Sabah (2005) Review by Stephen Bourne, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. http://www.geocities.com/iamstephenbourne/moviequips.html
Synopsis:
It wasn't her fault. It's just that, seeing that old picture of her as a little girl standing beside her dearly departed father knee deep in the Mediterranean shore awakened something inside her. She missed Syria. Sabah (Arsinée Khanjian) missed her Dad. Still unmarried, she had just turned forty, and she missed having fun like she'd had as a child. Laughing for the sheer pleasure of it. Living life, instead of constantly being cooped up in her mother's Toronto house in subservience to what's expected of her. It's the Muslim way, here in Canada. Her brother Majid (television's 'Eleventh Hour' co-star Jeff Seymour) takes care of their family, her sister Shaheera (Roula Said) raises her Canadian-born teenaged niece Souhaire (Fadia Nadda; 'Black September' (2000)), and Sabah cares for their widowed mother. But, she just wanted to go swimming again. To feel the warm water wash over her as she cut through the cleansing depths, letting that rippling layer above her act like a briefly magical barrier between Sabah in that moment and Sabah's regimented life immersed in obligation and piety awaiting her surfacing. It felt good underwater. Freeing. Now things were complicated. She had lied. She had been sneaky. And, she was fairly certain that she had somehow sinned. That Downtown indoor public swimming pool had become an unexpected meeting place for her. Sabah had met Stephen (Shawn Doyle), a local freelance carpenter with beautiful blue eyes and a smile that melted her secretly girlish heart. She should have simply taken back her towel, curtly thanked him and walked away. Her adult life was supposed to remain simple and Sabah wasn't a child anymore. But, those eyes. She should have thought more clearly. Those rugged hands of his. Her heart wouldn't let her. Stephen's name deliciously tickled her lips as she repeated it alone in her bedroom. It had been months since their first encounter, but Sabah still couldn't bring herself to tell her family about this wonderful and crazy and loving relationship with Stephen. It would destroy them. He's agnostic, which is even worse than if he'd been Christian - which is still a bad thing in the eyes of her community. They'd ostracised Sabah's family if they found out. Her mother and Majid would be furious with her. This has to remain a secret. Despite Stephen's simmering frustrations over them continually sneaking around, it must. She just wants everyone to be happy.
Review:
Playing out as a kind of watered down retooling of the far more sumptuously captivating Arabic flick 'Satin Rouge' (2003), this predominantly English-language Canadian offering from Montreal's writer/director Ruba Nadda ('I Always Come to You' (2000), 'Unsettled' (2001)) is a somewhat tritely undemanding yet pleasant enough romantic culture clash tinged with religious bigotry that threatens to stifle forty year-old Muslim Syrian immigrant spinster Sabah's (Arsinée Khanjian; 'The Sweet Hereafter' (1997), 'Ararat' (2002)) demurely clandestine relationship with her White, non-Faith boyfriend Stephen (Shawn Doyle; 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' (1996), 'Don't Say a Word' (2001)). Unfortunately, 'Sabah' is a small movie that relies more on the slightly caricaturistic personalities and foibles of these fairly pedantic characters that seem plucked straight from an After School Special along with its behind the scenes television crew. The production itself offers up nothing much that's particularly inspiring, and cinematographer Luc Montpellier seemed to be on auto pilot for the majority of this eighty-nine minute, agonizingly safe family drama. Like I'd mentioned, it all feels watered down, as though Nadda was afraid to ruffle a few feathers by actually punctuating the primary lead's underlying fears of communal retribution for dating outside of her faith to the eventual chagrin of her immigrant family. It's got no guts, so whatever passion this feature attempts to build towards ends up stumbling from the big screen into a paying audience's consciousness through osmosis. It's frustrating, because the premise obviously has a lot going for it. It certainly worked for Shakespeare. So, if you're going to tackle the issues of racial tension, why then avoid actually tackling them at all? The screenplay could have easily been pushed further with more attention to the expression of internal turmoil and strained relations, possibly with a peripheral sub story citing variations on real world headlines where overzealousness has led to some fairly horrifying consequences. As it stands, 'Sabah' tends to hesitate a lot - as though checking to make sure that nobody's thrown their popcorn at the projectionist or stormed out for their money back - meekly poking fun at Muslim and non-Muslim quirks from a safe distance without worrying too much about truly being funny. It lazily sits back and apparently lets this cast basically do whatever comes to mind: Nosh, shimmy and pose for the shot. It wouldn't be too surprising to learn that much of the dialogue was written during rehearsals, if that had happened, frankly. However, miraculously, there is a bright side here. Khanjian is absolutely wonderful throughout, effortlessly mirroring the same sort of freshly hypnotic bundle of nervously expressed joyful reclamation that made Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn irrepressible Hollywood stars. Every time her smile sneaks through, you catch your breath and can't help but remain transfixed by her truly outstanding performance here, wanting everything to work out for Sabah. Awesome. Fortunately, in spite of itself, this otherwise lacklustre pastiche is saved by this one incredibly versatile actor. Definitely rent this one for Arsinée Khanjian's truly exquisite work here, but don't get your hopes up that anyone or anything else featured in 'Sabah' is worth watching.
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