Wedding in Galilee 1987

     A Palestinian seeks permission from Israeli to waive curfew to give his son a fine wedding.  The military governor's one condition is that he and his officers also attend.  The groom berates his father for agreeing to these conditions.  Women ritually prepare the bride and men prepare the groom.  Guests begin to gather and the Arab youths are plotting violence.  One female Israeli officer passes out due to the heat and Arab women take her into the cool house.  A thoroughbred horse gets loose and runs to a mined field.  Since the horse is in danger, soldiers and Arabs must cooperate to rescue it.  As darkness falls, tensions between the army and the villagers rise.  The groom's wedding-night anger and impotence threaten family dignity and honor.  Can order remain between the people and the countries?

     This is a diplomatic experience for viewers amid the extreme tensions in the region where it originated.  Several different characters are interesting but the focus is on the whole and it never fully develops or explores any individual character.  The focus is on the group dynamics and it leaves the underlying story lines as a secondary theme.  The point where this film gets difficult to watch is when the night scenes occur.  You are left wondering what is happening because only sounds are heard and not imagery.  There is deep cultural exploration and the subject illuminates historically important content in both Palestinian and Israeli history.  This film is accurate in its historical and regional specific cinematic elements but it can become wearying?  3* (This movie is OK)

100 min, Drama directed and written by Michel Khleifi with Mohamad Ali El Akili, Bushra Karaman, Makram Khoury, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Anna Condo, Nazih Akleh, Sonia Amar, Eyad Anis, Wael Barghouti, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Ian Chem.

Note:  Imdb 6.8* out of 10* with 431 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 82% with 250+ audience scores, Letterboxd 3.6* out of 5*, Amazon 3.1* out of 5* with 19 reviews, eBay 5*.