Out At The Movies - NNY's GLBT Film Festival 2009

I Can't Think Straight
Shammim Sarif, Enlightenment Productions, UK, 2008, (92 min)

Tala, a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian origin prepares for an elaborate wedding with her Jordanian fiance', when she encounters Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend Ali. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other but the attraction is immediate.

Tala's feisty nature provokes Leyla out of her shell and soon both women reveal their feelings for each other. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made and escapes back to Jordan where her chain-smoking high-brow mother finishes preparations for an ostentatious wedding.

As family members descend and the wedding day approaches, simmering family tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.

Meanwhile heartbroken Leyla relishes her newly found sense of identity and self-respect and moves on with her new life--much to the shock of her tradition-loving Indian parents. Single again, Tala flies back to London--but it will take more than just a date set up by Ali and Leyla's sister Zara to win Leyla back.