San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2015

[Chris Knipp]

CHERIEN DABIS AND MARIA ZREIK IN VILLA TOUMA

SUHA ARRAF: VILLA TOUMA (2014)

Snobbish, repressed Christian Arab women imploding in post-1967 Israel

The Palestinian writer-director previously penned the screenplays for two films from Erin Riklis released in the US, The Syrian Bride (2004) and The Lemon Tree (2008). Writing for an Israeli director, she turned out stories that were on the stereotypical and feel-good side. Working on her own with Villa Touma, she has produced something more unusual and austere, the more so by being set in the years shortly after the 1967 war. The Christian Arab family of three aunts living in Israel are a noose around th neck of Badia (Maria Zreik), who they take in, after she's reached the age of 18 in the orphanage where they put her after her black sheep father and her mother died in unexplained circumstances.

Some have mentioned Chekhov, but Badia's first months with her aunts seem more like Dickens (Cinderella could also be mentioned). Actually one French critic called this "a horror film." The two older aunts consider themselves much too good for Badia or for most of the community. Then plump Juliette (Nisreen Faour), who's in charge, has her study languages and piano, and uses marriages and funerals as ways of finding a suitable husband for Badia, since the unstable, medicated widow, Violette (Ulla Tabari) won't tolerate strangers coming to the house; she really would rather Badia be locked up in her room and forgotten, like her. If the situation drags for the sisters, it drags for the viewer too.

Badia has an ally in the younger Antoinette (Cherien Dabis), but they're both treated like children by Juliette. A breakthrough comes when Badia connects with a sexy wedding singer named Khaled (Nicholas Jacob), who of course is Muslim, and from a refugee camp. Of course the older sisters don't approve at all, but this messes up their plans. The paradox is that though under the older aunts' control, Badia is emotionally stronger and healthier than they, and also young. But that's not going to save her, as we find out when the secret trysts, the tragedy, the melodrama, and the ironic finale come.

Arraf deserves credit for making a Palestinian film that's quite unexpected, both contemporary and genre; she makes up for the dues she previously paid to convention. Somehow though all the rich atmosphere she has created, the excellent mise-en-scene, and the terrific acting by the four accomplished ladies, deserve more than the somewhat cobbled-together final plot line provides, but for much of the way, Villa Touma really grabs you, and the cast make the ramped-up, complicated sociological and familial tensions feel real.

Villa Touma, 85 mins., debuted at Venice Aug. 2014; many other notable international festivals. Theatrical release in France 10 Jun. 2015. Screened for this review as part of the 2015 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. French title La Belle promise. Lukewarm French critical reception (AlloCiné press rating 3.2).