QUOTE
Arranged (2007)
Teachers United
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: December 14, 2007
In “Arranged” two devout Brooklyn schoolteachers clutch hands across the religious divide as their respective families prepare to marry them off.
For 22-year-old Rochel (Zoe Lister-Jones), an Orthodox Jew, this entails tiresome sessions with a Yentelike matchmaker and a string of nebbishy suitors. For Nasira (Francis Benhamou), a Syrian-born Muslim, future connubial bliss has taken the dismaying form of a hirsute hopeful from the homeland. No matter; both women are about to learn that happiness lies in conformity and that, whatever your beliefs, Father always knows best.
Packed with the stereotypes it aspires to challenge, Diane Crespo and Stefan C. Schaefer’s well-meaning but oblivious film presents ostensibly modern young women who are nevertheless defined solely by their faith. Whatever their misgivings, capitulation to tradition is inevitable, given that representations of the secular life are limited to a stunningly insensitive school principal — “There was a women’s movement, you know” — and Rochel’s navel-flaunting cousin, Leah (Alysia Reiner). In the film’s most unintentionally hilarious scene, Leah takes Rochel to a party where a clean-cut young man offers her a drink and asks her to dance. Eyes wide with horror, Rochel flees faster than a Sabine woman with Romulus on her heels.
As unworldly as its two protagonists, “Arranged” is a doctrinaire wolf in rebel-sheep’s clothing. Within its cloistered boundaries, patriarchy can’t help but prevail.
Teachers United
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: December 14, 2007
In “Arranged” two devout Brooklyn schoolteachers clutch hands across the religious divide as their respective families prepare to marry them off.
For 22-year-old Rochel (Zoe Lister-Jones), an Orthodox Jew, this entails tiresome sessions with a Yentelike matchmaker and a string of nebbishy suitors. For Nasira (Francis Benhamou), a Syrian-born Muslim, future connubial bliss has taken the dismaying form of a hirsute hopeful from the homeland. No matter; both women are about to learn that happiness lies in conformity and that, whatever your beliefs, Father always knows best.
Packed with the stereotypes it aspires to challenge, Diane Crespo and Stefan C. Schaefer’s well-meaning but oblivious film presents ostensibly modern young women who are nevertheless defined solely by their faith. Whatever their misgivings, capitulation to tradition is inevitable, given that representations of the secular life are limited to a stunningly insensitive school principal — “There was a women’s movement, you know” — and Rochel’s navel-flaunting cousin, Leah (Alysia Reiner). In the film’s most unintentionally hilarious scene, Leah takes Rochel to a party where a clean-cut young man offers her a drink and asks her to dance. Eyes wide with horror, Rochel flees faster than a Sabine woman with Romulus on her heels.
As unworldly as its two protagonists, “Arranged” is a doctrinaire wolf in rebel-sheep’s clothing. Within its cloistered boundaries, patriarchy can’t help but prevail.
A friend told me that she had seen it and enjoyed, felt the sterotypes of shidduch dating were right on target. Wondering if anyone else has seen it or plans to see it, it's only playing in the Quad Theater in the Villiage / LES.
