Monday, March 06, 2006
SABAH, The Movie.

While everyone else was watching the Oscars, I watched "Sabah, the movie" instead. Here's a short synopsis: It's about a 40-year old Syrian woman who lives in Canada. Sabah has never married because, after her father died, she allowed herself to fall into the role of her mother's caretaker while her brother took over as head of the household, ruling all the women in his family with an iron fist.
I guess, this being a movie, one has to forgive the stereotyping, but Sabah is the kind of woman who would just cower under the glance of a man, so firmly embedded in her cultural consciousness is the expectation that a woman is never seen to do anything that would seem provocative and that includes, never having a bare head, never looking a man in the eye, never giving him the "come on" even inadvertently. Anyway, one day, Sabah does something radical - she goes swimming!!! She is usually the lone swimmer in the gym pool until one day a man joins her and accidently uses her towel when he gets out to answer a call on his cell phone. When Sabah goes to reclaim her towel it sparks off a highly unlikely friendship between the two which leads to a wonderful romance, at once bashful and passionate. Unfortunately, because he's a white man and a Christian, Sabah cannot let anyone in her conservative Muslim family know about her boyfriend...obviously I cannot tell you what happens next because that would amount to a "spoiler" and I would hate to be accused of that, what I can tell you however, is I would have called this movie, "A 40-year Old Virgin-2"!

Seriously though, this is a wonderful movie where culture and romance are conflicted - makes you so appreciative of how falling in love is so uncomplicated in the western world, or is it?

3 comments:

Smoothieshake said...

is this movie in hindi? and also, it wasn't on tv rite? i remember watching a movie/ reading/ watching a documentary on this arab princess who ran away with a marine. it's a true story, but i can't remember any details of it...have you seen it?
alllso, i was listening to the salaam namaste soundtrack today on my ipod, and now i wanna watch the movie again! <3<3 saif:)

Lotus Reads said...

No, it's in English with a dash of Arabic thrown in every now and again, just to give it some authenticity. I really enjoyed the movie because it shows you the hurdles you have to cross sometimes when you fall in love with someone from a different culture and different religion. No, it wasn't on TV, I found it at my local blockbusters!

I haven't seen "Salaam Namaste" but I would like to...you would recommend it,right?

Ohhh, I think I remember seeing this Arab princess and her American husband on Oprah some time ago, but, no, can't remember the details! :( I have often wondered what became of them and if they're still together!

Di Mackey said...

I'm not sure I should keep reading here ... that's two really interesting sounding movies that I probably can't easily find here in Belgium ...