Movie Review of Rana's Wedding

Venue: Jerusalem, Tuesday 27 November, four pm, Al-Dahia roadblock.

"The name of the father of the bride is..." the heavy set man in a beige suit, and short graying moustaches utters aloud, for everyone to hear, about what he is going to enter in his huge, heavy register, "Mr Said Nasser Al Chatib"
"The name of the groom is ... ," he contiues, unmindful of the discomfort, a result of being sandwiched between the groom, and the bride's father, in the rear seats of a rusty, old van, on a busy, dusty roadblock, "Mr Khalil Amer Al-Mahfouz".
"Any witnesses present?" he looks out, to see a group of friends and relatives echoing "Yes."
"Name?” he calls out. "Ramzy Hussein Atalla," the clean shaven youngman in a casual, faded beige sweater, beside the groom, speaks out.
"What is the dowry?" the man looks up from his register to the groom, in a 'matter-of-fact' tone. He is the registrar, getting Khalil and Rana married. After a puzzled shrug, the groom in dark suit utters "One dinar."
"And the alimony?" the registrar turns towards the father of the bride, in an expensive, black, suit. "Ten thousand dinar," the father of the bride mentions in a sarcastic tone. He had never agreed to this marriage, and wants to get done with it, as soon as possible, as he has a plane to catch, to Egypt.
"Are there other conditions?" the registrar asks the father of the bride. He gets a "No" thrown at him.
Then the registrar looks at the lovely bride in white dress, sitting on the front seat of the van, turned towards the registrar, groom, and her father. "My dear, do you agree to the terms?" the registrar asks her. "Sure," she mentions, with a pleasing smile.
"Do you have any other conditions?" he asks her, just for the record. "No."
"In the name of the lord, please put your hand in the hand of the father. And repeat after me," the registrar says to the bearded groom. The groom reaches across to the hand of the father of the bride, in a hand-shake.

"I marry you my daughter, Rana, according to the law of Islam, with the dowry of one dinar, and alimony of ten thousand dinar," the registrar says to the father to repeat this. The father repeats it.
Then he turns to the groom, “Answer him and say, I accept this marriage, according to the law of Islam, and agree to all the conditions." The groom repeats the same.

"And hereby I declare this marriage valid," announces the registrar inside the van, to receive the exhilarated hoots of the large crowd surrounding the van, on the dry, muddy road, at the road block.

Interesting. Very interesting. That is something I could say about this movie, Rana's Wedding, by the Palestines, with English subtitles for the world. This is the story of Rana, a determined, lean Palestinian girl, under 21 years of age, who wants to stay in Jerusalem, despite the war. But, she is being forced by her father to come to Egypt with him, for further studies.
She can stay back, if she marries.
She is given a list of suitable grooms, by her father, and she is asked to choose one and marry before Tuesday, 4pm.
Then begins her research about the grooms, running amidst the huge, ancient stone structures of Jerusalem, the cobbled pathways, the narrow and damp corridors. Also, she has to move against a backdrop of heavily armed soldiers, and casually dressed freedom fighters (as portrayed in the movie), with guns and bombs.
At some point, she decides that the list is not worth pursuing, and catches up with her lover, Khalil. She asks him to marry her.
He agrees.
The search for the registrar begins with Rana, Khalil and Khalil's friend, driving along numerous dusty roads, and pathways to find the registrar, and beat the queue at the government office, to get the papers for marriage.
After a lot of road blocks, and running around later, Rana manages to invite some of their relatives to her marriage, which is to be scheduled and finished before 4pm, that evening. Her father would take her away, if she is not wed by 4pm that evening.
As the mild celebrations are on for the wedding, there is some small problem.
The registrar is stopped at a road block, and it might take a long while for him to be let free!!!
But, as the registrar cannot come to the wedding, can the wedding to him???

The simple story of one day, is narrated with a vigor which matches the intensity of Rana's search. The camera work is deft. The camera moves along with Rana, for all the whole of the movie. It runs when Rana runs. It scans the landscape in abrupt movements, when Rana is searching. It even moves along with her in the car.

Something that impressed me the most, is the casual way in which the general Palestinian population responds to the war. Even if there is fighting going on between armed soldiers, and small children trained to throw stones at the soldiers (with some bullets catching the children at legs, and hands), the general population move around hurriedly, minding their own businesses. Rana ducks, while she is passing such a mini-battleground, and reaches to the other side, where she boards a public bus. This shows the life of the people, who have taken the war to be a routine, something that is a part of their public life.

The movie, demystifies the Palestinian war to an extent, and is successful in narrating a love story between all the fighting.

An impressive show.