I Can't Think Straight/The World Unseen (UK-import)
Double bill of romantic dramas written and directed by Shamim Sarif, based on her own novels. 'I Can't Think Straight' (2007) stars Lisa Ray as Tala, a young British-born woman of Jordanian descent who flies back to London to escape from the elaborate wedding plans being made for her by her wealthy parents. On her return she meets Leyla (Sheetal Sheth), a shy and sensitive aspiring writer, and, despite their very different backgrounds and personalities, the two women fall in love. The pressure mounts as Tala's wedding day approaches and Leyla struggles to find the strength to reveal the truth about her sexuality to her Indian Muslim parents. The second film, 'The World Unseen' (2007), is set in South Africa in the early 1950s, the beginning of the apartheid era. Two very different women of Indian origin, timid housewife Miriam (Ray) and the outspoken and headstrong Amina (Sheth), meet and fall in love despite outrage and disapproval from those around them and the oppressive confines of the new apartheid regime.