ARRANGED centers on the friendship between an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman who meet as first-year teachers at a public school in Brooklyn. Over the course of the year they learn they share much in common - not least of which is that they are both going through the process of arranged marriages.
Acting
Lister-Jones and Benhamou's chemistry feels discovered, not performed.
Writing
Dialogue that trusts silence; no hand-holding, no villainizing tradition.
Director
Stefan C. Schaefer
Zoe Lister-Jones
Rochel Meshenberg
Francis Benhamou
Nasira Khaldi
Mimi Lieber
Sheli Meshenberg
John Rothman
Matan Meshenberg
Trevor Braun
Avi Meshenberg
Doris Belack
Elona
Laith Nakli
Abdul-Halim Khaldi
Jason Liebman
Gideon
Marcia Jean Kurtz
Principal Jacoby
Peggy Gormley
Miriam
David Castro
Eddie
Sanjit De Silva
Jamil
Daniel London
Elliot
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Zoe Lister-Jones co-wrote the script and drew from her own Orthodox Jewish upbringing; Francis Benhamou is actually of Algerian Jewish descent, not Muslim, and learned Arabic phonetically for the role.
Released in 2007, the film quietly predicted the 'arranged marriage renaissance' in Western media—think Indian Matchmaking—by treating tradition with nuance rather than mockery.
US
