The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

Review by Tanner Willis

The short:

In the turmoil shift of the Ottoman Empire losing its power and the British mandate being placed in effect in Jerusalem, a man who falls in love with the wrong woman by the terms of his mother and faith is pressured to marry another. The couple learns to live together and have a family but not without troubles along the way.

The Long:

Gabriel, a store merchant in Jerusalem falls in love with a woman of the ‘wrong’ ethic and religious background as him. They are forbidden to be together, and Gabriel instead is pressured to marry Roza. Roza would fall for Gabriel initially but realized quickly it was not mutual. Being a woman during the early 1900s, she was unable to voice her unhappiness. They go on to have children but not without struggles between them. Later on, their daughter Luna becomes very popular and works at a dress shop in Jerusalem with boys flocking for her attention. Even with many suitable and prominent men, she was her own woman, very unusual for this time. She did not find any man to be a love interest, but the only one that was suitable in her eyes, in a similar situation to her father, was a forbidden love and ended with heartache.

To watch or not to watch:

If you are into love stories that never happen this is your show. The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is full of irony as the man who loved another woman and never his wife, would adore his eldest daughter aka the beauty queen of Jerusalem, but ultimately, she would fall under the same curse as him. I would recommend watching this series, however, even though I enjoyed most of it there are times when I found myself losing interest and just focusing on finishing the series so I knew how it ended.