The intended couple, however, is not the focus as much as the family dynamics that become ignited by the wedding. The patriarch is Hammed, a political activist on probation, and he has two sons - Hattem, who has been cast out by the conservative religious cabal for leaving the country and marrying a Russian woman, and Marwan, who provides the comedy relief as a womanizing salesman. The glue of the family, however, is provided by eldest sister Amal, who defiantly stands up to the men in her family and wants to get her bachelor's degree in Haifa. The first hour deals mainly with the standard pre-wedding confusion, though it happens to take place on the same day that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father, but the last half-hour takes place entirely at the Israel-Syria border crossing where the officials from both countries refuse to cooperate with a negotiating Red Cross worker in allowing Mona to enter Syria.

With its primarily somber tone, this is no Middle Eastern derivative of "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding", but Riklis and co-screenwriter Suha Arraf supply genuine warmth toward the characters and bring immediacy and credibility to the personal situation at hand. The acting is solid with Hiam Abbass the standout as Amal. There are nice turns by Makram Khoury as Hammed, his real-life daughter Clara as Mona, Eyad Sheety as Hattem and Ashraf Barhom who steals scenes as the gap-toothed Marwan. Special mention should be made for Michael Wiesweg's expert cinematography which perfectly captures the mostly sun-baked terrain. This is a case where the 2006 DVD package from Koch Lorber is invaluable for the context it provides to the movie's story. The making-of featurette, an extensive interview with Riklis and his accompanying commentary all help considerably in understanding the political situation that both drives and reflects the wedding preparation complications. Also included is the original trailer as well as the U.S. version.

Israeli-Syrian Border, Twenty-First Century

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 27 June 2008]

In Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian border, the Druze bride Mona (Clara Khoury) is engaged to get married with Tallel (Dirar Suleiman), a television comedian that works in the Revolution Studios in Damascus, Syria. They have never met each other because of the occupation of the area by Israel since 1967; when Mona moves to Syria, she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. Mona's father Hammed (Makram J. Khoury) is a political activist pro-Syria that is on probation by the Israeli government. His older son Hatten (Eyad Sheety) married a Russian woman eight years ago and was banished from Majdal Shams by the religious leaders and his father. His brother Marwan (Ashraf Barhoum) is a wolf trader that lives in Italy. His sister Amal (Hiyan Abbass) has two teenager daughters and has the intention to join the university, but her marriage with Amin (Adnan Trabshi) is in crisis. When the family gathers for Mona's wedding, an insane bureaucracy jeopardizes the ceremony.

"The Syrian Bride" is an impressive movie, especially considering the nationality of the Israeli director Eran Riklis. I had no idea that in the twenty-first century could exist a place where people has "undefined nationality". The metaphoric situation of the Druze people, represented by the bride and her family, trapped in the non-sense bureaucracy, lack of interest from the governments in resolving the problem and having to face arrogant heartless authorities represented by the despicable chief of the Israeli police is amazing. The acting is top-notch, the plot is original and unique and I really loved this great movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Noiva Síria" ("The Syrian Bride")

A Very Authentic Film

[rial · 30 January 2005]

I saw this one today and it completely blew me away. It's one of many truly wonderful Israeli films that were made this year. The main story is very moving and easily connected to, and the secondary plot lines are great as well. Details that are featured in the film are very accurate, for the most part, as are the situations and the characters. Viewers can easily relate to the desperate attempts to cut through the red tape, and to the bride's feelings of hopelessness and fear. Notice that the bride speaks fairly little, and yet her vacant, hardly-ever-smiling face is expressive enough. The movie simply draws you in, because of its authenticity.

The acting is superb, especially that of Markam Khoury as the father of the bride, Hiyam Abbas as the independent older sister and, of course, Klara Khoury as the Syrian Bride herself. The movie is quadrolingual, and sorta has Hebrew take a back seat. It's mostly in Arabic, and also has some English, Russian and a few words of French. Most viewers will probably be doing quite a lot of reading (subtitles) in this movie, but it's worth it.

The year of 2004 was an amazingly productive one for Israeli cinema, and The Syrian Bride is no exception. You do not want to miss this one.

