Today at 1:30 pm in the library Media Room, the Year of the Mediterranean program will show the 2004 Israeli film The Syrian Bride. Set in 2000, the film tells the story of Mona, a young Druze woman living on the Golan Heights (a contested area on the Israeli/Syrian border currently under Israeli control). She is engaged to marry a Syrian man. At the time this movie is set, there is a UN-observed demilitarized zone between the two countries. It is very rare for anyone to be allowed to cross the border. Mona's family has waited six months to obtain permission for Mona to leave the Golan, and once she crosses the border to marry her fiance, she will not be permitted to return. She will be separated from her family, unable even to visit them--and her future husband is a man she has never met.
The Syrian Bride won the Best Film award at the 2004 Montreal World Film Festival, the 2004 Best Screenplay award at the Flanders International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival, and the Best Film award at the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival. Hiam Abbass, who plays Mona's unhappily-married sister Amal, was nominated for the Best Actress award at the 2005 European Film Festival.
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