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Hannah Celemen
Reflective Essay #6
March 15, 2015
The Syrian Bride
The Syrian Bride follows the approaching wedding of a Druze daughter from the
Golan Heights to a famous Syrian actor. Eran Riklis produced this film in 2005 to
recognize the political turmoil between Israel and the Palestine. This film is set after
Israel took over the Golan Heights, which originally belonged to Syria. Since the
displacement of the Golan Heights population from Syria, Israel has set a military base
on the Israel-Syrian border to control the passage between the two conflicting states. The
simple passage between these two states is complicated and often delayed by a series of
documents and official approval from both states. The film focuses on a Druze family,
from a community that is a part of a political and religious sect of Islam that lives with
their own rules, religious court system, and official recognition as a separate religious
community. Syria has the largest population of Druze, however, this film shows that this
Druze community has been separated from their people in Syria with the seizing of the
Golan Heights. With this segregation comes much resentment towards the Israelis
occupying their land.
We follow Monas family as they struggle with unresolved family issues. The
father, Hammed, places greater value on traditions that is often times placed above the
happiness of his own family. In the past, he has been put to jail for his pro-Syrian beliefs
and his parole prevents him from going to the border to give away Mona on her wedding.
Hattem is the oldest son, ostracized by his family for choosing to leave their community
so he can be with his Russian wife, who returns for his sisters wedding and begging for
the acceptance of his family. Marwan is the son who lives a very indulgent, unrestrained

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and somewhat dubious life traveling around as a businessman. Amal is the oldest sister,
reluctantly following traditions and expectations set on her for being a woman. Mona is
the Syrian bride, dutifully following her fathers wishes to an arranged marriage. Lastly,
Fahdi is the youngest brother separated from his whole family in order to have a better
education in Syria. I believe that Riklis succeeded in putting together a realistic example
of a family that could have been situated in the Golan Heights and how this sudden
change and the separation from one of their love ones can result into an influential
change on their lives.
Physical and political borders restrain Mona from being with her new family.
There are physical borders consisting of barbed wires, multiple rows of gates, and the
Israel military standing guard. Riklis makes sure that the audience clearly sees these
physical borders to further emphasize how guarded this border is and how difficult it can
be to get across. I believe that the stamp is a form of political border because this is some
kind of power play by Israel to show Syria that the Golan Heights and their people is no
longer theirs. The exit stamp placed on her passport is repeatedly refused by the Syrian
official because he justifies that this is Israels way of claiming that Mona is a citizen
from Israel, when in fact she is from Syria because the Golan Heights used to be a part of
it therefore she is Syrian by birth. This confusion continues for hours and delays Monas
wedding. In addition, Israel withholding the Golan Heights from Syria is a strategic move
to prevent them from moving against Israel again like they did in the past. This is a cause
of great resentment from Syria as they make things complicated for the Israeli official.
It isnt until the end of the film that Mona proves great character development
when she decides to take matters into her own hands and crosses the border despite the

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problems with her documentations. The psychological and emotional borders placed on
her are her sense of duty to her family. In a way, I believe that she must feel like she
needs to sacrifice her dreams of a different life, like choosing the man she marries, for her
family to be happy. She fulfills their wishes the moment she decided to go beyond the
gates of the border. Mona puts all her fears aside and leaves everything shes known all
her life so that she can move forward to her new life and into the arms of her waiting,
unfamiliar husband-to-be. Her bright white form in a wedding dress as she moved across
the border towards Syria is an image of valor and confidence. At the end of the film, I
reflect on what pushed Mona to make this decision. There is no longer a life for her back
in the Golan Heights because she is at the border and the people in her community will
not accept her, therefore, returning would shame her family and make their lives hard. On
the other hand, her family is struggling with what to do if she doesnt get into Syria to get
married when it is supposed to be her wedding day. I believe that her family and futurein-law familys support and her strong love for her family spurs her to her decision
despite the repercussions she will have to face with this decision. It is a difficult for me to
imagine being in Monas position because it is a very scary thought that I would have to
take up a new identity and accept a life with an unknown future. I would want to make
my own decisions and achieve happiness with the man that I choose.
This film also does an in-depth look into the struggles of Alma. She is an unhappy
women restrained by her cultures beliefs of what role a woman should hold in society.
There are psychological borders placed on her by her culture. Growing up she accepted
the conventional rules of her community by getting married to a man she barely knew
and giving up her dreams of going to university to have a career. She becomes a mother

