The Adelaide Film Festival is almost over and I've been so busy, I nearly missed seeing some of the world premieres and locally-made films.
Luckily, I've booked tickets in advance for the last few days of the Film Fest and get to experience an exciting visual feast.
The Truth About The Lies by Linh
Forbidden Lie$ is a documentary which gives an intriguing insight into the intricate web of lies spun by a woman whose book was exposed as a literary hoax.
Director Anna Broinowski gains access to the disgraced author of Forbidden Love, and creates a documentary of a woman's notorious journey from literary star to literary hoax.
Norma Khouri (pictured)is the author of the 2003 bestseller Forbidden Love billed as a true story of an honour killing in Jordan.
The book tells of Norma's Muslim friend, Dalia, who was killed by her father and brothers after she fell in love with a Christian client she met at her unisex hairdressing salon.
The documentary is fascinating as it begins with Norma on a quest to write about her friend's murder, her undertakings to get her book published and then the media rounds to promote the book. The audience was led to believe the story was genuine and Norma was on a mission to end honour killings in Muslim countries.
The hoax was exposed in 2004 when Rana Husseini, a journalist from the Jordan Times, found numerous errors throughout Forbidden Love.
Rana Husseini sought to prove Norma's story was fabricated, containing nothing but lies and misinformation from a money-hungry, masterful con-artist.
Dalia and the unisex hairdressing salon never existed, the honour killing never happened and the geographical descriptions in the book were incorrect.
As the film progressed, we see a different side to not only the issue of honour killings, but also the author.
The plot thickens as Rana discovers Norma's details in the novel such as time, people and places were all inaccurate and incorrect.
Norma claimed she was single with no children, yet she had a husband living in Greece and she abandoned her two children, who are living in Queensland with her neighbour.
Norma also says her father sexually assaulted her when she was four, and her husband beat her then held a gun to her head.
As the compelling documentary continued, director Anna Broinowski gave Norma many opportunities to come clean and prove her story was not a lie. More deception followed until Norma confessed to lying. Although she still claims she "lied for a reason".
An engaging, balanced and well researched documentary revealing a diabolical liar, deceptive con-artist that is Norma Khouri.
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