Arranged (2007)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Directors:

Diane Crespo
Stefan C. Schaefer

Writers:

Stefan C. Schaefer (story)
Stefan C. Schaefer (written by)

Release Date:

9 January 2009 (Brazil)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Friendship Has No Religion

Plot:

ARRANGED centers on the friendship between an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman who meet as first-year teachers at a public school in Brooklyn...

Plot Keywords:

Friendship | Arranged Marriage | Muslim | Jewish | Cross Cultural Friendship

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Zoe Lister Jones	...	Rochel Meshenberg
Francis Benhamou	...	Nasira Khaldi
Mimi Lieber	...	Sheli Meshenberg
John Rothman	...	Matan Meshenberg
Sarah Lord	...	Naomi Meshenberg
Trevor Braun	...	Avi Meshenberg
Doris Belack	...	Elona
Laith Nakli	...	Abdul-Halim Khaldi
Jason Liebman	...	Gideon
Marcia Jean Kurtz	...	Principal Jacoby
Peggy Gormley	...	Miriam
David Castro	...	Eddie
Sanjit De Silva	...	Jamil
Daniel London	...	Elliot
Max Shulman	...	Seth

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | Arabic

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Brazil:12 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Cicala Filmworks

Trivia:

The film was shot in 17 days, during a heat wave where temps in New York hit 115 degrees.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene with both women in the car (on the way to the cemetery), the items on the back window (behind Rochel) change position from cut to cut -- most notable is a newspaper.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Teacher: We're forced to handle the challenges of ESL. Different cultural traditions, everything they enter the classroom with, serious family dysfunctions. Basically our schools, New York city schools, are one big experiment, one big laboratory in this exercise we call the American Experience...

Uplifting film about Jewish-Muslim friendship

This film screened at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. This is a warm feel good film with a positive message that would be particularly good for teaching teens about overcoming prejudice and understanding different cultures. The film focuses on two young female teachers - one an Orthodox Jew and the other an observant Muslim - who are assigned to work together in a multi-ethnic school in Brooklyn.

The film is charming and uplifting as the two women learn that they have more in common with each other than either would have expected. They find friendship with each other, because they are both confronting similar issues with their parents and the secular world. They are also both undergoing the difficulty of trying to find a mate through their community's traditional systems of arranged marriage. While some of the characters come off as walking stereotypes (the Jewish matchmaker appears to be straight out of Fiddler on the Roof), the film for the most part does a sensitive job of portraying both Islam and Judaism in a very positive light. The film respects the women's genuine commitment to their faiths even as they struggle with difficult aspects of their faiths.

Arranged also shows the difficulties and prejudices that both women experience for being religiously observant from secular people (particularly the school's idiot principal). This latter subject is an important one that is rarely addressed in the secular film world where religion is too often mocked as irrational and oppressive - particular towards women - rather than understood on its own terms.

The acting and the script are sometimes uneven and there are moments that feel like an after school special. The conclusion is a bit too simplistic. But the message about both necessity and possibility of multi-religious co-existence is a good one presented with humor, warmth, and intelligence. In a world, where religion is often the basis of division and hatred, it is good to see a film that attempts to show that Jewish-Muslim co-existence is possible.