A poignant drama

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 22 January 2006]

After Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war, 17,000 ethnic Druze, whose people had been living in the area for centuries, suddenly found their lives fractured and their families divided by an impassable border. In spite of substantial economic and educational gains made under Israeli rule, the Druze of the Golan still consider themselves to be Syrians living under Israeli occupation. They do not intermingle with Israelis, refuse to hold Israeli passports, and live in their own villages. A French/German/Israeli co-production, The Syrian Bride tells the story of one such family as they prepare to attend their daughter's wedding on the Syrian border. It is primarily a comedy yet it is also a poignant drama that takes no sides but attempts to put the political turmoil in the region into a humanistic context.

Mona (Clara Khoury), a young Druze bride is to be wed to Syrian TV-star Tallel (Derar Sliman) from Damascus, a man she has never met. Since neither country recognizes the other diplomatically, once the bride crosses the border to Syria, she will never be allowed to return to Israel and her wedding day, usually a day of great joy, may be one of her saddest. While the film tells us much about the sad realities of the political fragmentation in the Middle East, it is also a story with social and cultural ramifications. Mona's sister Amal (Hiyam Abbas), whose expressive face frames the film's beginning and end, is stuck in an unhappy marriage. She wants to attend Haifa University but is thwarted by her husband Amin (Adnan Trabshi) who is afraid of losing face in the village and of relinquishing "control".

Mona's father Hammed (Makram Khoury), a pro-Syrian agitator known to Israeli police, is forbidden to travel to the Syrian border to say goodbye to his daughter. He harbors resentment and refuses to welcome his son Hattem (Eyad Sheety) and his Russian wife home from Moscow because he broke family tradition and moved away eight years ago. Another son, Marwan (Ashraf Barhom), a businessman, is welcomed by the family but is rejected by an angry former girlfriend, a French Red Cross worker (Julie-Anne Roth), who works in the village. Mona's character is mostly symbolic and she has little to say, yet the story of the film is written on her face and her lack of dimensionality is more than compensated for by the depth of the supporting characters, particularly Hattem and Amal.

As these conflicts bubble under the surface, the situation becomes increasingly absurd as the wedding is threatened by bureaucratic intransigence on the border checkpoints between Israel and Syria. Mona's passport has an Israeli stamp on it and, according to Syrian regulations, anyone carrying a passport with an Israeli stamp is denied entry to Syria. Neither Israeli nor Syrian customs officials seem to know what to do and the prospective bride and groom are stuck in a no-man's land, reduced to communicating via bullhorns pressed against locked gates. The Syrian Bride may sound like an exercise in absurdity bordering on farce, yet for the family who may never see their child again, it is a drama of high seriousness. Whether you consider The Syrian Bride to be an allegory, black comedy, family drama, or political statement, the image of a girl sitting alone in a white wedding dress stuck between impenetrable barriers is one that remains.

Probably the best Israeli film ever.

[shaiblitz2 · 10/10 · 16 April 2005]

The story line touches many open sores afflicting the Israeli society, prejudice towards ethnic minorities, unwillingness of factions in that society to try and understand and accept one another, police bigotry and sheer racism. As an Israeli living abroad I could relate to all of the above. However, you don't have to be from that region to appreciate this moving and powerful Drama. The film basically deals with the horrific struggle of a family, from a marginalised sector of Israeli society, to get their daughter married to a man over the Syrian boarder however, by doing that they will never be able to see her again. A very very emotional and humane film.

Overrated

[Eyal-6 · 6/10 · 22 March 2006]

I'm a big fan of Israeli cinema, and I'm often proud of my country's efforts. But The Syrian Bride didn't work for me. I wanted to like it, but it was too predictable, too superficial, and by the end I was both bored and unmoved. Hiam Abbass is excellent, though.

I'd say the script was mediocre, but it could be that for an international audience the film will prove more appealing, since it does shed light in a clear and well-intentioned manner on the intricacies of the dilemmas of the Druze in the Golan Heights.

To give a frame of reference, I thought that both Year Zero and Paradise Now were far better movies than the Syrian Bride.

