''Ali's Wedding'' is a 2017

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

feature film from

Matchbox Pictures Matchbox Pictures is a film and television production company headquartered in Sydney with production houses in Sydney, Melbourne, and Singapore. It was formed in 2008 by Tony Ayres, Penny Chapman, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon and Helen Panckhu ...

. It is directed by Jeffrey Walker and written by

Osamah Sami Osamah Sami is an Australian stage and screen actor, writer, and stand-up comedian, born in Iran of Iraqi origin. He is known for his book ''Good Muslim Boy'', and the film ''Ali's Wedding''. ''Good Muslim Boy'', was the winner of the 2016 ...

and stars Sami,

Helana Sawires Helana Sawires is an Australian actress best known for portraying the lead role of Dianne, a medical student, in the first Australian Muslim romantic comedy film, ''Ali's Wedding'' (2017). She also appeared in 2016 short film ''Banana Boy'', direc ...

Don Hany Don Hany (born 18 September 1975) is an Australian film, television and stage actor. He has received a number of accolades and nominations. He won a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor, playing the protagonist, Zane Malik, in the SBS serie ...

and

Ryan Corr Ryan Corr is an Australian actor. He is known for his roles in the Australian drama series ''Packed to the Rafters'', '' Love Child'' and '' Underbelly'', along with film roles in '' Wolf Creek 2'' (2013), '' The Water Diviner'' (2014), '' Holdi ...

. Sami has been quoted as saying that the film is "history making, the first Muslim rom-com. This movie will hopefully pave the way for many other similar stories, not just from the Muslim community but from other communities and other minorities in our society." He said that the "affectionate and poignant story of love" was trying to cast a more positive light on Muslim-Australian life.

Plot

Ali (

), the charming and musically-talented son of an Iraqi Shia cleric (

), struggles to make the right life choices despite the best of intentions. He wants to be with the girl, Dianne (

), he loves, but he's been promised to another girl at his father's mosque. He wants to be the great doctor that the community expects him to be, but he doesn't get the marks. Above all, he wants to make his father proud. To live up to these impossible expectations, he lies about his academic achievements, and then his quest to please his father spirals out of control, with amusing and poignant consequences.

Cast

as Ali Albasri *

as Sheik Mahdi *

as Dianne Mohsen * Frances Duca as Zahra *Khaled Khalafalla as Moe Greene *Asal Shenavehzadeh as Ramona *Majid Shokor as Seyyed Ghaffar *Shayan Salehian as Luay *Ghazi Alkinani as Abu Faisal *Rodney Afif as Haj Karim *Maha Wilson as Yomna *Natalie Gamsu as Fatima *

Robert Rabiah Robert Rabiah is an Australian film actor, screen writer, and producer. He is best known for his roles as Hakim in '' Face to Face'' (2011), for which he was nominated for a AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film and Best Actor at the ...

as Mohsen *

Rahel Romahn Rahel Romahn (born ) is a Kurdish-Iraqi born Australian actor. Early life Born in Kurdistan, in Northern Iraq, Romahn's family fled Saddam Hussein’s regime when he was three, initially hiding in Turkey for a year, then emigrating to Austral ...

as Ayoob *

Aljin Abella Aljin Abella (born 27 July 1985), also known as Alin Abella, is an Australian actor of Filipinos, Filipino descent, who is best known for playing Theo Martin, the Blue Ranger, on ''Power Rangers Jungle Fury'', in all 32 episodes of the show, whic ...

as Chris *

as Wazza *Jaafar Allamy as Jamal Al Hilfi *

Spencer McLaren Spencer McLaren (born 28 February 1973, Sydney) is an Australian theatre and television actor, most well known for his starring role on the Australian television drama, '' The Secret Life of Us'', as Richie Blake; a role he played for 66 episode ...

as Tony *

Georgina Naidu Georgina Naidu is an Australian actress, stage writer and university lecturer from Melbourne. Early life and education Georgina Naidu is from Melbourne and has Anglo-Indian ancestry. She said that her family knew she wanted to act following an ...

as University Lecturer

Release

''Ali's Wedding'' premiered at the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

in October 2016. It also showed at the

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. , the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

on 8 June 2017.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Ali's Wedding'' uses its very specific setting to explore universal ideas about relationships -- and in delightfully smart, funny fashion." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Music

* see

Ali's Wedding (soundtrack) ''Ali's Wedding (soundtrack)'' is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 2017 Australian romantic comedy Ali's Wedding, of the same name starring Osamah Sami and Don Hany. The soundtrack is credited to Nigel Westlake, Sydney Symphony Orc ...

Accolades

References

External links

''Ali's Wedding'' official website
* {{IMDb title, 2782692 2016 films 2016 romantic comedy-drama films 2010s English-language films Australian romantic comedy-drama films English-language romantic comedy-drama films Films based on biographies Films based on works by Australian writers Films directed by Jeffrey Walker (director) Films scored by Nigel Westlake Films set in Melbourne Films shot in Melbourne Islamic comedy and humor