A cross-cultural love story! When 40-year old Muslin Arab, SABAH (Genie, the Canadian academy award, winner Arsinee Khanjian from ARAFAT) living a quiet life in Toronto falls for a local, Stephan (Shawn Doyle), culture and love collide.  As she is given the thankless task of looking after her mother in return for having her living expenses taken care of by her bossy brother Majid (Jeff Seymour), she has to come to a major life decision. 

Veteran writer/director Ruba Nadda (a born Canadian of Syrian descent) handles the love story expertly enough, moving the action at a good pace.  She uses Sabah’s 40th birthday celebration to introduce the audience to the different family members and the situation at hand.  Her film is livened by music, dance (belly dancing), song (the operatic performance of Plaisir d’Amour in the park) and colour. Sabah and Stephan wear brown and a light blue before they fall in love. Their attire changes to brighter reds and whites after. At least this is one Canadian film that does not hide the fact that it is Canadian. Local shots (the couple first kiss downtown at Jarvis and Front) and references to other Canadian cities (Sudbury) are plentiful. 

As the ad goes, SABAH (original title COLDWATER) is a love story. This is true – essentially and totally. Writer/director Nadda, has inserted relevant personal Arabian experiences into her film but she is just as guilty of omitting any racial or cultural difficulties faced by the family from outsiders. Are all Canadians that acceptable to all differences? As such, the need for the family to remain true to their roots is trivialized. The fact that Sabah wears a head dress in public turns no heads, not even a hint of surprise when Sabah’s lover first sees it outside the pool area. Objections are only from the family. SABAH is clearly a woman’s film. It is the female folk who have the best lines and the most fun. The males - the brother, Majid and the young Mustafa (David Alpay) are there to serve the purpose of given the ladies a hard time. Worse still, Sabah’s male lover Stephen is just a yes man. He is given only one instance to express disapproval and in the next scene, he is all forgiveness. Though the script says that Stephen is from Sudbury (a small town quite a few hours from Toronto), there is no mention of any of his friends, mates or encounters.

Arsinee Khanjian (Toronto film director Atom Egoyan’s wife) makes a marvelous SABAH. In fact, she is one of the best reasons to see SABAH. Khanjian has performed a variety of different roles from the jittery, nervous French mother in Catherine Breillat’s A MA SOEUR! (FAT GIRL) to the topless nymph in an apartment in Olivier Assayas’ IRMA VEP. Director Nadda elicits fine performances from the rest of the cast (Doyle and Seymour) as well.

SABAH is a feel-good love story, but again a very manipulative one at that. A point to note is that this could be very well a gay love story looked upon from a heterosexual point of view or vice versa. What is intriguing about SABAH is to observe what minorities have to go through when they fall in love and see it through all the way.