Arranged (2007)

Rachel is a twenty-two year old Orthodox Jew. Nasira is a Syrian Muslim. It would appear that they have little in common. Not true. They both teach at a public school in Brooklyn, and they befriend each other as they both struggle with the tensions that arise between their conservative religious families and the larger, secular world in which they live and work. Their principal makes fun of their religious values, their students assume that all Jews and Muslims hate each other, and their families are visibly upset when they visit each other's home. These tensions come in to sharp relief when both Rachel and Nasira negotiate the prospects of marriages that are strictly arranged by their families. This is a great movie about individual choice and personal identity within the greater push and pull of family, culture, gender roles, ethnicity, and religion.