The Syrian Bride

The Syrian Bride (2004) starring a no-name cast. In a small city in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a young woman prepares for her arranged marriage to a Syrian TV star. Grudges spanning generations surface as various romantic entanglements alienate fathers who can see only their own anger. As with many foreign films, the difficult parts for me are the parts where the characters speak English -- heavily accented English with no subtitles, which is almost impossible to decipher. As a consequence, I'm not sure I understood the ending of the film. There was a lot of bureaucratic chicanery about the fact that the Golan Heights, won by Israel in the 1967 war, are still claimed as Syrian territory by the Syrians. Because of this, the wrong stamp on the bride's passport made it impossible for her to cross over into Syria to her wedding. But at the end of the film, we see her walking toward the Syrian side, the passport issue unresolved. I'm not sure what it was supposed to mean. All I can say is that it made for a frustrating end to an otherwise fine movie. The subtitles are a little hard to read. Grade: B