Forbidden Lie$

What starts as an apparent character assassination quickly turns into the riveting study of a person driven to any lengths to get what they want.

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Forbidden Lie$: Anna Broinowski

Few would not be vaguely aware of the scandal that erupted around author Norma Khouri. The Jordanian exile had written a best-selling memoir about honour killings in her homeland. Khouri’s best friend Dalia was murdered when her family discovered that the Muslim woman had fallen in love with a Christian man. The book, Forbidden Love, was published in several languages and become an international sensation. Khouri moved to Queensland to escape a fatwah, but when news broke that her story was not all it appeared to be, the knives came out. It was alleged that Khouri had left Jordan at the age of three and that her book was riddled with factual errors: she was not even in the country at the time of Dalia’s death. The fatwah was merely the grumblings of social workers. The book was retracted, and Khouri’s reputation was in tatters.

Esteemed filmmaker Anna Broinowski sought to sift truth from spin. She travels with Khouri to address the allegations, and as layers of argument are peeled away, more are revealed. Who is the real Norma Khouri? Victim or criminal, author or actor? What starts as an apparent character assassination quickly turns into the riveting study of a person driven to any lengths to get what they want. Yet there’s a playful, mischievous tone to the film. Khouri talks from in front of a proscenium arch and succumbs to a lie-detector test. Covers of songs “Smooth Operator” and “She’s Not There” lend weight, and perhaps another type of spin, to the emerging truth.

Wildly entertaining and utterly compelling, Forbidden Lie$ is the documentary version of an airport novel – one you can’t take your eyes off.

Exciting, involving and inventively structured, Forbidden Lie$ is compelling from beginning to end, and feels more like a thriller than a documentary.

Filmink 4/5

I am fascinated by how lies and different truths work in our society, from politicians to the person next door.

Lisa Hensley

In 2004 Australian journalist Malcolm Knox exposed the extremely successful autobiography “Forbidden Love” and its author Norma Khouri as being a fake. It rocked the literary world.

Norma was in fact, a real estate agent from Chicago, mother of two and on the run from the FBI; not the virgin Jordanian woman campaigning against honour killings, she claimed to be on chat shows all over the world.

As her bizarre story unfolded in the press, Norma went into hiding and has not wanted to talk… until now.

Forbidden Lie$ is the fascinating new documentary from Australian filmmaker Anna Bronowski. It follows Norma as she finally puts forward her case and starts to explain the truth behind the scandal… or does she?

Bronowski has done a terrific job with this film.

She is meticulous in how and when she reveals information. She allows Norma to explain her story upfront and just when you start to feel for this slighted, passionate woman, who wants to help those with no voice, Bronowski brilliantly introduces journalists and witnesses who contradict what Norma has stated.

The film takes us on a thrilling hunt for the truth from Queensland to London, to Norma’s seedy past in Chicago and on to Jordan.

As the documentary unfolds the audience and the filmmaker herself begin to question whether we are all being duped.

Forbidden Lie$ is not without humour, due to the eclectic array of characters orbiting Norma. I particularly enjoyed her dubious husband and his strenuous denials of being a member of the Chicago mob, all the while sounding and acting like Al Capone’s protégé.

Norma herself really is the star of this tale as she, not Bronowski seems to be controlling the strings. She is charming, compelling and quite scary… a terrific subject!

I am fascinated by how lies and different truths work in our society, from politicians to the person next door. Bronowski has brilliantly captured that blurring of perspectives.

For its truth about lies... I’m giving it 4 stars.

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