SYRIAN BRIDE

Director: Eran Riklis
Cast: Hiam Abbass, Makram Khoury, Clara Khoury, Ashraf Barhom
Runtime: 97 minutes
Country: Israel/France/Germany
Language: Arabic, Hebrew, English, Russian, French with English subtitles
Rating: Not yet rated

"This Israeli effort is a humanistic drama -- shot through with believable, everyday comic moments -- that personalizes the political agenda in the Middle East ."

Bruce Kirkland, JAM! MOVIES

The latest film by prolific Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis, THE SYRIAN BRIDE is a brave new work that has won numerous prizes at major international film festivals, including four awards (the FIPRESCI Prize among them) at the 2004 Montreal World Film Festival. At the heart and soul of this film is Mona (Clara Khoury), the eponymous bride - or rather, bride-to-be. Not quite belonging to any nationality, she is a Druze living with her family in the Golan Heights , which borders Syria and falls under Israeli jurisdiction. She is engaged to marry a Syrian television star whom she has never met, but once she leaves Israel for Syria , she will not be allowed to return to Israel due to current political relations in those two countries. Throughout the course of the film, we watch as a flurry of activity surrounds Mona, who sits quietly, sombrely and serenely amid chaotic plans for her trip across the border. One senses a deep sadness in Mona, who will never see her family again and who must prepare to live the rest of her life in a country she has never seen with a man she doesn't know. A sensitive portrayal of personal and political relationships as seen through the journey of one woman, THE SYRIAN BRIDE is a startling film. Riklis inquisitively invokes a geographical landscape that is at once harsh and beautiful. Hardly uttering more than a few sentences, Khoury brilliantly captures the innocent canvas upon which political upheaval makes its mark.