Layla Live or Die (2008)

LAYLA: LIVE OR DIE is a drama based on the realities faced when immigrants come to America. This film showcases a young Middle Eastern woman's struggle to find acceptance and her place in America. Layla (Nazanine Mousavi), a Middle Eastern immigrant, arrives in America to marry her fiancé, but chooses freedom over a potentially abusive, arranged marriage. Bravely, completely on her own, she finds work as a nightclub dancer in a seedy part of town and is soon befriended by good cop (Peter Burke) and his not-so-good partner (Shawn Flanagan). Layla seeks a new world identity rather than accepting a prearranged role proscribed for her by her male-dominated homeland. Arriving in America, Layla must adapt to the gender roles currently evolving as America goes through a reshaping of roles. The tight cultural roles of a traditional society are played off against more open and confusing roles of American society. Layla, being caught in the middle, eventually seeks her own cultural identity. As Layla observes roles in America, her confusion leads to her freedom, to strike out on her own.