A wedding

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 1 January 2008]

A wedding in the family, usually a happy event for everyone involved, turns out to be a sad affair. This particular one will mark the destiny of Mona, a young Druze woman living in the Golan Heights, now under Israeli rule. Like her parents, Mona considers herself Syrian. She stands to lose the privilege of ever going back, even for a visit, when she crosses the border where her future husband, a Syrian actor, awaits for her with his own entourage.

"The Syrian Bride" was a surprise. Directed with honesty by Eran Riklis, who also co-wrote the screen play with Suha Arraf, the film takes no sides between one faction, or another. In many ways, the movie seems to be sympathetic toward the Druze family, but in no way it felt preachy, or frankness in its presentation of what goes on in that troubled part of the world.

The family at the center of the story is not a happy one. The father, Hammed, has been in prison for his pro-Syrian views. He has also estranged himself from his two sons, Hattem, who has married a Russian doctor and now lives abroad and Marwan, a businessman of sorts, based in Italy. The oldest daughter, Amal, a sensitive woman, has a troubled marriage herself to a man who can't understand her need to assert herself and go to college. It is a male dominated society where women don't seem to have much to contribute except have children and be housewives.

Most impressive in the film is Hiam Abbass, an actress we have admired from her previous work, notably, "Satin Rouge" and "Paradise Now". She has a quiet way of getting under the skin of the role she is playing; this woman shows such dignity in her work that it's hard to take ones eyes from her once she is on the screen. Makram Khoury is seen as the patriarch, Hammed. Clare Khoury is also effective as the bride who must leave family and friends to go to another world. Eyad Sheety and Ashraf Barhom play the two brothers.

"The Syrian Bride" is a satisfying film by Eran Riklis, a talented director who shows great sensibility toward the material.

a movie i saw at the movies on the 17.12.2004 with nir and gilaad.

[dan1234567 · 7/10 · 17 December 2004]

there is a spoiler here!

the bride from magdel shams which is getting married with her syrian husband ( which she has not met yet), which means she has to cross the border and she won't ever be able to come back to see her family.

the story is also the story of her brothers and sister, with their own complex problems with the local population of magdel shams and its strict religious and stupid attitude.

was a good movie with an optimistic end. people cried in the theater, and my eyes too hadn't been totally dry.

Madness and sadness at a border crossing

[Red-125 · 10/10 · 19 April 2006]

The Syrian Bride (2004) was co-scripted and directed by Eran Riklis. The film is set in the occupied Golan Heights. (Note: I'm not an expert on the Israeli-Syrian conflict, nor on the Druze ethnic/religious community. I'll discuss the political situation shown on screen in general terms, and leave sophisticated analysis to other reviewers.)

The Druze are a minority within a minority. Most of them consider themselves Arab, but they are not truly Muslim--they have their own religion and their own rituals. Some Druze have more or less integrated themselves into Israeli society, but the family portrayed in the movie consider themselves Syrian. They demonstrate solidarity with the Syrians whom they can see and hear across the border. However, crossing the border into Syria is difficult, and returning is impossible.

While the Israelis and the Syrians soldiers eye each other with hostility across the barbed wire, Amal, a young woman--the very beautiful Hiam Abbass--is attempting to cross from the Golan Heights into Syria to marry a man she has never met. Because of the regulations, she will never see her family again. This sad and bizarre situation is played out against a backdrop of family antagonisms, bureaucratic incompetence, and petty malevolence. Amal's father Hammed--Makram Khoury--has to walk a fine line between saying goodbye to his daughter and resisting the Israeli military attempts to silence him. Hammed's other daughter, Mona--played by Khoury's real-life daughter Clara Khoury--is trapped in a loveless marriage, and is trying to simultaneously comfort her sister and achieve her own independence.

Nothing goes right, despite the efforts of a harassed U.N. official, who has seen her share of bizarre border incidents and by now has apparently accepted as commonplace the absolute madness taking place all around her.

