Forbidden Lies
Directed by Anna Broinowski
Shows: Sept 11-13 at the Hollywood Theatre
I nearly gave up on this movie after ten minutes. I'm glad I didn't. What seemed at first to be a horribly cheesy suck-up to a mediocre writer turned out, in fact, to be a very clever fake-out, a perfectly calibrated put-on that ends just in time. Forbidden Lies is a tricksy documentary about Jordanian author Norma Khouri, whose 2003 book Forbidden Love purported to document the 'honor killing' of her childhood friend Dalia, a Muslim woman who fell in love with a Christian man. Khouri says she wrote the book in order to call attention to the practice of honor killings, something she feels is a widespread problem in Jordan and a symptom of that country's mistreatment of women. But her book, it turned out, was a fabrication. (Partway through the film, Khouri herself calls it 'not fact, not fiction - faction,' and compares it to The Da Vinci Code in terms of literal truth.) Broinowski's film initially poses as an homage to the author, then does a sudden and hilariously executed 180-degree turn, becoming a playful but very aggressive attack.
Khouri is an ideal subject for film: she's ultra-charismatic, funny, smart, comfortable in front of the camera. But she's also utterly exasperating, a masterful con artist whose layers of personal history peel away like onionskin to reveal nothing but further mystery. It's impossible, even after seeing the film, to know which (if any) parts of her story are true. But the search alone is entirely compelling. Like any successful con artist, Khouri radiates charm, and even though Broinowski is constantly frustrated by her feints and dodges, the director is also clearly affectionate toward her subject. The two women make a nice match: Broinowski skillfully weds form to function, tapping the inherently manipulative nature of film to increase the sense of unknowability at the heart of the story. It's very smartly done, and highly entertaining.
B+