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Bassam Abed has lived in Cleveland for over ten years, working as a telephone repairman. His American marriage was a love match but it ended badly, leaving Bassam broken-hearted and determined to do things differently the second time around. The film joins him as he returns to the Middle East to marry Mariam, a traditional Palestinian woman chosen by his family. Their meeting doesn't send off romantic sparks, but both hope the deal will work out — Bassam will have a woman to care for him, and Mariam, who at 25 is seeing her marriage prospects run out, will be able to please her family and start a new life in America, away from the constant ravages and devastation of war in the West Bank.
They have known each other for only a month when their huge, traditional wedding — complete with a dowry of gold and goats — takes place in the summer of 2000. It is a relatively peaceful period for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but the peace talks at Camp David are breaking down. After the wedding, Mariam leaves her village to live with Bassam and his family in Ramallah until the planned move to America. There she bonds with her new sister-in-law, Sinora, whose husband also lives in the United States but rarely visits her and their daughter.
The peace talks officially over, the tensions become worse each day and Bassam returns to America to try to expedite a visa for his wife. The months drag by. Stranded in war-torn Ramallah with Bassam's family, Mariam is miserable as she and the family live under the constant barrage of explosions and gunfire. Eventually the visa is granted, and Mariam, unable to speak English, arrives in cold and snowy Cleveland. She soon learns that Bassam is holding down two jobs and is almost never home. Expected to clean their apartment and have his evening meal ready, which he likes to eat while watching wrestling on TV, Mariam seems to have traded one dreary life for another.
An up-close look at Palestinian life during wartime, A WEDDING IN RAMALLAH is also a fascinating report from the frontlines of the universal and never-ending battle between men and women, husband and wife, and duty and freedom.
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Update:
The film concludes in the summer of 2001. Filmmaker Sherine Salama visited the couple in Cleveland in April 2003 and reports, "Bassam has bought a grocery shop and Mariam goes with him to work in the store nearly every day. She's picking up some English mainly from the customers, but she has also begun some English classes. They seem happily married and are very well suited to each other. But both would obviously still like to return home to Ramallah one day."
Photos top to bottom:
Bassam at work as a telephone repairman
Mariam and Bassam’s wedding portrait
Mariam and her sister-in-law, Sinora, in Ramallah
War-torn Ramallah
Mariam serves Bassam his dinner in their Cleveland apartment
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