‘Whatever Lola Wants’ by Nabil Ayouch

'Whatever Lola Wants' is a trans-cultural movie which is shot in America, Morocco, and Egypt. The movie follows a dream of a girl across continents to learn belly dancing. The name of the film has its roots in the entertainment dancing world. It is a popular song inspired by the ‘Spanish dancer’ LolaMontez’s saying.

Lola (Laura Ramsey) is an American dancer who gets inspired by oriental dancing through her Egyptian gay friend and coworker Yussef (Achmed Akkabi). Lola works a part time job in a post delivery and in a restaurant as a entertainer and waitress. She meets Zak (Assaad Bouab) whom she delivers litters every day and who is also from Egypt. Lola falls in love with Zak but he leaves her back to Egypt when he knows about her dream of being a dancer. After that, she decides to go Egypt to look for Zak and learn belly dancing from a real teacher. Zack does not welcome her properly and she discovers that he engaged to his cousin. Then Lola starts off looking for her inspiring dancer Ismahan (Carmen Lebbos) who at first refuses to teach her but agrees later. Lola realizes that Ismahan stops dancing because of an adulterous accusation that separate her from her husband. However, Lola keeps on learning becomes a celebrity belly dancer in Egypt and dedicates her success to her teacher Ismahan.

The film ‘Whatever Lola wants’ gathers cast from different countries (America, Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon) to strengthen the idea of the film which corrects some misunderstandings of different aspects such as dancing and its bad connotation in the Arab world. Besides, Lola does nor learn a lot about the Egyptian culture, yet she manages to win people’s hearts with her cheerful and passionate spirit.

Director: Nabil Ayouch

Genre: Romantic drama

Release: 2007