Thursday, January 03, 2008

Arranged


Here we definitively have a different story of what films usually show when talking about strict religions and women. Tells about the friendship that two elementary school teachers form even when one is an Orthodox Jew and the other is an observant Muslim. Throughout their friendship we discover –as well as them- that they have more commonalities that anyone could think of.

What makes really interesting this story is that usually secular films show strict religions more in a negative than a positive way, especially when it comes to the submissive role women usually play. Here they show something that I believe is universal and easy to understand: choice. Everyone has a the right to choose what they want to do, even if others do not approve and find it retrograde. The later in the movie is clearly expressed by a non-Orthodox Jew (the school’s principal).

Of course there are other messages and situations in the movie but this is the one that I really like, the other were predictable and expected just after the very beginning of the movie.

As a movie I imagine that had a very low budget as production values are not that good with some actors performing really bad, but not the two leads Zoe Lister Jones (plays Rochel) and Francis Benhamou (plays Nasira) that have very good performances.

This is a movie I do recommend to adult audiences and especially to women that want to see the other side of a story told so many times. If you have a chance to see this movie I think that your criteria about women in general and oppressive religions in particular will be enriched as much as did mine.

Enjoy for the very interesting and different story!

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