There were a few comic elements in the movie, but I see it as a tragic film about a tragic situation. "When kings fall out, poor people tremble." The characters in this film are trapped in a toxic situation that they didn't create and can't control. As always, the wars of bullets and of words play themselves out in the lives of people who are simply trying to lead a reasonably normal and happy life.

bureaucracy complicates a marriage

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 16 August 2013]

Syria came into the news in 2011 following an uprising against Bashar Assad, making it all the more interesting that "The Syrian Bride" takes place around the time when Assad took over from his late father. The movie looks at the coming marriage of a Druze woman in the Golan Heights (a formerly Syrian region occupied by Israel since the 1967 war) to a TV star from Damascus. After the marriage, the woman will have to move to Syria and her village will never allow her to return. But Israeli and Syrian bureaucracy looks certain to complicate things.

Criticism of the movie that I read is that it doesn't focus on the role that the Israel-Palestine conflict would likely play in the issue of the Golan Heights, and that it depicts the Israeli and Druze characters sympathetically while portraying the Syrian characters as buffoons. That IS a problem with the movie. But aside from that, director Eran Riklis takes a good look at the Kafkaesque bureaucracy plaguing the people in the Golan Heights. Life in this no-man's land comes across as a tough existence. It's also one of the few movies in which we see a strong Arab woman. Worth seeing, as long as you understand that it does pretty much gloss over any role that the Israel-Palestine conflict would have to play.

An excellent film, well portrayed

[wrobarth · 10/10 · 8 April 2006]

The plot has been well described in earlier comments. During the film I was reminded of an early computer game called Bureaucracy where every effort to accomplish something was met by official stumbling blocks. The four language dialog and actual site of the film added a true sense of reality. The English subtitles and the facial expressions of the actors were more than adequate to convey the emotional content of the story. After a few minutes into the film, I became unaware of the fact that I was reading the dialog and was totally immersed in the plot. The father's acceptance of the errant son visiting from Russia was very touching and realistic. The older sister's walk away from the border was somewhat enigmatic to me. The end of the film left a very big question in my mind. Did the Syrian border guard let the bride into Syria?

Before ISIS

[sergelamarche · 7/10 · 21 May 2018]

Nice story that displays all sorts of problems created by the governments of Isarël, Syria, but before ISIS I believe. Things may have changed for the worse.

eh

[LSuhr · 3/10 · 17 February 2017]

Not super impressive. Story line is not really great. Most of the ideas seem pretty general with a weak weak weak story. This film is not powerful, not emotional, just something to pass the time. I would not watch this again. You do not feel or get attached to any of the characters. Characters are weak in that you have no background or nothing to get you to care about them. They are poorly underdeveloped.

It feels like there was no development at all of the characters. Where was the character development??? Father dismissive, mother quiet, son playboy? Boring.

The dialogue is also unimpressive. There was one line about a watermelon and that was the closest thing to a good line in that movie.

Ending = ??? Ending is not really explained. Why does what happens happen and how? Especially considering the situation that is happening in the movie they should be clearer about the ending.

Just saw it at Chicago International Film Festival...

[ScotchTape01 · 16 October 2004]

and it was wonderful. ***1/2

*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Mona, the Syrian bride of the title, is a Druze woman from Golan Heights, Israel, who is engaged to marry a Syrian television star whom she has never met. The story, however, pivots around Mona as her family struggles with losing Mona (as once she crosses the Syrian border, she can never come back to Israel) but also with their own complex relationships and problems. Mona's sister, Amal, is ambitious and independent, but her husband will not allow her to go to university. Amal's daughter marches in pro-Syrian demonstrations and gets in trouble with her father. Mona's father was in jail for several years because of his political beliefs, and will not be allowed to the border for Mona's wedding. Mona's brother, Hammad, married a Russian woman several years before and since has been estranged from the family in Moscow. Another brother, Marwan is an endearingly sleazy entrepreneur with a gap in his teeth and a fondness for foreign women.

The family reunites at Mona's wedding, starting in the Druze village in the hills of Israel and traveling by car to the Syrian border. Their troubles are far from over, however, when they face bureaucratic difficulties with the passport officials on both sides.

A gorgeous film about intricate, interesting, and real, ordinary people set against a powerful political and cultural backdrop. If you get the chance to see this amazing film, please take it!

A border line comedy-drama

[eyal philippsborn · 9/10 · 30 March 2005]

Of all the movies I ever saw, this one reminded me of the sixth sense.

