5/5 "Identity: unidentified"
  by Medusa (Troy, MI)
The Syrian bride is a Druze woman from the Golan Heights, (Syrian land that fell under Israeli occupation in 1967) who is getting married to a Druze man, who lives in Syria.

While getting to know the members of the bride's family, one can observe the struggle of people who are still loyal to the government of Syria but living under the authority of Israeli government. Once the movie gets to the point where she has to cross the border where the Israeli officials insist on stamping the passport as coming from Israel, and the Syrian officials insist on rejecting the stamp because the Golan Heights are Syrian land. Watching the detail that vacillate between bitter and comic, and wondering who's more stubborn, the Israelis or the Syrian, I was thrilled that the director chose to give an open ending, just like the struggle of these people.

This work witnesses the work of Israeli, Syrian, and Palestinian actors which is a great step in the process of peace (if anybody still remember it).


5/5 One woman's nightmare
  by Donna L. Cornelius
I really liked this film. Having traveled internationally, I know the difficulties associated with obtaining the correct document with the correct stamp from the correct office. This film had the added emotional dimension of marriage and the accompanying social and family pressures. I laughed at times; at others I cried. I felt the anguish and frustration. This is not a documentary, but I can imagine it happening to someone. The film is not an action-packed thriller, but neither is it a chick flick. It's a film for the thoughtful.

4/5 Torn between two countries
  by George W. Lynn
A very balanced, sensitive, well-acted film that clearly portrays the problems faced by the Druze community on the Golan with its own culture and secretive religion being overly strident. The Druze on the Golan lived within Syria until 67 and within Israel after 67, but with family now on both sides of the border, they can't show complete loyalty to either side without creating serious problems with the other side, especially as the border isn't necessarily permanently fixed. So they remain split by the current border and can only shout at relatives on the other side. While it's possible to leave one country one country for the other, it will never be possible to return. In the movie, the Syrian Bride is to marry a man on the Syrian side whom she's never met and what should be a time of celebration becomes one of great sorrow as well as she will have to say goodbye forever to her family on the Golan.

But the film doesn't particularly condemn either the Syrians or the Israelis, just their effect on the Druze who are separate from both. The Druze are equally bedeviled by both bureaucracies. While the father of the bride has spent time in Israeli prison for unspecified political offenses, the family has no problem hiring an Israeli to photograph the wedding celebration. Life for the family in the Golan remains heavily complicated due to the political situation, but it goes on. Not all of the problems presented in the film are political either. The film presents the family's personal problems in the community with the forbidden inter-religious marriage and the older daughter's efforts to step outside traditional women's boundaries in her relationship with her own husband. One could hardly ask for more in one film.




4/5 Intersting but unsatisfying ending
  by J. Dykstra (Roswell, NM)
This is a pretty interesting film about an area you don't hear a lot about in the news. It covers issues of family relationships in a society that is torn between a lot of different loyalties, and some geopolical issues between Syria and the Golan. The movie is incredibly anti-climatic. Everything seems to be building towards a problem and then the movie basically ends with the scene that's on the cover. My students enjoyed the movie but felt cheated by the ending. I suppose in an artistic sense the ending makes sense, but for entertainment purposes you might be unsatisfied. Overall though I can say this movie is worth checking out if you are interested in this part of the world.

5/5 Very fast service
  by Emma Breuninger (Europe)
The DVD has been sent to me from USA - and it arrived amazingly fast. I appreciate this kind of perfect service. Thank you