Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile (A)

First of all...it's impossible to write about this film without giving it away...

Spoiler warning...turn back...you'll be thankful you did.

Some stories deserve to be told...others, like this one - for the sake of your own dignity, Sandra - should be swept away, brushed under the carpet, locked in the closet...but, no - this protagonist [Sandra Bagaria] takes centre-stage...vying - throughout - for tea and sympathy - which the filmmaker supplies in sickly, gluttonous abundance.

There has been an awful lot of kind things said about this film...well, that trend stops here.

No matter how you look at it...this is a film - primarily - about an IDIOT...media negligence (check your sources) and armchair activisim (passive protest).

The IDIOT is a woman who begins an on-line [rather explicit] romance with a [rather vague] on-line activist in Syria...she [the IDIOT] falls in love with this activist, the woman of her dreams [literally]...without hearing her voice, without seeing her [real] face...no facetime, no skype - no tangible contact. But, love and dirty pictures are rapidly swapped and relished.

The 'activist'...is an American man - a happily-married academic - living in Edinburgh.

Cue: howls of laughter. You idiot!

Look...this is not a naive schoolgirl looking for her Prince Charming...this is a grown, educated woman...looking - in all the wrong places - for love.

You reap what you sow...everyone knows the internet is full of bogus. If it's too good to be true...generally, it's too good to be true!

But no...Sandra feels violated, exploited...you were made a fool of...a fact not helped by this shamelessly sympathetic film...

Even the filmmaker tries to make the story authentic...with a concoction of lame interviews, archival footage and some silly semi-porno scenes. Deraspe, herself, interjects...a pointless and impotent endeavour...to muster up...what exactly were you trying to muster up...? There was no real emotion...because, nothing in this story is real!

She [Deraspe] no better than the academic in Edinburgh.

This film has left many with egg on their faces...including ourselves, for watching it.

Trailer...