I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT, currently in post-production in London, marked Shamim Sarif’s debut feature film as a director. Starring Lisa Ray (WATER) and Sheetal Sheth (ABCD, LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD), and based on Shamim’s forthcoming third novel, the movie is a touching, romantic comedy which follows the unlikely love affair between two women of very differing cultures. Theatrical release is slated for mid 2007, after debut at festivals.
Link to more information on After Ellen.
- Synopsis:
In the upper echelons of traditional Jordanian society, Reema and Omar, wealthy Christian Palestinians, prepare for the marriage of their eldest daughter Tala.
But back at work in London, Tala encounters Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating Tala’s best friend Ali. The women have an instant effect on each other.
Tala sees something unique in the artless, clumsy, sensitive Leyla who secretly works to become a fiction writer. And Tala’s forthright challenges to Leyla’s cultural foundations begins a journey of self-awareness for Leyla.
As the women fall in love, Tala’s own sense of duty cause her to pull away from Leyla and fly back to Jordan where the preparations for an ostentatious wedding are well under way. As family members descend and the wedding day approaches, the pressure mounts.
When Ali and Leyla’s feisty sister Zara help throw Tala and Leyla together again, Tala finds that her own preconceptions of what love can be is the final hurdle she must jump to win Leyla back.