David and Layla

Jewish-American David (Moscow), a local cable-TV personality, and stateless Kurdish-Muslim dancer Layla (Rose) meet cute in multiethnic Brooklyn. But when they fall for each other, their families freak out. Can true love overcome religious differences and ethnic shtick? First-time writer-director Jay Jonroy’s credibility and intentions are beyond reproach: He lost relatives under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, fled Kurdistan as a teenager and found inspiration in the successful marriage of a Jewish-American/Muslim-Kurdish couple he met in Paris. But Jonroy’s movie never jells. The pratfalls, earnest discussions of genocide and cultural myopia, oy vey Jewish stereotypes and opening dedication to murdered kin coexist uneasily and overshadow his sharp eye for visual detail.