In the sixth sense (which, let me state right now, has nothing to do with this film in any way, shape or form) one must ponder of serious holes in the plot. Holes that if considered, make the movie completely incoherent. I won't get into detail because I don't want to spoil the movie for the three remaining people who hadn't seen it yet.

The Syrian bride revolves around Amal, a Druze woman in Majd Alshams, a pro-Syrian village that is located in the Golan heights (I'll get into the pro-Syrian and pro-Israeli Druze villages later on). Amal is about to marry a local Syrian celebrity, whom she saw only in the soap-comedy he stars in. This wedding is more than just a plain wedding, it's the last time she will see her family because once she crosses the border and receives the Syrian citizenship, she will never see her family again (unless they meet on a neutral turf such as abroad- Hole No.1). It goes without saying that this fact makes the event a bittersweet one. To make matters worse, the family, already morose over parting with Amal for good (if you disregard the plot hole) has to deal with the feud between the father, a conservative man who brushed with the wrong side of the law (for ideological reasons I couldn't fathom) and his son who was banned by the village elderly for marrying a Russian foreigner.

The wedding brings together the family of the estranged son, his hot-shot, teeth-gapped (a crucial fact in the film) womanizing brother, Marwan and his sister, Mona (Klara khouri in a great performance) a strong willed woman that fights for her independence as well as the one of her teenage daughter. A fight amidst a conservative society that still attributes female independence with male incompetence.

The family's inner "demons" cease to be its major problem when upon escorting the bride to the border, the family faces the weenie Israeli bureaucrat and the ridiculously stubborn Syrian bureaucrat preventing the bride from crossing the border and uniting with her future husband.

The story is essentially a personal one when the political atmosphere plays as an intensifier. The Pro-Syrian Druze who are protesting against the Israeli occupation and for Bashar Elasad (who occupies Lebanon till today, Plot hole No. 2) are in a constant conflict between the country they feel they belong to and the country they currently reside in (as opposed to the Pro-Israeli Druze who serve in the Israeli army and show a remarkable awe-inspiring loyalty to Israel that I rarely witness).

Conflicted emotions, both political and personal, dictate the entire film and with a sometimes over simplified but altogether credible script and with a subtle direction that depicts very authentically (or at least seemingly authentic to the Jewish viewer such as yours truly), the movie creates the emotional effect that transcends the political agenda its based on.

As another reviewer pointed out, this film is the example of the drastic improvement that Israeli films went through the last couple of years when the personal movies became top priority and not the political ones. This movie is a completion of the process by combining the two ganres successfully (once you disregard the holes) to make a film that people can isolate themselves from its ideology and enjoy its overall undeniable,qualities which is, as you probably have guessed, what I did.

9 out of 10 in FilmOmeter.

Belonging

[morphy_os · 9/10 · 12 June 2005]

This movie offers a glimpse into the lives of a forgotten people struggling with issues of identity and belonging. I sympathized with the sense of isolation and never ending uncertainty.

I think this movie's greatest success, however, is its ability to present the very differing main characters as victims of circumstances.

Being disowned for departing from the acceptable rules carries repercussions that are deep and long-lasting. However, maintaining acceptance within a community that regards change as the dissemination tool of its oppressor, can carry an ever higher price.

The ultimate lesson is that, whether good or bad, change can not be stopped, and alienation ultimately weakens the very system it was evoked to protect.

I'd say, one of the best films of 2004

[jgcorrea · 6/10 · 12 March 2020]

My personal list (2004): 1. Million Dollar Baby 2. The empty house (Bin-jip) 3. Hotel Rwanda 4. Triple agent 5. Feux rouges 6. Der Untergang 7. Dead Like Me (containing 29 episodes overall) 8. The Aviator 9. Collateral 10. Six shooter 11. Ray 12. Clan of the flying daggers (Shi mian mai fu) 13. Sideways 14. Against the wall (Gegen die Wand) 15. Murder in Suburbia (12 episodes overall) 16. Mean Creek 17. 2046 (Love secrets) 18. The Syrian Bride

Simply Essential, a true "must see"

[lmahayni · 9/10 · 19 May 2008]

As an Arab-American who spent her childhood in the shadow of the Isreali occupied Golan Heights, I found many memories from my childhood coming back. How ridiculous the most simple task can become when politics enters the picture! Anyone who wants personal insight into the Isreali-Arab conflict, should watch this. It's about as realistic as it can get.

