This material is the fruit of years of research, but ultimately, an unanswered question haunts A Jihad for Love (and proves its undoing): Why would gay Muslims stay true to a religion that hurts them?
5 Comments
05/21/08
A Jihad for Love (2007)
74
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:31
Fresh:23
Rotten:8
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: This powerful documentary explores an important subject -- homosexuality in the Muslim world -- with humanity and courage.
Theatrical Release:May 21, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: In a time when Islam is under tremendous attack from within and without, A Jihad for Love is a daring documentary filmed in twelve countries and nine languages. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma... [More]
Director: Parev Sharma
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Reviews for A Jihad for Love
A Jihad for Love is a dispatch from the outer limits of marginalization: a documentary on devout Muslims struggling with their homosexuality.
05/21/08
Covering more than half a dozen countries, Sharma stretches himself too thin, and as a result the documentary seems sketchy; he would have done well to present on-screen some of the background information in his production notes.
12/09/08
It is presented as an inside view of the issue, but bears the judgmental stamp of the outsider, almost to the point of cultural exploitation.
09/05/08
The Muslims here feel bound up in an internal battle (the primary meaning of jihad) as they try to make peace between divine and earthly loves. What's lacking are deeper, more involved ruminations on such feelings, reconciliations and self-recriminations.
07/01/08
Properly promoted, the honest humanity of this festival fave has the potential to attract crossover crowds.
05/23/08
The accounts are powerful, but so many of the interviewees' faces are blurred to preserve their anonymity that it feels like you're watching A Jihad for Love through a shower curtain.
05/23/08
Parvez Sharma's documentary, "A Jihad for Love", traces heartening, harrowing stories of Muslim gay men and lesbians.
09/12/08
A powerful, important documentary.
05/21/08
Often fascinating and provocative, although, as a film, it feels a bit long and somewhat repetitive.
08/22/08
director Parvez Sharma sets out across the world to find out what it means to be gay and Muslim. In most cases, it means trouble.
04/29/09
Parvez Sharma shares the fundamentalist Muslim perspective, which will look depressingly familiar to anyone who has seen the other films.
05/23/08
A poignant and sobering depiction of the struggle of gay Muslims in 12 countries to reconcile their sexual orientation with their faith.
04/21/09
The movie leaves open a provocative question: If you pick and choose which tenets of a religion apply to you, is it still a religion?
05/21/08
Top CriticMore than the question of whether the mainstream religions can ever accept homosexuality, Jihad For Love shines a light on religious devotion, a powerful thing for some, even in the face of persecution and death.
07/18/08
Had Sharma dug deeper, the documentary would be more compelling
08/12/08
For all the research, courage and passion that went into it, the movie is sometimes curiously one-note.
09/05/08
[An] important but rudderless documentary.
07/18/08
A Jihad for Love is a courageous documentary on the plight of gays in the Muslim world, and it reveals how the devout attempt to reconcile their sexual orientation and their faith.
08/01/08
Top CriticTo be called a monster and then be stoned to death is pretty much as bad as it can get.
08/29/08
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