The Wedding Song (2009)Release Date: October 23, 2009 (NY) Venue: Turin International Film Festival
Production companies: Gloria Film, France 3 Cinema.
Cast: Lizzie Brochere, Olympe Borval, Najib Oudghiri, Simon Abkarian, Karin
Albou
Director: Albou
Screenwriter: Albou
Producers: Laurent Lavole, Isabelle Pragier
Director of photography: Laurent Brunet
Production designer: Khaled Joulak
Music: Francois Eudes
Costume designer: Tania Shebabo-Cohen
Editor: Camille Cotte
Sales agent: Pyramide International
No rating, 100 minutes
Plot Synopsis
Tunis, 1942. Nour and Myriam, 16, have been friends since childhood. They share the same house in a modest neighborhood where Jews and Muslims live in harmony. Each one secretly desires the other...Tunis, 1942. Nour and Myriam, 16, have been friends since childhood. They share the same house in a modest neighborhood where Jews and Muslims live in harmony. Each one secretly desires the other girl's life: while Nour regrets that she doesn't go to school like her friend, Myriam dreams of love. She is envious of Nour's engagement to her cousin Khaled, a sort of fantasy of the charming Arabian prince that they both share. Unfortunately, Khaled cannot find work. The engagement lingers and the prospect of a carnal union grows more distant. In November 1942, the German army enters Tunis. Pursuing the policies of the Vichy regime, the Nazis impose a heavy fine on the Jewish community. Tita, Myriam's mother, no longer has the right to work. Crippled with debts, she decides to marry her daughter to a rich doctor, and Myriam sees her dreams of love suddenly fade away.
TURIN, Italy -- Karin Albou's sophomore feature may have some minor moments when its intensity dips, but it is a powerful and intimate portrayal of two young women in a part of the world where female roles are still most often secondary. It also approaches an oft-covered subject -- Jewish persecution during the Holocaust -- from an original perspective. However, a short but sexually explicit scene ensures that the film will remain mostly art house fare in the U.S., though it should pick up increasingly more international acclaim at festivals. Set in Tunis on the cusp of World War II, "The Wedding Song" follows 16-year-olds Nour (Olympe Borval), a Muslim, and Myriam (Lizzie Brochere), a Jew. They struggle to maintain their friendship as politics and families threaten to undermine it. They also envy one another, for Nour is engaged to her true love, whom Myriam dreams of finding for herself; Myriam, on the other hand, is allowed an education, something that Muslim girls were not at the time. Once the Nazi army enters Tunisia and the racial laws are enacted, Myriam's mother, Titi (director Albou), in an attempt to save them from being deported, marries off her unwilling daughter to rich, older doctor Raoul (Simon Abkarian), thereby crushing the girl's hopes of love. Albou shies away from very little in portraying the intimacy between the two girls. She even films the ritual removal of Myriam's pubic hair in preparation for her wedding, while Nour holds her in her arms, in a decidedly uncomfortable sequence. Time and again the girls seek and find solace from one another in a relationship that has strong sensual overtones. More than just a look at female sexuality in a repressive culture, "Wedding Song" is a story about how destiny often breaks even the strongest and most essential of bonds, yet the film's backdrop is strangely flat. We know what Myriam, Titi and the other Jewish characters truly have to lose because we know the horrors of the Holocaust, but not because the Nazi occupation or German soldiers are all that menacing onscreen. While this is no small bone to pick, the film is nevertheless held afloat by its performances. Albou is a natural on camera, and Borval and Brochere both have great chemistry and talent. They convincingly capture the nuances of adolescent diffidence, curiosity and love, though the latter steals most of her scenes with a defiance that equals her striking beauty.
