Search - Wedding in Galilee on DVD

Gripping Contrast of Arab-Israeli and Male-Female Cultures

Jedidiah Palosaari | Fes, Morocco | 08/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the best foreign films I've ever seen, Wedding is also perhaps the only Israeli-made film that is sympathetic to Arabs. In both Hebrew and Arabic Khleifi tells the story of a Palestinian man during the Israeli occupation who wishes to have a normal, large wedding for his daughter, and is granted that permission as long as the Israeli military governor can come as the guest of honor. What is wonderful is this film doesn't follow an easy path in which every one suddenly gets along. It presents the true animosity and difficulties in the relationships between Israelis and Palestinians: the fear that rules Israeli lives, and the constant control the Palestinians are placed under. And yet there are moments when both sides can also see each other as human. The Israeli soldiers see simply a family desiring to celebrate a life boundary event, and there is great compassionate expression in the care for a female Israeli soldier. There is also a very interesting subtext of gender dynamics within Arabic and Islamic culture. How do men and women relate to each other in the traditional manner during an occupation? The Arab dynamic is contrasted with the more relaxed gender interaction of the Israelis. While there is some unfortunate brief full nudity, it adds to a very interesting moment exploring the cultural value of a broken hymen and what this shows of the power relationships inherent in a culture where a man can gain honor but a woman can only lose hers. The bride finds a way to reverse this through following the cultural dictates *and* gaining control of her own body. I encourage everyone to view this movie to see how she accomplishes this, and to understand how these two very different and very valuable cultures interact in this time of turmoil."

Provides a splendid insight to life in occupied palestine

Sabad One | 12/28/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Really excellent flick. Gives you an insight into life in a small palestinian village that is under Israeli military control. Plot revolves around a village elder who want to have a traditional wedding for his child, but must deal with the military govenor (ie sell his soul to the devil) to do so. Highly recommended if you have any interest in the realities of occupation and life in the region."

Different viewers, different movie

Sabad One | 11/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really liked this movie. Many sequences of the wedding are as exciting and joyous as some in "Monsoon Wedding". I think the director really did a superb job at describing so many interesting and different characters. Nothing, in this part of the world, is simple, and nothing is presented, here, as simple.
Truly beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and truly there is nothing like objective truth. I really do not understand how can anyone judge this movie as one sided. How can this movie be judged anti-Palestinian? Simply because there are some negative Palestinian characters that take part of the wedding? Maybe a balanced movie would depict Palestinians as perfect human being, without blames or faults? How can a movie be anti-Palestinian when the Israelis FORCE their way into the wedding, as a condition for letting the wedding take place? Doesn't the Palestinian father of the groom (which surely IS an old fashioned man, but certainly such men exist in Palestine, as well as in many other places) act somehow well, in putting his son's marriage before hatred? How can a movie be anti-Palestinians, when the Israeli occupiers are showing driving around Palestinian towns noisily, and anticipating the beginning of a curfew without apparent reasons? Are Israeli depicted in such a nice way, when they certainly contribute to spoil the end of the wedding, playing their part in building up the tension with the Palestinian? Or, there is a sequence where a young female Israeli soldier faints after being, maybe, overwhelmed by the hot afternoon, and the excitement of the celebration. The Palestinian women immediately help her. They bring her inside the house, they take care of her for hours, clothing her in Palestinian clothes, treating her as one of their own. Is this hostile depiction of Palestinian customs? All this while a young Israeli soldier mistrusts them, being afraid she will be harmed. He wants to go inside the house, armed, and check what's happening. And at night, when the wedding will have been spoiled by the tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, and finally the soldier look for his woman comrade, and finds her clothed as a Palestinian woman, is his reaction of contempt supposed to make us like him? I think not. It is true that there are three young men who want to kill an Israeli officer but, this is 3 out of maybe 200 guests. And while they (rather ridiculously) try to organize an assassination, there are other Palestinians that keep checking on them, and try to avoid trouble. And the 3 men mention that they (and many others) have been tortured by the IDF. Does this sound anti-Palestinians? And, anyway, maybe someone wants to suggest that NO Palestinians would EVER harm Israelis, or plot attacks against them?
The Palestinian bride is a beautiful and mature woman, way above her young and silly husband, who seems to represent the failure of much of the Arab world, and its inability to denounce its own mistakes and limits, and only able to blame others for its own trouble (others surely are partly responsible, but those who accuse the "West" in general, and the US in particular, of ALL the problems in the middle East are surely fooling themselves).
Overall, that someone may find this movie one sided is sad, as it shows how each part in the conflict is too absorbed depicting the others as inhuman monsters to think about its own responsibility, and both parts have plenty."