The Wedding Song

Set in WWII Tunis as the Nazis are about to occupy the capital, “The Wedding Song” is the story of a powerful friendship between Nour (Olympe Borval) and Myriam (Lizzie Brochere), two Muslim and Jewish adolescent girls who live in the same quarters of the old city and have been close friends since childhood. In spite of their intimacy and shared aspirations, each girl seems to secretly desire the other’s life: while Nour regrets that she doesn’t go to school, Myriam dreams of passion and envies Nour’s recent engagement to her handsome cousin Khaled. With rising political upheaval, the friends are gradually drawn apart as they pick sides in a battle they had never considered before, but the more they grow apart, the more they need each other. The film features bold performances by beautiful newcomers Lizzie Brochere and Olympe Borval as Myriam and Nour respectively while director Karin Albou plays Tita, Myriam’s single mother, a Jewish seamstress who, facing the fines imposed to Jews by the Nazis, has no choice but to marry Myriam to a wealthy, older doctor against her daughter’s wishes. The movie “The Wedding Song” is French director Karin Albou’s second feature film since “La Petite Jerusalem,” which received a César (France’s Academy Award) nomination for Best First Film.