This is fun!
Go here to watch to red carpet arrivals. (all screen caps from the stream from OTRC)
I’ve seen Alan Poul, Cesar Milan, Jennifer Elise Cox, Heidi Klum, Noureen DeWulf, Alex O’Loughlin…and Jennifer Lopez just walked in!

Alex O'Loughlin and Noureen DeWulf

Anthony Anderson

“The Taqwacores” is getting a lot of great reviews and good buzz following Sundance.  I do have one question, to which I cannot seem to find an answer: Did it sell?  That is really the purpose of Sundance, right, to get in front of people with money so they can buy and help distribute your film.  Anyway, buzz is good.  EOnline mentions it as a Buzzworthy selection.  Time Out London picked it as one of the ten best of the festival.

One of controversial characters is Rebeya, played by Noureen DeWulf.  Several of the review focus in part on this character.  Many of the write ups from Sundance praise the character and DeWulf herself.  The character and actress display intelligence and understanding, as exemplified by this quote from the Park Record:

“I just love the idea of making your whole life a testament to the very thing you oppose,” DeWulf said about the character. “It’s not easy being a Muslim woman in this country post 9/11 and everybody has the right and the ability to create who they are.”

“People like to associate Muslims with a certain type of behavior and that is usually not punk rock behavior,” she said.

Congrats to everyone involved.

Good luck to all involved.  This is a pretty edgy subject matter, and is likely to push some buttons…what is interesting is that the exact buttons pressed will depend largely on the individual audience members.  Additionally, “Taqwacores” is member of the select NEXT group: “the Festival this year will also feature, NEXT (<=>), a new section composed of eight American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking.”

Noureen DeWulf (of “The Back-up Plan”) plays the role of Rabeya.  Her burqa features rocker patches…and the fact that she wears it onstage while playing punk music seems to be a two-way commentary on the music and religious and the traditions of each.

Best line from the Trailer (watch it here at the Sundance page…also a bit about NEXT with the director, Eyad Zahra):

“Allah is too big and too open for my Islam to be small and closed.”