Friday, May 04, 2007

Multi-culti at Cannes and beyond...next stop your neighborhood

Films for the good dhimmi....

Paris Je T'Aime premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and later played at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opens in New York City on May 4, and later across other US cities. According to Chadha, there are also plans to bring the film to India.

Chadha's film, Quais de Seine, is set in the fifth arrondissement. Chadha, who co-wrote the script with Berges, narrates the story about a young French man who takes fancy to a beautiful Arab girl in hijab. They talk briefly about the hijab, and then the girl leaves for a mosque.

The boy follows her.

When she comes out of the mosque, her grandfather accompanies her. The film could have ended on a sad note, but the grandfather asks the young man to walk with them. It is a sweet, romantic film, shot in beautiful daylight, with an upbeat ending.

"Unfortunately that's not what we do," Chadha said with a laugh, when asked whether she considered ending the film on a sad note. "We always end on a hopeful note," she smiled, preparing to give birth to twins -- a boy and a girl -- later this summer. "We are always looking for the optimistic." (and not show the part where Grandpa beats the girl and then her brothers kill her in an honor killing.)

"I think the majority of ethnic people in Europe are like that," she added, referring to the grandfather character in her film. "It's a question of tolerance. But he's not saying you two are going to be together. He is saying, 'We are going this way, walk with us.' That was very important, saying 'Come and find more about us. We are not separate from you. Come and walk along our path and see what we are about.'"