Jalla! Jalla! (2000)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Josef Fares

Writer:

Josef Fares (writer)

Release Date:

22 December 2000 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Memfis Film presenterar en skön rulle av Josef Fares

Plot:

Roro, a foreign worker in Swedish parks, loves his girlfriend but is about to marry another girl to prevent her from being sent back to Lebanon...

Plot Keywords:

Lebanon | Love | Wedding | Arranged Marriage | Immigrant

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Fares Fares	...	Roro
Torkel Petersson	...	Måns
Tuva Novotny	...	Lisa
Laleh Pourkarim	...	Yasmin
Leonard Terfelt	...	Paul
Jan Fares	...	Farsan
Sofi Ahlström Helleday	...	Jenny
Benyam Eriksson	...	Benson
Khatoun Fares	...	Farmor
Abdulahad Fares	...	Abdul
Ingemar Carlehed	...	Pappa Ulf
Harry Goldstein	...	Sexbutiksägare
Tommy Andersson	...	Peter
Christer Fjällström	...	Polis
Jacob Tamm	...	Simon Pramsten

Also Known As:

The Best Man's Wedding (Australia)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Iceland:LH | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Australia:M (original rating) | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Company:

Memfis Film

Trivia:

The film that Måns and Jenny are watching on TV is actually a film by Josef Fares called Coola Killar (Cool Guys) and the two guys talking to each other is Fares Fares and Torkel Pettersson.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Police roadblocks can be seen in background around the square where Roro is beaten up by the guys with the dog.

Quotes:

Polis: [Måns is arrested by the police after throwing out furniture] Well, how did this happen?
Måns: Ehm, what?
Polis: Well, there's furniture on the street, under your balcony...
Måns: I accidentally dropped them...
Polis: Really? How?
Måns: I don't know... I was going to... refurbish... a little and then i tripped... it was some little... edge that...
Polis: On the balcony?
Måns: Yes, exactly...
Polis: With a whole drawer, a TV and an aquarium?
Måns: Mm...

Movie Connections:

References First Blood (1982)

Soundtrack:

New Noise

Not preachy, but realistic and sometimes incredibly funny

What can you expect from a Swedish comedy that is called "Jalla! Jalla!" and that has been made with an unknown cast by a man you've never heard of before? Quite a lot as this movie proves. It's subject certainly isn't one of the easiest, but Josef Fares made a good movie out of it.

Don't ask me what "Jalla! Jalla!" stands for, because I really don't know. I don't even know if it is Arabic or Swedish (I guess the first). But what I do know is that this is a movie about Roro a man from Lebanese origin who works as a park attendant with his best friend Måns. Roro has a Swedish girlfriend, something that he doesn't want his parents to know , and is forced to marry a Lebanese/Swedish girl. He likes her but doesn't love her, but decides to marry her anyway to help her, because if she doesn't marry, her brother will send her back to Lebanon to their parents. Måns has entirely different problems. He has a relationship too, but because he's having potency problems, his relationships isn't exactly going very well. While Måns tries to fix his problem, using all kinds of methods, Roro has to try to keep up appearances while stalling the wedding plans and maintaining the relationship with his unknowing girlfriend.

I must say that I didn't expect all that much about this movie. Normally a movie about mixed relationships or other multi-cultural society problems tends to get incredibly preachy. But not this movie, instead of showing how bad and racist the 'white man' is and how nice the 'black man', this movie has made a comedy out of it. And it works. The characters and the situations that they get in are believable, but more important also incredibly funny.

The acting too was very nice. I had never heard of any of the actors before, but I must say that they all did a very nice job. Most surprising is probably that most of them has never played in any other movie before or since this one. Does that mean that these aren't professional actors? I don't know, but I sure hope to see them again soon, because I really had a very good time with this movie and I can't remember being annoyed by it once. That's also the reason why I give this movie at least a 7.5/10.