This seemingly simple tale is fraught with all the obvious and subtle problems of a family and a community living under the restrictions of international politics. Whenever it starts to seem trite, it will surprise you with some detail or twist that reveals a depth that is never allowed to show on the surface. The plot is simple: a bride gets ready for her wedding... Not so simple, apparently.

Is the policeman a heartless occupying force? Is the father an iceberg? Is a border officer capable of setting policy for his entire Nation? Can the hopes of one woman survive this emotional day? You'll explore these questions while you become attached to the characters engaged in this drama. The acting is seamless, the scripting spare, and the production value is appropriate to the story being told.

The bottom line is that you should see this movie. If you watch it on DVD, be sure to watch the extras. The film was shot in Arabic and Hebrew (with a smattering of French and English), with English subtitles. Sometimes the subtitles flash by too quickly; but that's my only "major" complaint.

A slice of life from the Golan Heights

[Karl Self · 6/10 · 17 September 2010]

In a way, good movies allow you to check out different cultures and situations from your armchair. They could give you, for example, an idea of what it would be like as Brazilian gang member. The Syrian Bride lets you peek in on the Golan Heights, a part of Syria occupied by Israel. They won't let anyone move in or return to that enclave. A young Druze woman has decided to use her last chance of re-establishing herself after a failed marriage, she will leave the Heights forever to move to Syria proper for an arranged marriage with a TV actor she has never met in real life.

We also get to meet, amongst others, the bride's father, who has served a long jail term for resisting the occupation, and his two estranged sons.

In the anticlimactic end, the bride struggles to cross the border because the Syrian customs officer refuses to accept an Israeli stamp in her passport. When everyone is arguing, she slips across the border and into her new, uncertain life.

An Insight to the Conflicting Problems in the Middle East

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 15 July 2006]

THE SYRIAN BRIDE would probably best be appreciated by those who understand the intricacies of border rules and inter-country regulations that dominate the plot of this well made but a bit obtuse film.

The story takes place on the wedding day of a beautiful bride, a Druze woman in Majd Alshams, a pro-Syrian village located in the conflicted Golan heights (factions pro-Syrian and pro-Israeli live uncomfortably in Druze villages). Our bride is to marry (by arrangement - she has never met him) a Syrian TV soap opera celebrity. The problem arises in that this will be the last time that she sees her family as once she crosses the border into Syria accepting Syrian citizenship, she can never return to the Golan Heights to see her family. The wedding is further complicated by the return visit of her brother who has been away for 8 years having married a Russian by whom he has a son: the brother and the son are in conflict. And to make things worse, the paperwork at the border to allow the bride to join her husband to be in the wedding is held up by political paperwork. How all of these factors impact the bride's future is played out by the families on both sides.

The script tries to make the story seem credible but to those of us who still don't understand the intricacies of the territorial parceling of that area of the world or the traditions of Arab marriage etc, this plot seems ponderous and heavy. The actors are all excellent and there is something in each character with which we can identify. A little background on customs before the film begins would have helped immensely as the movie itself is very well done. Grady Harp

The Sister of the Bride

[nturner · 8/10 · 9 November 2008]

A woman residing in the Golan Heights wishes to marry a Syrian. This would seem only a matter of concern to friends and family, but this is the Middle East. Because of the animosity between Israel and Syria, once the marriage takes place the bride is forbidden from ever visiting her friends and family in the Golan Heights. This entire film takes place on the day of the marriage but within those twelve short hours, we are treated to a look at a complex yet comic, tragic yet uplifting view of a most interesting family. The father is a noted leader against the occupation of the Golan Heights and has served time in prison because of his political beliefs. The older son has been rejected by his father and the community because he moved to Russia and married a Russian doctor. A younger son is a somewhat comic wheeler-dealer whose business practices are a little more than shady. The elder daughter is a fiercely independent woman married to a traditional man. The bride-to-be is a beautiful, sad woman previously married to a bad man who is going into an arranged marriage with a Syrian man she has never met.

