The Syrian Bride

“The Syrian Bride” takes us to the Golan Heights, which is located in the middle of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the film we learn of the struggles of a family faced with political borders that are tearing them apart. The story centers on a girl named Mona, who is getting ready to marry a man from Syria. Mona is from Golan Heights and will not be able to return home to ever see her family again after she gets married. This is due to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The film shows us the difficulties faced by Mona and her family to get her across the border to get married. Finally after six months she gets approved to cross the border. Though when she finally get to cross she is upheld by political red tape.


Mona has a religious family that is Druze, which is a traditional religion of an offshoot of Islam. Mona is to be married to a fellow Druze across the border. This is family tradition and is not always followed as we see her brother in the movie is married to a Russian doctor. He is seen shunned by his father in the film. Even though Mona gets her request granted she is still held up at the border stuck in political tape.

Since the Six-day war in 1967, Israel has occupied the area of Golan Heights. This left many citizens in this area who were Syrian. In the film the town of Majdal Shams is Mona’s hometown. Majdal Shams is the largest of the four Druze villages in Golan Heights. In the film we see that there are divided loyalties in the community. Many of the citizens are pro Israeli and the others are pro Syrian. This creates a rift within the community.

"The Syrian Bride" gives us a chance to look into the struggles that face the citizens of Golan Heights. Educationaly it enable us to understand how things got to be the way they are and the sturggles that it creates. This film does a great job at bringing these issues to the forefront. Before viewing this view I had little knowledge on this difficult to understand topic.