Rana's Wedding
Poster
Directed byHany Abu-Assad
Written byIhab lamy and Liana Badr
Produced byBero Beyer and George Ibrahim
StarringClara Khoury, Khalifa Natour and Ismael Dabbagh
CinematographyBrigit Hillenius
Edited byDenise Janzee
Music byMariecke van der Linden and Bashar Abd Rabou
Distributed byArab Film Distribution
Release date
  • 2002 (2002)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryPalestine
LanguageArabic
Box office$10,604[1] (US)

Rana's Wedding, also known as Jerusalem, Another Day (Arabic, القدس في يوم آخر ), is a Palestinian film released in 2002. It was produced in partnership with the Netherlands and funded by the Palestinian Film Foundation. The film was directed by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad in Jerusalem. This was the first film by a Palestinian film director to reach the Cannes Film Festival, and was selected for screening at the International Critics' Week in 2002.[2][3] Rana's Wedding presents the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the couples' marriage drama, using romance and dark comedy to portray a vivid image of a Palestinian's daily struggle towards living a somewhat normal life.

Plot

Rana, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, is faced with a life-changing decision. Due to the chaotic working conditions in Palestine, her father decides to relocate to Egypt to try to maintain a decent living to support his family. Rana wakes up one day to find a letter from her father informing her about his decision and providing her with two choices:[4] either travel with him to Egypt and carry on with her education there under his watchful eye, or stay in Palestine and marry, to make sure that someone is taking care of her in his absence. Although the options seem reasonable, there is a twist: her father will only allow her to marry one of the men he lists in his letter. Plus, she has only 10 hours before her father departs from Palestine in which to make her choice.[5]

Rana is shocked and disappointed with the options, and decides to run away from home in search of her lover Khalil. Her father does not approve of Khalil and he's not included in the list of people she can marry.[4] After hours of searching, she finally discovers his location and rushes to him, finding him in the theatre as he works on directing one of his plays.

Rana asks Khalil to marry her, and presses him for a decision so that they can be married before her father leaves. They find a sheikh prepared to marry them, and drive to her father's house to ask for his approval. Rana's father can find no excuse under Islamic law to prevent the wedding, and unwillingly concedes.[6]

Tension rises as Rana's father prepares to leave for Egypt and the sheikh has still not arrived to perform the ceremony. Rana discovers that the sheikh is stuck at a roadblock and she, Khalil and her father ride out to find him. They exchange vows in the car and the film ends with a heart-warming celebration on the streets of Jerusalem.

The closing words come from Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish:

Here on the slopes before sunset and at the gun-mouth of time,

Near orchards deprived of their shadows,
We do what prisoners do,
What the unemployed do:

We nurture hope.

— Mahmoud Darwish[5]

Cast

  • Clara Khoury as Rana
  • Khalifa Natour as Khalil
  • Ismael Dabbagh as Ramzy
  • Zuher Fahoum as Father
  • Bushra Karaman as Grandmother

Production

The film was shot in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Palestine. Produced in collaboration with the Netherlands and funded by the Palestinian Film Foundation,[7] it was filmed during a critical time in the early months of the Second Palestinian Intifada. Hany Abu-Assad in an interview with journalist Sabah Haider, discusses the challenges he faced when producing the film: "For sure the intifada influenced the production because at the end of the film, reality is stronger than fiction. The occupation, the checkpoints — you don’t want them to interfere with your story but the ugliness of occupation influenced the look of film. As much as you might not want occupation to influence the making of the film, at the end it does influence it."[8]

Reception

Box office

According to the website Box Office Mojo, in 2003 Rana's Wedding was ranked in the top 50 wedding genre films produced in that year, and received a world ranking of 1108 in foreign films. The film earned $10,604 after in its first year of release.[1] It was selected for screening in the International Critics' Week section at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[9]

Critical response

The film Rana's Wedding received largely positive reviews on its release.[3][4][10][11][12] Rotten Tomatoes shows an approval rating of 93% based on reviews from 28 critics, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus states: "A poignant drama that offers a look at what it is like to live in occupied Palestine."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics.[13]

Awards and nominations

Awards

Nominations

Legacy

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Rana's Wedding (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  2. ↑ "Advisory Board - ITVS". Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
  3. 1 2 3 "'Rana's Wedding' Opens Arab Presence at Cannes Film Fest". 19 May 2002. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "'Rana's Wedding' quietly marries passion, politics". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Rana's Wedding (2002)". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "Rana's Wedding Movie Review & Film Summary (2004)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Rana's Wedding: Jerusalem, Another Day". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  8. ↑ matthew (8 March 2010). ""Palestinian cinema is a cause": an interview with Hany Abu-Assad". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  9. ↑ Vaucher, Andrea R. (2002-04-25). "Cannes Critics Week line-up announced". Variety. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  10. ↑ Holden, Stephen (22 August 2003). "Movie Review - 'Rana's Wedding'". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  11. ↑ "Rana's Wedding". Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  12. ↑ "Middle East News & Arab Headlines From A Local Perspective - Al Bawaba". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  13. ↑ "Rana's Wedding". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Rana's Wedding". IMDb. 7 August 2003. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  15. ↑ "Reviews | Film Threat".
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