Layla Live or Die

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