The film tries too hard to sensationalize a real-life story that has already been sensationalized enough - the kind that's too strange for fiction - but in doing so undermines the narrative's own weirdness.
A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile
Sign In For Love And Revolution
2015 · 1h 24m
Documentary
Directed by
Sophie Deraspe
Overview
There is no indication that this typical online flirtation between two strangers would turn into a case of shocking international intrigue. For months, Sandra in Montreal and Amina, a Syrian-American, bond romantically and intellectually. Encouraged by Sandra, Amina launches a blog called "A Gay Girl in Damascus," representing a marginalized voice in the Middle East on politics, religion, and sexuality. Rapidly garnering worldwide attention, Amina becomes something of a star blogger. But when Syria enters the Arab uprising of 2011, Sandra receives word that Amina has been kidnapped, and soon the search for Amina becomes a global concern and an even larger mystery to solve.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
The film is reminiscent of Catfish in its essential circumstances of love and online deception, but it goes far deeper into how virtual lies cause tangible problems.
Even those who followed Amina's rise and fall in the ultimately chastened media will find Gay Girl a nifty piece of detective work.
Sophie Deraspe's film is a compelling anatomy of an Internet hoax - one that grabbed headlines amid the revolutionary fervor of the Arab Spring.
Even knowing what I knew (or thought I knew) before seeing "A Gay Girl in Damascus," it's full of surprises.
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