Screening of "Linda&Ali: Two Worlds Within Four Walls" in Kumu dokumentaal

The first feature-length documentary made by Westerners in the Gulf state of Qatar, “Linda & Ali” gets up close and very personal with an American-born woman and her Qatari husband. Shooting over the course of three eventful years, Belgian documaker Lut Vandekeybus has fashioned a revealing look at mixed marriage inside a highly insular society. Screening of the film next Wednesday (29th of September) in Kumu dokumentaal. 

LINDA AND ALI provides a nuanced and intimate look into the life of a traditional Muslim family in Doha, Qatar. But Linda and Alis 20-year marriage is far from traditional. Linda was brought up Catholic in Arizona and met Ali  a Shiite Muslim from Qatar  at college in the 1980s. Shot during the American invasion of Iraq, this poignant film shows how Linda and Ali struggle to surmount their cultural differences while raising their seven children in a lively, loving home. 

Unlike many foreign wives, Linda adopted the Shiite Muslim traditions of her husband, and swathed in black, she looks like any other Qatari woman. Within the four walls of their comfortable home, however, Western and Middle Eastern ideals, ethics and attitudes often collide. Linda enrolls her daughters in gymnastics classes, clashing with local morals, but she has yet to convince the girls that a love marriage such as hers is preferable to an arranged marriage. Filmmaker Lut Vandekeybus hones in on surprising and candid family discussions about issues such as second wives, religion and Qatari society in general, painting a fascinating portrait of a family living at the complex intersection of gender roles, nationality and religion. For two years, Vandekeybus was given extraordinary access to a culture rarely open to outsiders, and the resulting film offers viewers a unique opportunity to view Muslim culture through Lindas eyes and counteract the often distorted images of Islamic culture and Muslim people provided by the mainstream media