Waching daily Aug 28 2017

Screen loser Osamah Sami is a big winner in a heart-felt, true-to-life Aussie Muslim rom-com

Vicky Roach, Film critic, News Corp Australia Network August 26, 2017 9:00am.

ALI'S WEDDING (M) *** 1/2 Director: Jeffrey Walker Starring: Osamah Sami, Don Hany, Helana Sawires Verdict: Feel-good Aussie romcom with a multicultural edge IN A long and established tradition of screen losers, Ali (Osamah Sami) comes out on top.

A brief synopsis of the Iraqi-Australian dreamer's actions would identify him as a liar, a coward and a cheat.

Sami and co-writer Andrew Knight (Hacksaw Ridge, Jack Irish), however, work the mitigating factors surrounding their protagonist's misguided actions with such deft assurance, empathy disarms any tendency to judge.

When Ali's Wedding opens, the hapless protagonist is about to sit Melbourne University's dreaded six hour-long Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test — thus fulfilling the dreams of his father Mahdi (Dony Hany), a progressive Muslim cleric who writes musicals in his spare time.

To bring Ali luck, Mahdi gives him a battered briefcase that belonged to his beloved older brother, killed by a landmine before the family left the Middle East.

No wonder the ill-suited medical student finds it so hard to resist his family's aspirations– even after he fails said exam. Don Hany plays a Muslim cleric in Muslim rom-com, Ali's Wedding.

Confronted at the mosque by the self-satisfied son of his father's conservative rival, who nailed it, Ali can't help himself – he makes up an even better score on the spot.

And from there, the situation quickly spirals out of his control. Celebrated at the mosque as its No 1 student, Ali resolves to attend lectures anyway – with the aim of passing the exam the following year.

Now that her son is well on his way to becoming a doctor, Ali's proud mother arranges his marriage to the good-natured and beautiful daughter of an upstanding member of the local community.

This somewhat complicates Ali's relationship with the woman of his dreams, a strong-minded Lebanese beauty (Helana Sawires) and fellow medical student. Somehow, the right time never seems right to tell her of his impending marriage.

Ali's harebrained US escape plan – on the back of a tour of his father's hit comedy Saddam the Musical – comes unstuck when American custom officers deport the entire troupe as suspected terrorists.

  Australia's first mainstream Muslim romcom, which won the audience award at this year's Sydney Film Festival, is a genuine crowd-pleaser.

Part of the appeal lies in the fact that the screenplay is rooted in real events (Sami's own arranged marriage lasted less than two hours.) The documentation that accompanies the closing credits – such as Sami'sdeportation certificate – is a nice authentic touch.

For more infomation >> Screen loser Osamah Sami is a big winner in a heart-felt - Duration: 2:35.

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Exercise is your medicine - Duration: 3:07.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of premature death but tonight I thought instead

of sharing with you the statistics I want to introduce you to two people who have been

affected by this disease.

At the age of just eight weeks Georgia was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form

of cancer.

For her the treatment that saved her very life has actually given her accelerated cardiovascular

disease.

And this is Sebastian he had a virus that affected his heart.

His heart was so weak that what you actually see here is not his bag it's actually a pump

that's inserted into his heart to keep it going and keeping him alive.

As you can see cardiovascular disease is a combination of different diseases all related

to the heart and the blood vessels.

My research team works with doctors and engineers and imaging specialists to try to understand

how we can image these and get the most clear idea of how to look at the health of the blood

vessels and the heart.

And with these techniques we have identified that there is one single therapy that can

be used for the prevention, the management and the recovery of cardiovascular disease.

This is exercise, the benefits on your health for exercise are so compelling that we actually

say exercise is medicine.

But as with any medicine we need to understand how to prescribe it so that people can get

the most benefits.

So by looking at how exercise in different types of exercise affects both the heart and

blood vessels we are able to prescribe to people the right dose, intensity and type

of exercise.

But if you don't believe me, here is the impact of our research.

So you remember Georgia?

Here she is at the age of twenty one a participant in one of our research projects which established

that exercise is not just beneficial for increasing their mental health but survivors of childhood

cancer get direct benefits to their blood vessels which stops the progression of their

cardiovascular disease.

And Sebastian, up until recently someone with a failing heart was not given exercise under

the belief that it would be too much for their already failing heart.

But our research has been able to show that there is a safe way that we can prescribe

exercise so that he too can get the benefits.

Fortunately for Sebastian our research has worked and he's had the benefits and his heart

has improved, not just improved it's actually fully recovered and the pump that was once

there keeping him alive has been removed.

And you can see him here a couple of months after the removal of that pump.

But it's not just these two, more than half the deaths associated with cardiovascular

disease can be prevented.

It is the aim of my research that we can find how we can best prescribe the medicine for

both the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and that is exercise, your medicine.