The
topical, modern Romeo & Juliet romantic comedy
David & Layla opens July 20th in dozens of cinemas:
Beverly Hills, Pasadena & West Hills in LA,
Irvine/Orange County, Washington DC, Detroit,
Nashville, Florida….the start of US
distribution in 100+ cinemas over the next months. (For future theatres/cities
showing the film, re-visit ‘Theatre’ link at Movie Site. Clicking on any theatre
takes you to that theatre’s site: box office, daily show times,
directions…)

‘Best Breakthrough
Performance Award’ recipient Persian American Shiva Rose plays Layla, the first
contemporary Muslim woman on screen who drinks wine, dances and decides her own
destiny.
A war
survivor/refugee, Layla symbolizes the grace & the femininity of women from
the Middle East and the Islamic world. Layla’s
challenge - striving to keep the best of her rich East culture while adapting
to, and enjoying the best of West’s culture, especially women’s rights - is
shared by millions of Muslim women from Tehran to
Los Angeles, from Beirut to London, from
Baghdad to Washington...
David & Layla’s
Trailer is already showing at cinemas with such Oscar & Award-wining
international films as ‘Black Book’, ‘The
Lives of Others’,...
Official movie site
with Trailer, Press Kit, Film stills, current Theatres showing the film,
etc.: http://www.davidandlayla.com/
Synopsis
Inspired by a true story,
David is something of a public access cable celebrity, host of an interview show
called Sex & Happiness, a show that playfully explores the correlation
between sex, spice, and contemporary coupling. During a taping of one episode he
almost literally trips over a voluptuous, mysterious, sensual Middle Eastern
dancer named Layla. Though he's already reluctantly engaged to another woman,
Abby, a svelte, Jewish, kick boxing instructor, David falls head over heels for
Layla, who turns out to be a Kurdish Muslim refugee. Despite this seemingly
insurmountable hurdle David pursues Layla with reckless abandon, setting off a
playful veiling and unveiling of the differences and similarities between the
two cultures. Theirs is truly a match made in heaven, a place they might just
wind up in a lot sooner than each other imagines!
As if their own personal cultural differences were not enough to derail this
funny, obsessive romantic entanglement, here come the parents. David's parents,
observant conservative Jews, greet the news with equal feelings of rejection,
and abandonment. Forget about the fact that David's father is a cheerful
philanderer (whose infidelity is rewarded by a testicular injury). The acorn
doesn't fall far from the tree, indeed. Layla's uncle (her family was killed in
Iraq by Saddam Hussein) is as radical a traditionalist as David's mother and
father are devoted Jews.
At David's editing bay, during a rare, touching and sober vignette, Layla
provides a brief but shocking history into the genocide of Kurds in 1988 in
Halabja, Iraq. But lighthearted repartee, and sexual chemistry, is never far
behind. David invokes the names of Jewish legends like Freud and Einstein while
Layla explains that the ones and zeroes and the writing of algebraic code for
modern computers were revolutionized by al-Khwarizmi. They navigate the Hudson
River by boat, exchange words of ardor over wine (and, of course, food), and
debate their differences in the rain by the light of the moon.
Meanwhile, Layla is having immigration problems, which would seem to make
David's proposal of marriage a welcome proposition, especially given her parents
choice of a mate: Muslim Dr. Ahmad, a wealthy, middle-aged ex-patriot who holds
no sense of adventure or romantic potential for Layla.
Still and all, Layla will not accept David as a husband unless he agrees to
become Muslim, a plan that doesn't even sit well with the local Lebanese Imam,
that is, until Howar, Layla's musical accompanist, explains that one of the most
revered translations of the Koran was written by a Jewish scholar. Just when
Solomon-like wisdom peeks its head around the corner comes another revelation:
that vasectomy David had earlier been subjected to, at the teasing suggestion of
his ex-fiancée, Abby.
"David & Layla" is a warm, big-hearted comedy-romance. It's a timeless
story about the differences that threaten what is pure about love. On a lighter
level it's the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, it's Romeo and Juliet, without the
poison and the daggers, it's about bagels and it's about...spice. On a more
serious level it's the mixing pot of the Middle East in America, specifically in
Brooklyn. It's finally Layla who teaches David more about love, and love and sex
than a whole season's worth of his television show could possibly convey. And
it's finally David who ultimately strikes a delicate balance that will allow his
absolute love for Layla to become a romance for the ages.