“I would like you, because you are very attractive, to serve me.”

I recently joined the Film Movement’s DVD of the month club. It’s a great idea. You subscribe for a specific amount of time, and then Film Movement sends a DVD a month–a foreign or independent film. Where I live, the local cinema only plays 10 shades of Disney or the latest Hollywood extravaganza. So for me, signing up for a monthly new release (not yet available commercially) that costs less than the price of a couple of cinema tickets is a wonderful deal. Plus throw into the pot the idea that I like the titles chosen by the Film Movement.

So this brings me to Arranged. This would not have been a film I would have selected because it sounds so clichéd, but it arrived in my letterbox, and since I paid for it, I decided to get my money’s worth and watch it. I’m happy to say that Arranged is a surprisingly sweet and refreshing film that centers on the unlikely friendship between two young New York teachers–an orthodox Jew and a Muslim.

See what I mean about sounding clichéd? But in spite of this, the film manages to rise above clichés, and instead the film offers a different perspective while maintaining freshness and a simple realism.

Written and directed by Diane Crespo and Stefan C. Schaefer, the story revolves around orthodox Jew Rochel (Zoe Lister Jones) and Syrian Muslim, Nasira (Francis Benhamou). They meet in a teacher’s training session where they both stick out as different from the rest of the teachers. While the other teachers introduce themselves with juicy, and usually inappropriate icebreakers, both Rochel and Nasira have nothing grimy to share. They both live at home with their loving, religious families and neither girl has a boyfriend.

Rochel and Nasira don’t fit in with the other teachers, and even though they may have very different religions, they share common values. While everyone else (workmates and family members) is uncomfortable with Rochel and Nasira’s friendship, the two young girls are increasingly drawn to each other for moral support.

Both Rochel and Nasira are marriageable age, and their families begin searches for suitable husbands. Each family has its own approach to the idea of arranged marriage. While Rochel’s orthodox Jew mother takes the initiative, Nasira’s father lines up suitable men for his daughter. Arranged has its moments of gentle humour which are found in the preposterous dates forced upon Rochel. It’s interesting to see that Nasira’s Muslim family is a bit more open to listening to their daughter while Rochel’s mother ratchets up the guilt to ensure her daughter’s cooperation.

Arranged is so enjoyable and works mainly because the relationship between Rochel and Nasira makes sense. The audience understands this perfectly, even though fellow workmates and family don’t understand at all. As for characters–some were very believable–especially the school administrator–a woman who sees Rochel and Nasira as suffering from mental shackles, and she is unable to see that they have been raised in loving environments and both Rochel and Nasira simply want to replicate that. Interestingly enough, Rochel’s rebellion occurs when she senses that she won’t get what her parents have (a loving marriage), but instead is pressured to compromise in choosing a husband.

The film is overly optimistic. The schoolchildren are angelic and cooperative, the husbands dashing and kind. To my jaundiced eye, I seriously doubt that all arranged marriages end as happily as the film depicts them, but I do think the film’s emphasis on shared values–in marriage and in friendship–is spot on.

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