[An] important but rudderless documentary.
Comment
07/18/08
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
Top CriticThe filmmaker and his subjects are to be commended for their honesty, yet there's an overwhelming sameness to their stories that impedes the film's dramatic value.
08/08/08
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
Parvez Sharma’s brave documentary about homosexuality in the Muslim world presents a brutally honest, eye-opening look at gay and lesbian individuals who continue to practice their religion, despite its blunt, often violent rejection of their orientation.
05/19/08
Top CriticAs it examines the point where sexuality and Islam meet in seven very different cultures, the film becomes far more universal than we expect.
05/22/08
Parvez Sharma's documentary, "A Jihad for Love", traces heartening, harrowing stories of Muslim gay men and lesbians.
09/12/08
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
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
Top CriticA much-needed reminder that the foundation for any great religion is love and tolerance.
05/21/08
Makes an invaluable contribution by recording the names, faces, and stories of gay men and women struggling to reconcile their religion with their sexuality.
06/27/08
Top CriticFor all the research, courage and passion that went into it, the movie is sometimes curiously one-note.
09/05/08
The film is propelled by tales of Muslims wrestling with their faith and sexual identity.
08/01/08
Top Critic[Director Sharma's] focus on religion and this particular religion's all but certain hostility to same-sex love means there can be no answers to the spiritual searching of many of his characters.
09/04/08
Top CriticAs compelling in its way as Daniel Karslake's For the Bible Tells Me So.
07/27/08
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
Top CriticThe 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
Top CriticHad Sharma dug deeper, the documentary would be more compelling
08/12/08
A powerful, important documentary.
05/21/08
With each familiar story, you wish Sharma dug a little deeper into the issue. Still, his message conveys.
09/04/08
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