Event

I Can't Think Straight

Winning awards at the Melbourne, Miami, Zurich, and Vancouver gay film fests, I CANT THINK STRAIGHT is the queer Romeo or rather, Juliet and Juliet of our time. Tala (Lisa Ray), a beautiful, brash Christian Palestinian in London, is engaged again to be married in an ostentatious Jordanian wedding, as her wealthy, conservative family expects. Leyla (Sheetal Sheth), a shy, sensitive, middle-class Muslim from a traditional Indian family, is likewise on a trajectory toward eventual matrimony. When they meet through friends, they form a strong friendship and soon fall hard for each other. Tala, for all her outspokenness, has trouble accepting her feelings; for Leyla, however, the experience is transformative, and there is no going back. Family expectations, duty, and self-truth vie for the upper hand, with true love in the balance.

A cross-cultural exploration of religion and freedom, love and loss, and tradition and change, I CANT THINK STRAIGHT is also disarmingly charming and funny. The pulsating chemistry between on-screen lovers, however, is central. Director Shamim Sarif brings back the stars of the SLGFF 2008 sellout, THE WORLD UNSEEN, as well as a light touch to serious issues, in this winning feature, based on her book of the same name.