Forbidden Lie$

2007

108 mins

Directed by Anna Broinowski
91%
87%
Documentary
Drama

Post 9/11, Norma Khouri’s Forbidden Love, recounting the shocking 'honour killing' of her best friend in Jordan, was a non-fiction... More

Post 9/11, Norma Khouri’s Forbidden Love, recounting the shocking 'honour killing' of her best friend in Jordan, was a non-fiction best-seller. The demurely virginal Khouri became the toast of the book trade and a human rights heroine. Then, in 2004, Sydney journalist Malcolm Knox investigated her story and declared Love a lie. Norma Khouri was in fact a Chicago real estate agent and mother of two, on the run from the FBI for a million-dollar fraud.

To this day Khouri maintains that her story is essentially true. She accepts the offer to return to Jordan to prove it in Anna Broinowski’s extraordinary documentary. Mesmerized by the proliferation of fantastic stories and stories within stories, Broinowski exhibits her own pleasure in story-telling by keeping us gob-smacked every step of the way. Her journey into the world of a remorseless con artist is as richly populated and as enthralling in its improbability as the most outrageous psychological thriller.

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Forbidden Lie$ | Ratings & Reviews

91_%35 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
87_%2,249 reviews
Audience score rating

"A gripping thriller of a doco, Forbidden Lie$ mixes dramatisation as well as traditional investigative methods, including award winning Australian filmmaker Anna Broinowski herself as the reporter, resulting in a fascinating, complex film that keeps the surprises coming. And I'm not going to spoil any of them here."

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Urban Cinefile

"The result is full of bizarre characters and a story stranger than fiction"

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Sydney Morning Herald

"The film, which won best-documentary prize at the Australian film awards, is full of head-spinning surprises but it becomes much more than an examination of the eerily plausible Khouri's claims: its real theme is Broinowski's credibility and credulity _ and ours too. Excellent."

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