Barakah Meets Barakah

A guy from the middle class meets a girl from a wealthy family, and they start a romance in a country that frowns upon it. Barakah (Hisham Fageeh) is a good-natured civil servant who rides around Jeddah issuing tickets for minor offences. Bibi (Fatima Al-Banawi) is using carefully cropped Instagram videos to amass millions of likes for her fashion-forward, eco-friendly and just-shy-of-revolutionary female empowerment messages. Barakah stumbles across one of her shoots and is stricken. The two hit it off, but finding an appropriate location to meet face-to-face and share even a moment together proves challenging due to Saudi Arabia’s strict public policies. Things turn political when Barakah begins comparing today’s Saudi culture with that of his uncle’s generation. Looking at old slides, he recounts how men and women used to be able to socialise in public, there were cultural heroes besides imams. ==Critical response==

Barakah Meets Barakah premiered at the Berlinale to positive reviews. Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter, called it on his Berlin Review, "Easygoing charmer conceals some sharp political barbs.". David D'Arcy of Screen Daily, stated, "Rather than break down barriers and throw bombs at taboos, Barakah Meets Barakah chooses a humor of clever restraint, rare for any first feature." The film continued to garner positive reviews during Toronto Film Festival. Alexander Huls of RogerEbert.com, stated, "The film offers the breezy gentleness, good-naturedness and charm the best of the genre offers." He said, "It gives us an authentic rom-com experience that’s still about something—without ever sacrificing what draws us to the genre in the first place. It is both charming and meaningful. In that Sabbagh’s film reminded me of a lesson I relearn every year at the Toronto International Film Festival: there are beautiful cinematic wonders to be found if you take the time to venture outside the buzzed-about Hollywood movies." The Guardian critic Jordan Hoffman, gave it 3/5 stars. ==See also==