WHERE HUMOR 

MEETS HEART 

PART 2

JEN GAULT: How did you balance the humor with the deeper issues?

PETER TAKLA: Comedy is the doorway; the deeper stuff is what’s inside the room. I never used humor to make light of the real tensions. I used it to make them human. When a family is laughing, they’re also listening. The best comedies work because the laughter earns the moments of truth. We let the jokes land, and then we let the quiet moments land harder because the audience is already invested in these people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If someone walks out feeling like they just attended an Egyptian family wedding, 

we did our job.”

JEN GAULT: What do you hope audiences unfamiliar with Egyptian culture discover?

PETER TAKLA: I hope they discover how warm, funny, and deeply family centered Egyptian culture is. So much of what audiences see of any culture is filtered through headlines and stereotypes. I wanted to show the real thing, the food, the music, the celebrations, the fierce loyalty of family, and let people feel like they’ve been welcomed into a home. If someone walks out feeling like they just attended an Egyptian family wedding, we did our job.

 

JEN GAULT: What do you hope feels familiar or meaningful to multicultural audiences?

PETER TAKLA: I hope they recognize themselves. The specific details are Egyptian, but the emotions are universal, a parent’s worry, a child’s desire to be understood, the chaos of a family that loves too loudly. Any audience that has ever felt caught between two worlds, or between their family’s expectations and their own dreams, should feel like this story was written about them.

 

 

BONUS ARTICLE

  

When Love Crosses Cultures: 

Understanding Egyptian Family Acceptance

Love may begin with two people, but marriage often brings two families, two cultures, and sometimes two very different sets of expectations together.

In Egyptian families, this can make multicultural relationships especially meaningful and sometimes challenging.

According to the Survey of Young People in Egypt, attitudes toward marrying outside Egyptian culture can differ considerably between men and women. The survey found that 35% of young Egyptian men said they would be willing to marry a foreigner, compared with only 3% of young Egyptian women who said they would marry a non Egyptian, non Arab.

Source: Survey of Young People in Egypt, Population Council/Manshurat

Family relationships can also matter. According to the same survey, 14% of young men and 9% of young women considered it important that the two families already knew and liked one another.

For some Egyptian families, however, culture may not be the only concern. Religion can carry even greater weight. According to Pew Research Center, almost no Muslims surveyed in Egypt said they would be comfortable with their daughter marrying a Christian.

Source: Pew Research Center, Muslims and Interfaith Marriage

Official statistics also show how uncommon foreign national marriages have been. According to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, approximately 99.4% of registered wives in the 2016 data were Egyptian.

Source: CAPMAS, Egypt Marriage Statistics

But numbers only tell part of the story.

Behind every statistic is a family trying to understand something unfamiliar. A parent’s hesitation may come from concerns about religion, traditions, language, future children, or the fear that their son or daughter may become disconnected from their Egyptian roots.

Sometimes acceptance is not immediate. It can grow through familiarity, trust, respect, and time.

A multicultural marriage does not have to mean choosing one culture over another. It can mean creating a family where both cultures have a place, and where love becomes the bridge between them. AWOE

 

The conversation continues!

Join us Wednesday, September 30th for the next installment of our interview with PETER TAKLA director of My Big Falafel Egyptian Wedding. From laughter and family to the heart of Egyptian-American culture, Peter takes us behind the story and what it means to bring it to the screen. 

See you September 30th!