It’s morning. Roll out of bed. Walk out the door. Five soldiers with Kalashnikovs lounge idly against the rubble of a stone wall, joking among themselves while they carefully watch your apartment complex.
No, it’s not DPS on a power trip, at least not this time. Rather, occupied Jerusalem is the setting for Rana’s Wedding, the latest film from Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad. Abu-Assad invites us into a world that contrasts the comfortable American environment with a city where tanks and gun-toting soldiers are about as common as civilians.
The movie follows the Palestinian heroine Rana (Clara Khoury) over the course of ten hours. The moment we first see Rana, she has until 4 p.m. to get married. Otherwise, as mandated by her father, she will have to flee to Egypt with him. Rana carries with her a list of promising businessmen from which her father will allow her to choose. But the frantic pace of her search is generated by her actor boyfriend Khalil (Khalifa Natour), who, surprise, won’t answer his phone.
Khoury is appealing and believable as Rana, an uncertain young woman determined to choose her own way in life. She finally finds Khalil at the playhouse where he takes refuge on particularly dangerous nights. Rana’s vulnerability is clear, and she can only see the other actresses as rivals. She almost gives up at this point, but even if Khalil is not the dream choice, he is still her choice. From a Western point of view, it would take some real finagling to come up with a reason for the necessity of immediate marriage. But after only brief hesitation, Khalil and Rana embark on a journey to secure a marriage official and Rana’s father’s consent. That’s just the way life is there: things are forced upon you every day, and even the supposedly happy time of betrothel becomes little more than a formality.
Rana meets obstacles at each step along the way, but it’s not the “Gotcha!” sort that Hollywood loves to throw out in Mission: Impossible-style fantasies. Rana’s Wedding is a refreshingly realistic portrayal of the chaos that plague conflict-torn societies.
In a moment of frustration, Khoury gives a loud cry and raises her mobile phone in the air as though to slam it into the ground. The sound of safeties clicking off halts her in mid-fling, and she slowly turns around to greet the barrels of our previously mentioned friends, the AK-47 family. For a few tense moments Rana and the Israeli soldiers stare each other down, and she slowly raises her hands and displays the phone for all to see. Grim-faced, the soldiers lower their guns one by one, and Rana backs away and heads in the opposite direction with a roll of her eyes. It is with resignation, rather than shock or fear, that Rana continues her search.
The filming of Rana’s Wedding is beautiful, conveying the gritty atmosphere of Jerusalem as well as the tense feeling of the citizens in the streets. A beautiful sunset frames children lobbing stones at Israeli soldiers guarding a roadblock. As Rana ducks under the barrage and hurries by, she takes a moment to toss a piece of what was probably once someone’s house. A cityscape displaying architecture from millennia ago freezes and focuses in quick succession on thousands of security cameras stationed throughout the occupied zone. Despite the rapidity of images, it is not overbearing.
The real success of Rana’s Wedding is that, in its vivid portrayal of real life struggle, the film does not present the propaganda of Palestinian freedom fighters or Israeli occupiers. Other critics might argue that without taking sides, the film doesn’t accomplish anything. Ultimately, the Israeli soldiers are real people doing their jobs, just as the Palestinians are real people trying, often desperately, to preserve feelings of freedom and normalcy.
Rana’s Wedding is nominally about a wedding, but it addresses much more than that. The film is an understated and poignant tale about how life does, and must, go on in the face of both physical danger and political and cultural strife.
Rana’s Wedding is playing at Visions Cinema, 1927 Florida Ave. Check the schedule at www.visionsdc.com or call 202-667-0090 for details. Tickets are $9.
