The Syrian Bride

Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights is the largest Druze village in the area. Mona lives there and is to marry Tallel, a television comedian in Damascus. The two have never met; the occupation in place since 1967 has never let them. Once Mona crosses the line into Syria she also loses the undefined citizenship she holds, and will never be allowed home again. The wedding is therefore also a farewell. The family gathers that day: her father Hammed, kept under supervision for his pro-Syrian politics, an elder brother cast out of the village years ago, another brother who lives in Italy, and her sister Amal, whose own marriage is failing. Eran Riklis directs, with Hiam Abbass and Clara Khoury. What threatens the ceremony in the end is paperwork.