With nations around the world growing increasingly more insular, with the notion of multiculturalism being rejected by many, it doesn’t prevent the fact the world is becoming a smaller place, people are now connected to all corners of the globe, as we share videos, and experiences with one another, diluting individual cultures and bringing the world together, particularly prevalent in the next generation, adverse to the traditions and values of their elder family members. It’s this very resistance that lays down the foundations for the narrative to Stephan Streker’s latest production, A Wedding.
The aforementioned teenager is Zahira (Lina El Arabi), an 18 year old who shakes up the family household when revealing she is pregnant outside of wedlock. Her Pakistani parents insist she gets an abortion, and her brother Amir (Sébastien Houbani), though somewhat more understanding, wants his little sister to abide by their request. Reluctant to do so, Zahira is then tasked with a new obstacle to overcome, when her parents seek in finding her a husband, but with an arranged marriage on the horizon, the youngster finds herself torn between cultural tradition, and her western lifestyle, desperately seeking a way out of this challenging situation.
Though a familiar narrative, it’s one that has been deftly executed by Streker, particularly in his use of music. When Zahira is out enjoying herself, the soundtrack is overbearing, the mainstream music she indulges in when on nights out plays loudly, and then the second she returns home it abruptly ends – for there’s little musicality to her life at home, as the stark difference between her social life and her family one is portrayed.
Though Zahira remains the protagonist to this piece, arguably the most intriguing character is her brother, and confidant, who empathises with her situation, but remains loyal to his family customs. His journey is essential, for we see how somebody of the same generation can reject the western lifestyle he leads, in turn for a more traditionalist point of view. You take films such as East is East, also centred around arranged marriages, and you think that this old school approach may now be lost, for the children who abandon these old-fashioned responsibilities in that film, would now be a similar age to Amir’s parents, and it makes you wonder why people still adhere to this way of life, and through Amir we attempt to understand it, to witness how it can now be transferred onto the next generation. He’s perhaps too sympathetic a character however, and while humanising the role is vital, given his heinous actions towards the latter stages, to find a semblance of relatability is questionable.
The film survives primarily, however, off the lead turn by El Arabi, who shines as Zahira. It’s a rather muted, understand performance, internalised and subtle, and one she pulls off with quite remarkable consequences. So while undoubtedly a flawed endeavour, not really in it’s message as such, but the way it’s been depicted – if there’s one thing to take away from this film is that we may just have witnessed the birth of a true star.