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to two beautiful daughters, and by tradition, they too would eventually have to lead the
same life as her. I believe that her loveless marriage is what spurs her on to encourage her
daughters to rebel as to break down the psychological borders they face. Alma even
encourages her older daughter to be with the man she loves even though he is an Islamic
sympathizer, something their family and community would not approve of. I believe that
Alma only wishes for her daughters to be happy and have the freedom she never had
when she was younger. Alma and her daughters further prove themselves different from
their appearance compared to the other older women in the film. They do not dress in the
traditional, well-clothed garb that the Druze women wear. Instead of wearing
conservative clothing and a head wrap, Alma and her daughters wear skintight V-neck
shirts and jeans. I believe that Alma struggles with the idea of keeping her family happy,
especially her father who is strictly traditional, and pursuing her dreams.
Furthermore, as Alma grows older, being a mother and wife is not enough of an
excuse for her to forsake her dreams. She has enough courage to apply to a University for
Social Work and we see that she gets an acceptance letter. Unfortunately, her husband
refuses to let her go because he has his own image to uphold. In their society, a man
should be able to control his own wife. Although he loves and respects Alma, he keeps
trying to undermine her because of his manhood and the fear that he will be accused as
weak. The idea that Alma will be the one providing for their family is a hit to his
manhood because it makes him appear irresponsible and impotent to their community.
However, it is more depressing to watch a strong and independent woman such as Alma
has to be pulled down by the traditional view of woman as incapable of having a career. I
believe that she has every right to pursue her dreams despite her gender and put herself

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first for once. At the end of the film while Mona walks in the direction of Syria, Alma
holds the same confident and determined stature as she walks in the opposite direction as
though she is ready to break down the invincible walls that tradition has built around her.
I believe that Alma will succeed as she will go to the university and become a successful
woman and prove that every cultures perspective of women as weak is wrong.
I especially liked this film because of the pride I have for the female characters.
Alma is finally pursuing her dreams, Mona is bravely walking towards her future,
Evelyna is a successful doctor, and even Jeanne is a career woman with work ethic. The
women in The Syrian Bride inspire me because I believe that despite the outside
influences from their culture, traditions, religion, and family they still made the final
decision of what to make of their life. This film is very informative and Riklis ensured
that, regardless of some bias, this film is very informative about the complexities of the
Israeli border issues. The fact that Mona will never again see the family she loves is due
to the cold war between Israel and Syria, prohibiting her to go back after shes crossed
the border. The politics that surrounds this problem are also due to the lack of diplomacy
between Israel and Syrian. Instead of talking directly to each other to solve Monas
problem, Jeanne had to act as a bridge to exchange their negative messages to each other.
It is very difficult not to be bias about this film and the issues that it has to tackle.
The Golan Heights was seized from Syria in 1967 during the six-day war with
Israel. Israel then annexed this land in 1981. This land has great strategic importance for
both states so the state that holds in in their hands has greater advantage. This land gave
Israel better vantage point from the mountains for monitoring Syrian movement and the
mountainous terrain acts as a buffer against any military attacks from Syria. The Golan

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Heights is also a good water supply and provides 1/3 of Israels water supply. It is also
quite fertile used to cultivate vineyards, orchards and raising cattle. However, what this
film did not go into depth about is the Palestinian attack on Israel for many years as a
Jewish state and their refusal to make piece with Israel. In 2000, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak had offered the return of Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace, yet
Syria negotiated by insisting on Israel to withdraw back to the pre-1967 border. This
would result in Israel giving up the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israels mains
fresh water source, therefore Israel refused. To agree with Syrias bargain would result in
the displacement of Jewish settlements. Hence, the cold war continues and Israel
continues to hold on to the Golan Heights as to prevent Syria from having the upper
hand. The occupation of the Golan Heights in the film showed a lot of resentment
towards the Israeli and the officers that tried to maintain order over the people.
Furthermore, there is a lack of national identity as many of the Golan Heights people are
conflicted with which state they choose to belong to. Many of the characters passports
contain unknown on their nationality. I believe that this film plays a significant role in
informing the audience about this ongoing conflict. After learning more about the IsraelPalestine conflict, it gave me greater awareness and understanding about the
compromising position Monas family is in. I am conflicted with which state holds my
support despite what my research and history has revealed to me. I know for sure that I
want them to achieve peace and I believe that the best way for that to happen is for all the
Palestinian states to accept Israel as a Jewish nation.

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References
1. "Crisis Guide: The Israel-Palestinian Conflict." Council on Foreign Relations. Council
on Foreign Relations, 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
2. "Golan Heights Profile." BBC News. BBC News, 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
3. Murphy, Maureen. "Film Review: "The Syrian Bride"" The Electronic Intifada. N.p., 2
Feb. 2005. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
4. "The Syrian Bride: Movie Guide.. The American Zionist Movement. The American
Zionist Movement (2004): 23-28. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.