So much average

Powerful

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's so rich thematic wise that I don't know what to start with. It's about the hell of the Middle-East situation. It's about the absurdity this situation can lead to. So absurd sometimes that it sounds like this of 'Asterix's twelve tasks' where he has to find his way in a seemingly French (but Roman) bureaucratic public administration. Yes, so absurd it turns to grotesque and becomes funny. Despite the hell it is actually. It's about the weight of the community on your life. About the weight politics have on your life, want it or not. It's also about sisterhood and brotherhood. It's hence 'Waltz with Bachir', 'Ve'lakhta lehe isha', 'L'esquive', 'Little Jerusalem' and 'The bubble' themes in 92 minutes of subtleness. With some magnificent actresses moreover. The bride, Clara Khoury, and above all the bride's sister, Hiam Abbass (also in 'Lemon tree'), the dignity embodied. It's 'just' another gem by Eran Riklis.

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")

"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.

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...