Jalla! Jalla!

East is East was good, Bend it Like Beckham was predictable, but Jalla Jalla was really good. As in most romantic comedies, the end result will be a happy ending for everyone except the bullies and this movie is no different. But it does allow a closer look into the mindset of the "victims" of arranged marriages. It´s a really good movie. I accept the arguments that there are faults with the movie, but this wasn´t mass-produced in Hollywood, so that´s understandable and a charming factor, really.

The Lebanese immigrant worker Roro (Fares Fares) and his Swedish colleague and best friend Måns (Torkel Petersson) work in a park in Sweden. Roro and his Swedish girlfriend Lisa (Tuva Novotny) are in love for each other, and Lisa wants to be introduced to his family. Måns is having erection problem with his mate, but is looking for alternative methods to resolve the situation, since he is afraid of going to the doctor. When Roro finally decides to present Lisa to his family, they arrange a wedding for him with the Lebanese Yasmin (Laleh Pourkarim). Yasmin and Roro agree to pretend that they are going to get married to relieve the pressure of their families, leading them to a great confusion.

"Jalla! Jalla!" is a delightful Swedish romantic comedy, a must-see in the genre. On the contrary of Hollywoodian romances, the characters are common people, without fancy cars, expensive cellular and high positions, therefore absolutely believable. Tuva Novotny is amazingly beautiful, and her romantic pair is a man very thin and not handsome, in a non-acceptable Hollywoodian standard. The storyline is very simple, but there are many funny situations in this highly recommended entertainment. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Jalla! Jalla!"

Notice that the similar movie as 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', with the almost same topics dealing with (trouble of young eastern immigrants with their elders and their newly made relationships) succeeded to become so much popular and profitable.

Both movies are positive, funny and relaxing, but the reason that I prefer Jalla Jalla is that I had no impression that this movie was made to be "holywoodish", as I had watching "the wedding". This one is much more natural and relaxed, and does not present the immigrants as bunch of conservative, raw and uncivilized people.

After a lot much more praised Holywood crap, this is a movie I watched without having a sense of wasted time after.

What can you expect from a Swedish comedy that is called "Jalla! Jalla!" and that has been made with an unknown cast by a man you've never heard of before? Quite a lot as this movie proves. It's subject certainly isn't one of the easiest, but Josef Fares made a good movie out of it.

Don't ask me what "Jalla! Jalla!" stands for, because I really don't know. I don't even know if it is Arabic or Swedish (I guess the first). But what I do know is that this is a movie about Roro a man from Lebanese origin who works as a park attendant with his best friend Måns. Roro has a Swedish girlfriend, something that he doesn't want his parents to know , and is forced to marry a Lebanese/Swedish girl. He likes her but doesn't love her, but decides to marry her anyway to help her, because if she doesn't marry, her brother will send her back to Lebanon to their parents. Måns has entirely different problems. He has a relationship too, but because he's having potency problems, his relationships isn't exactly going very well. While Måns tries to fix his problem, using all kinds of methods, Roro has to try to keep up appearances while stalling the wedding plans and maintaining the relationship with his unknowing girlfriend.

I must say that I didn't expect all that much about this movie. Normally a movie about mixed relationships or other multi-cultural society problems tends to get incredibly preachy. But not this movie, instead of showing how bad and racist the 'white man' is and how nice the 'black man', this movie has made a comedy out of it. And it works. The characters and the situations that they get in are believable, but more important also incredibly funny.

The acting too was very nice. I had never heard of any of the actors before, but I must say that they all did a very nice job. Most surprising is probably that most of them has never played in any other movie before or since this one. Does that mean that these aren't professional actors? I don't know, but I sure hope to see them again soon, because I really had a very good time with this movie and I can't remember being annoyed by it once. That's also the reason why I give this movie at least a 7.5/10.

This film marks the beginning of a career that hopefully will spawn number of good films in the future. Little known Fares has made an intelligent and very funny film. I totally recommend all people who have the opportunity to see this movie.