Sabah: A Love Story

It's not quite My Big Fat Syrian Forbidden Romance, but almost. Sabah (Arsinée Khanjian, a regular in husband Atom Egoyan's films) is a 40-year-old traditional Muslim woman living in Toronto, a luminous figure whose inner spark is slowly being snuffed out, thanks to familial expectations (as the eldest unmarried daughter, it falls to her to look after her widowed, sickly mother) and an overbearing macho brother. When Sabah meets Stephen (Shawn Doyle, from HBO's Big Love), a carpenter of no fixed religious inclination, she suddenly finds herself torn between two cultures. Writer-director Ruba Nadda, herself an Arab-Canadian, manages to find the perfect middle ground that allows Sabah to maintain both sides of her identity (Sabah insists she is as much Canadian as she is Syrian) in this splendid tale of love that is all the sweeter for being tested and hard won. Highly recommended. (M. Johanson)