Ali's Wedding
Ali's Wedding
| 31 August 2017 (USA)
Ali's Wedding Trailers

After a "white lie" which spirals out of control, a neurotic, naive and musically gifted Muslim cleric's eldest son must follow through with an arranged marriage, except he is madly in love with an Australian born-Lebanese girl.

Reviews
Nayeem Khan

A must see film.You shouldn't miss it. Contains good acting & excellent story. Based on real fact this is undoubtly a good one for muslims or non muslims.I hope you will enjoy .

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eyeintrees

There is so much in this movie that I have no idea about. I know nothing of Muslim culture and it was really fascinating to me. Utterly charming from beginning to end and not 'over tried' or too clichéd, yet some of the moments were laugh out loud ones for me, in fact quite a few. However, I did feel serious discomfort for the theme which can and does occur in any culture or family where children are a misconception in a parent's mind, no matter if they are loved and where pressure from what is considered 'done' can be overwhelming for young people, often at massive detriment. Luckily, this had a happy ending and from it all, this wonderful, well acted and very entertaining movie arose which I would most certainly recommend to every Australian and anyone who loves a good romance and lesson in how we are all the same.

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CineMuseFilms

There is a narrow space between intelligent racial satire and mocking humour. Of course, you never get just one or the other in the same film: it's always a mix, but the balance is critical and contentious. The Big Sick (2017) is an example of a film that nails the balance with clever dialogue that is genuinely funny and culturally insightful. An example of a film where the balance is less assured is the Australian-made Ali's Wedding (2017).Filmed in multicultural Melbourne, it is a story based on real people, real events, and loads of racial stereotypes. Many of its gag-lines depend on audiences noticing the difference between Lebanese, Egyptian, Iraqi and Iranian Muslims. The son of a popular Iraqi Muslim cleric, Ali (Osama Sami) carries the high expectations of his family who want only that he becomes a doctor and marries a Muslim girl of their choice. Ali is a mediocre student and fakes his medical entrance results to make his family and the community proud of him. He falls for a Lebanese girl called Dianne (Helana Sawires) but dares not tell his family as she is the 'wrong type' of Muslim. Meanwhile he is duped into an arranged engagement to the 'right type' of girl. He sneaks into medical classes to be near Dianne but the intricate web of lies that he has built begins to unravel and his life is a mess. The highlight of this film is the comedic tension caused by Ali's lies. We know that the web must collapse, but we just don't know how or when. There are gags aplenty aimed both at Muslims and at those who laugh at Muslims. The cinematography has a low key, low budget feel that works well with this kind of situational comedy. There are enough sub-plots to give the 'big lie' texture, with a script designed for those who like to laugh at others expense. Osama Sami plays Ali with monotone authenticity while the shining starlight in this film is Helana Sawires. She brightens the screen with intelligent insights into what it's like to be a smart repressed Muslim girl and she easily steals every scene in which she appears.Cross-cultural gags can be funny but when the cinematic lens is widened one asks what are we really laughing at? Comedy is situational, character or script driven, and the situation that Ali has constructed has loads of comedic potential. But the script and characters struggle. For example, the satirical value in staging 'Saddam The Musical' is sabotaged by its amateurish presentation and seriously unfunny theatrics. The cultural differences between various Muslim ethnic groups are trivialised, like in Ali's tea drinking ritual, and the exaggerated responses to the Iman's words of teaching are mocking rather than respectful. In a global climate of Muslim-phobia, the gags in this film at times feel uncomfortably like laughing at people who are different.It is unlucky timing that Ali's Wedding is released so close to The Big Sick as comparisons are inevitable and for some, they will be unkind. Ali's Wedding will be seen by many as a well- intentioned light-hearted rom com, and so it is. But it treads in the same space as many other Aussie inter-racial films and it could have done more with the opportunity.

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rebecca-95689

...apart from the fact it was brilliantly entertaining (if I wasn't laughing I was crying), it's an extremely timely film that can't help but start a different social conversation / a much needed fresh dialogue - thank you to all those who must of worked so hard to get it to the screen.This will be an Aussie classic - get in and be one of the first to see it!

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