Maggie Hill

HONR 3702 Film

Julie Hicks
17 March 2015
The Syrian Bride Response
The 2005 film The Syrian Bride, directed by Eran Riklis, illustrates some of the issues
that arise from the dispute over the Israeli border. Eran Riklis created the film for this purpose
after making a documentary about the Israeli border. Through this film, the filmmakers wanted to
show also that it is possible for Jews and Arabs to work together. The Syrian Bride is a film that
tries to bring light to multiple issues of the Middle East.
In The Syrian Bride, Eran Riklis makes each of his characters have a moment of grace
that is important to the story. For the oldest brother Hattem, who is played by Eyad Sheety, this
moment of grace is coming to his fathers defense. The Israeli police officer is trying to arrest the
father Hammed for coming to the border while on parole. Even though Hammed has been
ignoring Hattem for the whole story until this point, Hattem steps into the conflict and says he is
Hammeds attorney and asks the police officer if he has a warrant for Hammeds arrest or not.
After the history between Hammed and Hattem, it would be very easy for Hattem to stand by and
watch the police officer arrest his father and do nothing about it. Instead, he decides to be the
better man and think about his familys feelings instead of his own. In this moment, Hattem
decides to take the high road and do what is right, leading to his moment of grace.
The Israeli police officer also has two moments of grace during this film. There is a main
moment and a secondary moment. The secondary moment of grace is when the police officer

decides to let Hammed say goodbye to Mona at the border before he tries to arrest him. He
originally shows up and tries to arrest Hammed right away, but after Hammed begs him to at
least let him say goodbye, he agrees. This shows that the police officer is not all bad despite how
he treats Hammed in the rest of the film. The main moment of grace though is once Hattem
defends his father, the police officer decides to accept defeat and lets Hammed to stay at the
border with his family instead of arresting him. With the previous history between Hammed and
the Israeli police officer, the viewer would expect the police officer to be persistent about
arresting Hammed. The viewer can assume from conversations between characters that the police
officer did harsh things to Hammed when he was in jail. The rough history between the two
characters also stems from their cultures. The police officer is an Israeli, while Hammed lives in
the Golan Heights and is a Syrian sympathizer. This means that they hate each other for cultural
reasons too, which makes their relationship a lot worse. For these reasons, when the Israeli police
officer suddenly decides to back off from trying to arrest Hammed, everyone is surprised by his
moment of grace. His humanity allowed him to step back from the situation and use the excuse
that Hattem provides him of not having a warrant for Hammeds arrest as the reason he lets
Hammed go. This allows Hammed to say goodbye to his daughter for the last time and to spend
the day with his family.
In addition, the Israeli border bureaucrat has a moment of grace while with the family at
the border. He is only trying to follow the instructions he received on how to stamp Monas
passport, but the stamp he uses causes trouble at the Syrian border. The stamp is an Israeli one,
but as far as the bureaucrat at the Syrian border is concerned, Mona is a Syrian trying to return to
her country, not an Israeli. At first the Israeli border bureaucrat insists that there is nothing he can
do about it because he is more focused on his phone call with his son. Eventually though, he

agrees to try to call his supervisors and see if he can switch the stamps. This marks the beginning
of his moment of grace. Unfortunately, none of his supervisors answer the phone. Luckily
though, he has his moment of grace and agrees to white out the stamp so that the Syrian border
bureaucrat will accept the passport. In order to have this moment of grace though, he has to
overcome the tradition of doing what his supervisors tell him to do and learn to make a decision
on his own based on what he thinks is right.
By far, the father Hammed has the biggest moment of grace of the whole film.
Throughout the whole film, Hammed struggles whether to base his actions on tradition and
culture or his family. When Hattem comes back home for the first time after being outcast by the
elders, Hammed is told by the elders that if he accepts Hattem back, he will be outcast too. For
this reason, even when his wife yells at him for not acknowledging Hattem when he returns,
Hammed continues to ignore Hattem. Throughout the film, Hammed continues to base his
actions on tradition and culture, such as going to the protest even though it is his daughters
wedding day. The first sign that his moment of grace is going to occur is when he peels and gives
the banana to Hattems son. His moment of grace finally occurs towards the end of the movie
when he puts his arm around Hattem and squeezes his shoulder. This is his way of showing that
he is finally putting his family first and not caring what the elders think. After this moment, he is
willing to meet Hattems Russian wife and embrace them as part of his family again.
After the last few films we have watched in class, this film offered a refreshing change. I
enjoyed watching this film not only because it was not as depressing as the other films but also
because it offers an insight into one of the Middle East conflicts and the culture of that region.
Before watching this film, I knew that there were many conflicts in the Middle East, but I did not

know a whole lot about any of them. This film does an excellent job at illustrating the Israeli
border issue, especially during the second half of the film. The United Nations are trying to help
the two countries with their border issues by having a 220-yard-wide no mans land which
separates Syrian and Israeli checkpoints and by having 1,300 United Nations peacekeeping
forces monitor the cease fire lines (Israel-Syria). This is illustrated in the movie by the Red
Cross workers who go between the two nations for the families. Due to the disagreement
between Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights, it is difficult for family members in one
country to communicate with members in the other country. As shown in the film, sometimes
they line up at the fence along the border and can use megaphones to talk to each other that way.
When the 2006 International Media Forum on the Golan Heights was held, conference
participants spoke over loudspeakers to Syrians living in the Golan (Wikas). Another issue that
arises from the border issues is for the brides that cross over into Syria like Mona does. Once
they cross into Syria and get married, they are considered Syrian by the Israeli government and
will not be permitted to return to Israel (Israeli). This means that she will not be able to see
her family again unless relations improve between Syria and Israel. Unfortunately, as illustrated
in this film by the issues with the passport stamp, the two countries are not very willing to work
together.

Works Cited
1. Israeli Bride Crosses Border to Marry in Syria. Today. The Associated Press, 25 Sep.
2008. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
2. Israel-Syria Negotiations: The Issues. Anti-Defamation League. Anti-Defamation
League, 3 Jan. 2000. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
3. Wikas, Seth. The Golan Heights and Syrian-Israeli Relations: What Does Asad Want?
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Washington Institute of Near East
Policy, 15 Nov. 2006. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.