The Syrian Bride

Review 2: "The Syrian Bride" International Film As Americans, our instinct is to close ourselves off to cultures. Instead, we transplant our culture and lifestyle into other countries; for example, the presence of the mega food chains McDonalds and Starbucks in almost every nation across the globe. But if we were to open ourselves up, even slightly, we would see that some cultures have much of their beautiful history and traditions to offer. In our modernized and technically advanced society, there are many ways to go about this, one prime example being to watch a foreign, or international, movie. "The Syrian Bride", the 2004 critically acclaimed film, contains not only a viewpoint and experience from a different country and culture, but enriches it's audience on the struggles some face indifferent parts of the world. "The Syrian Bride", show at Brigham Young university's own international cinema, is the entangled love story of a Druze bride, Mona, who lives in Golan Heights, the occupied Israeli land. The entire movie focuses on Mona's journey to wed a television star and comedian, Tallel, who lives in Syria. However, once Mona marries, her citizenship will belong to Syria, and she can never again see her family. Throughout the movie, there are set backs to the engagement, obstacles that must be overcome, heartbreaks, and bittersweet successes. Amidst the general story of Mona's journey to marriage, there is another story concerning the global importance for the unity of family, troubling times in a war torn country, and selflessness in times of desperation. As a child growing up in America, it was amazing to see the trials that youth and adults alike, face in other countries besides my own. A big part of this movie was the fact that Mona seemed almost forced to marry Tallel. She had been married once before, but had compared her previous marriage to a "jail". Therefore, the audience wonders, "Why would she do such a thing?" The answer is simple because we