After watching the likes of Susu and The Night of the Virgin (both of which I gave less than positive reviews on this website), I was personally in need of an uplifting, charming film to affect me on an emotional level, rather than to intellectually challenge or confront me.
I then saw that Ali’s Wedding was out on Netflix, and drawn in by the description of it as a romantic comedy and the vibrantly colourful thumbnail image, I decided to watch it with my mum that evening (sidenote: definitely that kind of movie). What I got was a delightful and funny film that deserves to sit alongside other classics of the genre.
Ali’s Wedding
Ali and his family fled from Saddam Hussein’s occupation in Iran, losing his older brother to a mine beforehand, and have lived in Australia with a community of Muslim immigrants for several decades. His father, once a prisoner of Hussein, is now the cleric of the local Mosque and hopes that the kind but not academically inclined Ali will become a doctor. After failing the medical entrance exam, the lies build up, and all Ali wants to do is be with his crush Dianne, an Australian born Lebanese Muslim.
It’s clear within the first fifteen minutes where this film will lead, but there’s a great time to be had along the way, with every character coming across as genuine, genuinely funny, or a fantastic combination of the two. You root for Ali to succeed in both love and life, and similarly for Dianne to buck tradition and become a doctor against her father’s wishes.
Effective Comedy
Osamah Sami, who co-wrote the screenplay as well as starring as Ali, provides similar comedic grounding in Ali’s Wedding to Gurinder Chadha’s films Bend It Like Beckham and Pride and Prejudice, with both filmmakers focusing on the interaction between Eastern and Western cultures, from England and India to Australia and Iran.
As proven previously by Chadha, this can be comedic gold. From a musical about Saddam Hussein reminiscent of The Producer’s “Springtime For Hitler” to deadpan stares at a white friend who assumes Ali will have five wives, jokes about race and religion are handled in a lighthearted but impactful way. A standout for me was references to Ali’s dream of playing a terrorist in a film, a goal that the real-life Sami apparently achieved as shown in the credits.
Proudly Muslim
Much like The Big Sick, which this movie definitely resembles, Ali’s Wedding promotes its Muslim content in a warm and sincere way. It unapologetically has many scenes in places like Mosques and during various ceremonies like weddings, watering down nothing for the sake of the white Western audience. There are even several scenes that are spoken entirely in Arabic, but the emotional weight of the dialogue breaks through thanks to the heartfelt performances, particularly during the romance scenes.
It certainly doesn’t shy away with the darker aspects of being a Muslim in the 21st century, with Ali and his friends at one point being detained in an airport in the US as suspected terrorists – this actually happened to Sami, and he doesn’t shy away from depicting the border security as aggressive, idiotic racists.
Indeed, in comparison to The Big Sick, this film seems far more sympathetic to Ali’s home culture and to Islam as a whole. Rather than wanting to reject it entirely, Ali simply wants to find a way around the expectations of his parents and his community without upsetting or completely abandoning either. This isn’t to criticise one or the other; each are highly personal narratives recounted from the experiences of an individual.
This just contributes to how much the film celebrates its origins and the infectious joy that I felt as an outsider being somewhat included by viewing it, almost like I had been invited to Sami’s family gathering.
Conclusion
With Australia’s current policies on immigration and Islamophobia on the rise in many Western countries, this unabashed presentation of a Muslim love story feels brave and necessary. I felt warm and wonderful after watching this gem, which deservedly earned an Australian Academy Award for its screenplay, and I’m looking forward to seeing more films written by Sami in the future.
Will you be watching Ali’s Wedding on Netflix? Let me know in the comments!
Ali’s Wedding was released on Netflix worldwide on June 8, 2018.
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