loved it | Arranged | Doris Belack, Peggy Gormley

exclusion and embrace | Arranged | Doris Belack, Peggy Gormley

DVDs:


	• Arranged Doris Belack, Peggy Gormley Film Movement, 2008 average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fantastic

Arranged is the story of two young teachers in New York City. Both girls comes from traditional homes and find they are the outsiders of their peer groups.
An entertaining and endearing relationship blossoms out of both girls experiences with arranged marriages. I recommend this movie quite highly.

loved it

simple without being simplistic, "Arranged" reinforces the truth that there is great unity within diversity and diversity within unity. The characters and the story are believable and offer insight into the traditions of religiously observant families. Everyone carries with them the attitudes and practices of their cultural upbringing and the challenge is how one CHOOSES to integrate them into their own life and the importance of discovering what it is that really matters to us and why.

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exclusion and embrace

Rachel is a twenty-two year old Orthodox Jew. Nasira is a Syrian Muslim. It would appear that they have little in common. Not true. They both teach at a public school in Brooklyn, and they befriend each other as they both struggle with the tensions that arise between their conservative religious families and the larger, secular world in which they live and work. Their principal makes fun of their religious values, their students assume that all Jews and Muslims hate each other, and their families are visibly upset when they visit each other's home. These tensions come in to sharp relief when both Rachel and Nasira negotiate the prospects of marriages that are strictly arranged by their families. This is a great movie about individual choice and personal identity within the greater push and pull of family, culture, gender roles, ethnicity, and religion.

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Arranged, the movie

An excellent movie that gives insight into the problems facing first and second generation immigrants to the Unitede States

Do you take this man . . .

Two women of different and often hostile cultures find it far easier to make friends with each other than find husbands to their liking. That's the given in this sometimes comic tale of a young Orthodox Jewish woman and her Muslim colleague at a Brooklyn school. Both have parents intent on getting them married. Both find the men that are available boring, crude, or diffident. Give credit to the screenwriters for suggesting that their holding out for Mr. Right has a lot to do with the men who are their fathers - both of them caring and thoughtful providers for their families. Who wouldn't want a husband of that caliber?

I was charmed by this pleasantly (and finally) romantic comedy, which presents conservative religious and ethnic traditions in a way that does not condemn them. There are many secular viewers who, like the school principal, find arranged marriages oppressive and will continue to feel that way after seeing this movie. With a best case scenario, the filmmakers show us an alternative to all that, and you're free to go along with them or not. It's that kind of movie.

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Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. A young Orthodox woman, ROCHEL MESHENBERG, is about to begin her first year as a special education teacher at the local public school. She is also about to embark on what her father and mother call the most exciting time of her life; the process of finding a husband via the time-tested method of using a shadchen, or matchmaker.

As the school year gets underway, Rochel meets NASIRA KHALDI, a Muslim woman of Syrian descent. Nasira is also a first-year teacher. The two young women Rochel in long skirt and conservative blouse, Nasira in headscarf stand out in this public school context. The principal, a secular Westchester Jew, is forever reminding them that although they are some of her smartest, most gifted teachers, they are also stunted by their outmoded customs, religions, and by their patriarchal worldviews. She tells them of her experiences in the women's movement and her desire to see them reach their full potentials.

As the school year progresses, Rochel and Nasira realize they share much in common, not least of which is that they are both going through what the outside world would call 'arranged marriages.' As their friendship deepens, they are exposed to their respective worlds. They prepare for school at one another's houses, meet one another's families, and discuss commonalities and differences.

Meanwhile they are also both meeting potential spouses. Rochel is having no luck. The shadchen is pairing her with men who, although they have good jobs or prospects, don't match her in intellect, curiosity in the world, or humor. The men presented to Nasira by her family are also not her equal. Rochel begins to question whether this age-old practice is going to work. Nasira has greater faith, as she views her parent's loving union as such a success.

With the family pressure too great, and the dates continuing to go badly, Rochel storms from the house. She visits an estranged cousin, who left the faith years ago, and is exposed to what a secular life might be. Meanwhile Nasira, concerned at her friend's state, and having met a promising prospect herself, does the unthinkable. She manipulates the Orthodox matchmaking system on behalf of her friend. The gamble pays off.

As the school year draws to an end, these two women have found their future spouses. They have also developed a friendship that transcends their insular Brooklyn communities and the religions that seem so at odds in the broader world. They share a friendship that will endure as they move on to become wives and mothers, and continue to be modern women with deep religious convictions.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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