Even though the title is The Syrian Bride, the film is really focused upon the elder daughter and her striving for a better psychological life for herself and her two daughters. Evelyn Kaplun who plays the elder daughter is an extraordinary actress - so strong - yet tender. Her strength and tenderness is the keystone of the film, and it is she who is able to mediate all of the conflicts of her relatives and the government in an attempt at happiness for her younger sister. It is an irony of the political climate of the film that she would probably not be able to be as independent and autonomous had she not been living in an area occupied by Israel as she surely would have been stifled by a Syrian society that is more restrictive of women.

There's an interesting sidelight to Ms. Kaplun's performance in that in the DVD special features, there is an interview with her real parents both whom appear to be very conservative. You see a very nervous Ms. Kaplun sitting between her parents while her father goes on about how his daughter is involved in a "forbidden" profession. I'm sure the theme of the film hit very much at home with her.

The bride played with low-keyed brilliance by Clara Khoury actually represents the untenable political situation of the area. She never is quite able to escape from her overall sadness and sits almost emotionless throughout the film while all levels of chaos take place about her. Ms. Khoury in her "emotionless" performance reveals all the harsh, raw emotions of the situation.

The Syrian Bride gives us a sobering picture of nice, ordinary people trying to survive and find happiness within systems of government so involved in hate and ideology that they actually punish rather than sustain their own citizens.

Humanizing life in the Golan Heights

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 1 November 2019]

"The Syrian Bride" is a very enjoyable film about a wedding and all the cultural difficulties encountered that the viewer might not expect. In other words, it manages to tell a story and point out how weird the atmosphere is in the region...and in a way that seems neither pro-Israel nor pro-Syrian nor pro-Palestian. Some of the difficulties are to be expected...but many catch you by surprise. Among the difficulties is the arrival of the disowned son who married a non-Muslim, what it is like to marry a person you've never actually met as well as problems with the Syrian and Israeli governments and the monkeywrenchs they throw into something that SHOULD be easy...getting married. Overall, very well made and, most importantly, believable...as if you really are an observer in these folks' lives.

A good-natured look at a Middle East mess

[rowmorg · 8/10 · 23 February 2006]

The Golan Heights! Who hasn't read about them in the newspapers or heard the name in the TV news? It's a real movie surprise to see this famous area, witness its great beauty in Technicolor, and learn that it is famous for its apples and coffee.

Furthermore, people lived there long before the Israeli Defence Force marched in, and they are the stubborn, defiant Druze, who still adhere to Syria, 39 years after the USA's proxy nuclear state took over.

This richly human story dramatises the inter-state rivalry that washes over the heads of the local population, enmeshing them in boiling hot afternoons waiting at the will of cretinous petty government officials and their absent superiors.

This is a fine film that no one will see in the USA because (unless it's "The Crucifixion" in Aramaic) "Americans won't watch subtitled movies". It's a shame because they would learn something about the actual, daily-life effects of their leaders' huge subsidies and massive military aid to the racially-based Jewish state.

Furthermore, they would learn that Arabs are not hijackers or bomb-belt wearers, but people just like you or me.

However, they will be watching "Flight 93" and other racist propaganda instead. It's so sad...

an Amazing Arabian Film

[jalal_mussalha · 10/10 · 21 March 2006]

"The Syrian Bride" is one of the most amazing Arabic movies i have ever seen in my life. I would even give it a higher grade than "10" if I could. The plot is very real and serious, it sheds the light on a spectrum of elements and factors that constitute altogether the Druze individual who lives in Occupied Jollan Hieghts. Those people who suffer from the bitterness of BELOGING issue, are on display in this movie. On the one hand they are SYRIAN, but they feel isolated and secluded from their homeland on the other, and that's due to the fact that Israel has occupied their land , and Syria cannot get it back. In the movie there are some scenes of demonstrations organized by the local people of Majdal Shams implying their insisting need to re-belong to their homeland. However, they will never accomplish their need neither fulfill their dream as long as their green hills are occupied.

The movie incarnates the the dilemma of belonging and the suffocating state of being under occupation.