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Strife in Middle East means something else to 'The Syrian Bride'

In the never-ending family feud that is the Middle East, the Druze are neither fish nor fowl. Not Israelis, though they live in the Golan Heights, yet not exactly full-fledged members of the Islamic community. On their passports, their nationality is stamped "Undefined."

Koch Lorber Films 'The Syrian Bride' B The verdict: In this often affecting comedy, politics and weddings mix but don't always match. Director: Eran Riklis Starring: Clara Khoury, Makram Khouri Run time: 97 minutes Release date: Nov. 16, 2005 Rating: Not rated. Language: In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles. On the web Official movie site Rate 'The Syrian Bride'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

There's very little undefined about "The Syrian Bride," directed by veteran Israeli filmmaker, Eran Riklis, and written by him and Suha Arraf, a Palestinian television journalist. Like so many films with a Mideast setting, the events portrayed are a thinly veiled metaphor for the political unrest in the region. Yet, at the same time, with all the family tensions and reunions and whatever else comes with the matrimonial territory, the movie is also very much "My Big Fat Druze Wedding."

Bride-to-be Mona (Clara Khoury), who resides in the Golan Heights, has never met her groom, Tallel (Derar Sliman), a Syrian soap opera star. Theirs is to be a no-man's-land wedding between the two countries. And once she crosses over into Syria, she can never see her family again.

That may or may not be a good thing. Her father (Makram Khoury) is a pro-Syrian hot-head who refuses to speak to her brother (Eyad Sheety) because he married a Russian doctor (Evelyn Kaplun). Her other brother (Ashraf Barhom) is a ne'er-do-well who jets in from Italy. Mom (Marlene Bajali) is little more than a kind face in a mound of black.

Mona is closest to her older sister (Hiam Abbass), a modern woman whose independent spirit threatens her insecure, traditionalist husband (Adnan Tarabshi). So much so that he refuses to let her attend graduate school. Along those same lines the Russian is ridiculed by the other women, most of them uneducated, because she doesn't know how to slice tomatoes. Of course, she helps run a hospital, but ...

Intrafamily complications merely mirror political ones. A last-minute problem with Mona's passport sends a U.N. worker tramping back and forth between minor border officials in a tizzy of comic frustration. The chubby wedding photographer obligingly films it all, including Mona presenting the problematic passport to the first (of many) border guards. Mostly, though, the bride sits there like a stunned animal — perhaps a dying swan in all her tulle.

The film can, at times, be as obvious as the clip we see from Tallel's soap. The ensemble cast is generally strong, but Abbass, who played the mother of one of the suicide bombers in "Paradise Now," is a standout. She has the studied natural elegance and perfect cheekbones of Anouk Aimée. And the well-known Makram Khoury, the bride's' real-life father as well, is the epitome of the blustering, unforgiving Old School patriarch.

At the end, both his daughters leave him behind, each setting off on a different path. Their fates remain as uncertain as everything else in the Middle East, but there is a small sliver of hope in that they're willing to make the journey.