Award-winning Israeli film finds it tough going in the Arab world
by Sharif Hamadeh
Ramallah, West Bank: "I always say that I live in Israel, but I am a filmmaker who doesn't believe in borders for films," says Eran Riklis. As the director and co-writer of "The Syrian Bride," the poly-lingual feature-length drama which has now won more awards abroad than any previous Israeli film, Riklis's comments seem especially apt.
They are also in keeping with a central theme of the film.
"The Syrian Bride," which has been touring the world and picking up awards at European and Canadian film festivals, tells the story of Mona, a Druze bride, and her family from the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as they prepare for Mona's wedding. Mona's prospective groom, a Syrian soap star, is also her cousin, but the couple have never been able to meet because of the political border - and conflict - that divides them.
Riklis's co-writer for the film was the talented Palestinian scriptwriter
Suha Arraf, for whom "The Syrian Bride" was a debut feature-length project.
When Riklis approached Arraf to discuss her involvement in the film, she
was initially cautious. While the Israeli director has a string of
feature-length films under his belt, for Arraf, the director's politics
were as important as his experience.
"I don't agree to work with anyone," she explains.
"It is important to me whether or not a director is a Zionist. I don't want
to be part of a Zionist film."
Fortunately for both parties, their politics and personalities proved
compatible.
"Eran chose me and I chose him," says Arraf.
The result of this professional union is a film that crisscrosses the
boundary between subversive optimism and painful pessimism, without ever
resolving the contradiction. Riklis considers it a tribute to Palestinian
writer Emile Habibi's concept of "pessoptimism," which he sees as
invaluable to an understanding of the region.
Indeed, pessoptimism suffuses the very premise of "The Syrian Bride."
The family celebrations surrounding Mona's betrothal are tinged with an
anxiety and sadness caused by the knowledge that once she crosses the
border at Quneitra, Mona will not be allowed to return to her village. As
the film progresses, the tensions and stresses of this one family and their
social situation serve as a microcosm of the larger identity and political
crisis facing the Druze of the occupied Golan and, beyond that, the wider
Middle East.
Ethnic favoritism, political unrest, sexual repression and patriarchal
domination are all thrown into sharp relief in the family's internal dynamics.
The banality of the conflict and the mindless bureaucracy of the Middle
East are also skillfully depicted by the near-farcical attempts of a Red
Cross worker to gain Israeli and Syrian co-operation for Mona's wedding day
passage from the Israeli side of the border to the Syrian side.
Yet the film also hints at radical alternatives to the status quo through
characters such as Mona's older sister Amal (played with discernable elan
by Hiyam Abbas), who challenge the borders and boundaries imposed on them
in metaphorical and concrete terms.
Riklis says he chose to set a story in the so-called soft occupation of the
Golan Heights because he felt he could "tackle the whole issue of the
Middle East through the filter of this specific story without dealing with
current affairs."
By side-stepping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this way, the
filmmakers afforded themselves greater artistic freedom and avoided the
dangers of attempting "to compete with the news," as Riklis puts it.
It is clearly a strategy that has proven successful; to date "The Syrian
Bride" has won 15 awards worldwide.
The film finally opened in Israel in December 2004 and, aided by its
international success and a major marketing campaign, managed to draw in an
audience of more than 50,000 within its first three weeks. But for all the
acclaim it has received abroad and its popular appeal at home, "The Syrian
Bride" failed to win a single award in either the Jerusalem Film Festival
or the Israeli Academy's Ophir awards.
The Israeli press has been struggling to understand how the film could have
received seven nominations for the Ophir awards, including nominations for
Best Director, and Best Screenplay without even being nominated for Best
Picture.
Neither Riklis, nor Arraf feel that they can confidently explain this
discrepancy, but both speculate that it may be related to the tendency of
Israel's cinematic establishment to privilege insular Jewish-centric films.
"Most of the films that get awards in Israel are mainstream films dealing
with Israeli society," says Arraf, who holds Israeli citizenship. "Perhaps
the judges do not recognize the protagonists of 'The Syrian Bride' as part
of Israeli society."
The film is also experiencing the complexities of cultural and identity
politics in the wider region and has yet to reach as extensive an Arab
audience as it deserves. Although "The Syrian Bride" boasts a Palestinian
co-writer and a predominantly Palestinian cast, and despite the fact that
most of its dialogue is conducted in Arabic, its travel opportunities in
the Middle East have been notably limited by its "Made in Israel" tag.
Contrary to other press reports, Riklis says he never submitted the film to
the Cairo Film Festival, knowing that it doesn't admit Israeli films. He
did, however, submit "The Syrian Bride" to the newly-established Dubai
International Film Festival last December, which, in its infancy, rejected
the film.
To date, the Arab audiences outside Israel who have been able to watch "The
Syrian Bride" are limited to the festival-goers of Marrakesh and a small
group of intellectuals and businesswomen in Amman who arranged a special
screening.
Nevertheless, the film's makers maintain a hope that "The Syrian Bride"
will be able to break through Israel's borders to reach the wider Arab world.
"Of course, it is my wet dream to have a premier in Damascus," says Riklis.
In the meantime, Riklis and Arraf have already made plans to work together
on several projects in the near future.
Arraf is currently working on a script for her directorial debut, which is
to be produced by Riklis.
"If you look at it with naivete, you could say that we are a good example
of co-operation between Jews and Arabs," says Riklis.
Judging by the trans-national success of "The Syrian Bride," the
observation does not seem so naive.
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Source: The Daily Star, January 3, 2005
Visit The Daily Star website at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service.
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