The Wedding Song (2008)

Probably filmed on a bit of a shoestring, this picture is nonetheless a towering piece of peace propaganda in the ongoing hostilities between Israel and the Arabs. Two charming youngsters, both about to undergo arranged marriages, one to a man she loves, the other to a man she detests, find Nazism intruding on their lifelong friendship. The story is told with fascinating insight into the Jewish and Islamic worlds and includes the preparation of the Jewish girl for an "oriental" marriage --- in other words, total depilation of her pubic area, which looks extremely painful. Without giving spoilers, the film has moments of high tension and resolves itself elegantly with the friends reunited. A most satisfying drama from a gifted writer, actor, and director.

Like her earlier, excellent 'Le Petite Jerusalem', Karin Albou's story of two best teen girlfriends suffering through WWII in Tunis is rich with sensual textures; bodies, fabrics, a powerful sense of place. Albou is one of those directors who uses silence, a look shared, an extreme close up to communicate what most filmmakers rely on dialogue to say. One girl is Jewish, the other Muslim. Both dream of happy marriages in societies and religious cultures that keep women as objects used by men, while both religious groups are used as puppets and victims used by the Nazi occupiers - if in very different ways. A deceptively complex film, this story of friendship touches on war, religion, class politics, race, and sexual roles. If I found it a touch less successful than her last film, it may be because she was being so ambitious. But I'll take that kind of ambition in an artist anytime.

Although this movie has interesting moments and themes it really never coalesces. There is just too much of a lot of things – adolescence, sexuality, religion (Muslim and Judaism), Nazis, arranged marriages, friendship, betrayal and probably some other themes as well.It takes place in Tunisia in 1942 after the Allied invasion of North Africa (so there are bombing raids too) and is the story of two teenage girls – one is Muslim and the other is Jewish - with all the above mentioned topics thrown at us. Their on-again off-again friendship is the centrepiece and everything else rotates slowly around this. The word "slowly" is deliberate as the film is ponderous, as if it doesn't quite know where to take us.

I saw this last month at the 2009 Palm Springs International film Festival. This is the second feature film of writer/director/actress Karin Albou who received critical acclaim for her debut film La Petite Jersalem. As as writer and director Albou seems to have a promising career ahead of her as she knows how to put a film together and get the best out of her cast including herself as an actress as she plays the role of Myriam's stern but loving, smart and hard working mother Tita. The film is set in 1942 in German occupied Tunisia as the German's are vying for the support of the Muslim population to be their allies in the promise of independence for Tunisia. 16 year old Nour (Olympe Borval) is a Muslim engaged to her cousin Khaled (Najib Oudghiri). Nour's best friend since their earliest childhood is Myriam (Lizzie Brouchere). Myriam is Jewish and the German occupation has brought understandably hard times and tension for the Jewish Tunisian population. Myriam longs for the love that her friend Nour sees in Khaled but Myriam is betrothed to a wealthy and much older Doctor Raoul (Simon Abkarian) who is being forced to work in sympathy to the Nazi occupation. Photographed by cinematographer Laurent Brunet this is a good film but despite the war setting there is not a lot of war action and the film centers around the relationship of Myriam and Nour and this could be categorized as a chick flick. I liked it though and would give it a 7.5 out of 10 and recommend it.