Nazareth-born Palestinian director Michel Khleifi’s first fiction feature Wedding in Galilee (1987) is a sumptuous celebration of Palestinian life and culture, as well as an audacious commentary on life under occupation. Tensions inevitably run high as the village patriarch returns from a visit to the Israeli military governor with news that the curfew will be waived for his son’s wedding on the confronting condition that the governor and his staff are invited to the celebrations. Operatic in its interweaving of intersecting stories, the wedding moves from the sensual ritual bathing and dressing of bride and groom, to the explosive potential of angry teenagers planning to attack the governor; from the opulence of a table abundant with delicious Palestinian food, to the anecdotes of supposedly senile elders, whose memories underline the irony of Israelis being visitors to the party.

While the limitations of a militarily controlled land are underlined in a beguiling allegorical scene in which the patriarch is able to guide his horse back to safety through a mined patch of land, the film’s crescendo takes aim at the limits of patriarchal structures: while the groom struggles to consummate the marriage, blaming his father’s dominance, the bride takes it upon herself to pierce her hymen. Meanwhile, the villagers grow increasingly irritated by the uncouth presence of their imposed guests and eventually chase the commander and his team out of their village. Wedding in Galilee was awarded the Critics Prize in Cannes. — ELHUM SHAKERIFAR