Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Another testament to the chaos and nonsense of the middle East.  A small sensitive film about a Druze family who live on the Golan heights and who are divided between Syria and Israel – which is the occupying force of the area.  The younger daughter is to get married to a Syrian, which means that she will have to leave Israel forever and live in Syria.  Neither country will let her back in or out.  What is more, the wedding can only be split on each side of the fence as the family in Israel may not go to Syria and vice versa.  Part of the film is all about the bureaucratic stupidities revoloving around that.  The rest is about a semi-dysfunctional Druze family with the older women submissive to their macho menfolk and the younger ones trying in the main to find some sort of freedom.  The fact that the two states are locked into such an inflexible situation that divides people and makes life so difficult can be seen so easily in the inflexibility and face saving of all the older men – be they Israeli officials, syrians or Druze community members.  As a story it is pretty interesting, as a film it is quite watchable without being anything special.  The pace is quite solemn at times and it is left to Hiam Abbass, the lead actress to bring a touch of class to her role.  A sad tale all told and one more patch on the bloodstained quilt of the region.

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