I watched this movie with my mother, a western woman turned Muslim 10 years ago, and she was thoroughly annoyed by the simplistic view of the Islam and by the many factual mistakes in the plotline. To give some examples:
- It seemed as if Sabah just wore the hijab as a fashion item, not as something religious. She shows a little bit of her hair AND, more importantly, doesn't even cover her shoulders. And kissing with a man while wearing a hijab...?
- Ofcourse there is an evil brother that tries to detain Sabah from having an affair with a foreigner, but he's the same damn guy that has a wife screwing around and is also defying some basic rules of the Islam.Why isn't he aiming at his wife with his anger and religious mumbo jumbo? And at the end he turns in a nice western guy, accepting all kinds of stuff that he fought against in the entire movie. Could people really change that much like in this kind of movies!? And he's a scarecrow of an actor, so stiff and uncharismatic..brrr.
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SpiffyAngel
16 years ago
"And anyway, I think what's funniest of all is you're not Arab. You're Armenian and this family in the this movie are Arabs."
how do u know? they said they were LEBANESE, how is that not Arab? and where did being Armenian come from? :S
anyways, I'm first generation Palestinian living in Canada and I speak to my parents very little in Arabic cause i mostly talk in english anyways
and about the islam stuff, i have no idea since im a Christian
*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·´ - Spiffy Angel
ya habibi
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moveny
14 years ago
Just about 30% of Lebanese are Arabs, SpiffyAngel.
I had the opportunity to meet the director of this (in my opinion wonderful) movie a few years back in a film festival, and she is an Canadian Arab of Muslim background, so I reckon we can dismiss the rantings of someone who converted 10 years ago and is otherwise a Westerner.
About the accents and the execution, yeah I suppose it's somewhat distracting when you know that there are inaccuracies (happens to many Brits with the equally wonderful Match Point by Woody Allen). I guess that they just didn't have the budget to hire actors with a single proper regional accent.
I simply don't know Arabic at all and haven't got too strong views on Muslims, and for me this was a warm and funny comedy about human relationships with a touch of seriousness. I think the movie also helps to build bridges between communities that desperately need them, so I wish the director every success.
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angellduvall
13 years ago
wow, what you said was absolutely disrespectful!! What you said was that you don't consider people that revert (convert as you put it) an "authentic" muslim??? Are you serious? I know which poster to whom you were referring, the one that said that her mother was annoyed by what was going on throughout the film who reverted 10 years ago and you completely dismissed what she was saying simply because she wasn't born in an eastern country.
The thing about Islam is that simply because people are born Muslim doesn't mean that they have ever even practiced the religion correctly. There are born Muslims from eastern countries that are simply Muslim by name, and the only thing they do that even reflects a small part on Islam is the fact that they know and speak Arabic fluently.
There is a difference between Islam and different cultures. There are people who are Muslim but they bring their cultural practices in without thinking about it, and it actually either goes against the religion or just has nothing to do with it.
That's fine if you don't have any views on Muslims, but a revert Muslim in Canada (no matter how long ago they came to Islam) is no less a Muslim than one born that way in Malaysia. (that was just an example btw)
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