Woody Watches: 'Forbidden Lie$'

by BRETT WOODWARD

I WAS conned by Norma Khouri just like almost everyone that has ever met her.

n khouri

Norma Khouri.

Khouri is the author of the 2003 book Forbidden Love, the impassioned and tragic account of the murder of her best friend, Dalia. Khouri spun a heart-wrenching yarn of the macabre Jordanian practice of 'honour killings'. According to this supposedly true-life biography, if a Muslim family feels that they've been disgraced by their daughter's behaviour, they take it upon themselves to murder her!

If you take Khouri at her word - and millions of gullible readers did - this crime is unofficially sanctioned by Islam and it teachings. She fabricated the claim that thousands of Middle Eastern women are put to the knife each year and plead with the UN to intervene. Khouri was all over the highest rating TV shows in every nation she visited on her book tour and converted thousands to her bogus cause. More than a quarter of a million people in Australia bought a copy of Forbidden Love. It was a best-seller in dozens of countries and raked in that mad Harry Potter kind of cash - hence the dollar sign in the title of this fantastic documentary.

The imaginary Dalia of the story was Norma Khouri's bud since childhood. They fulfilled a lifelong dream in their 20s by opening a unisex hairdressing salon in the Jordanian city of Amman. Dalia became sweet on one of their regular clients, a Christian army officer named Michael. When Dalia's folks found out about the illicit romance they attacked the poor girl in her sleep, pinning her to her bed while her father and brothers stabbed her 12 times.

This kind of crazed, unjust, blood-soaked and primitive tale is going to get people riled up. There is no doubt that honour killings do take place and a number of agencies, particularly in Jordan, follow each case closely. However, the mad extermination that Khouri detailed was a nasty calumny that played right into the anti-Islam climate that has been fostered in the West since 9-11.

Khouri claimed to have fled Jordan, fearing for her life. She hid out in Athens, wrote her manuscript while nervously chain-smoking at internet cafes and got it to Christy Fletcher, a top flight New York literary agent. The rest was a whirlwind publishing success. Khouri ultimately decided to hide out in Queensland, far from the reach of fictitious assassins.

Sydney Morning Herald literary editor, Malcolm Knox ate up the story. He wrote the first really big pieces on the Forbidden Love phenomenon. At some point, after multiple in-depth interviews with the author, Knox began to feel as though certain facts didn't add up. He dug into Khouri's background, a tough call considering the flak he was likely to take by picking on a grieving woman who had poured her heart out to the world and, allegedly, incurred the wrath of the Islam.

Knox uncovered an even bigger story. Far from being a 30-something virgin with a price on her head, Khouri was a Chicago criminal wanted by the FBI for major fraud and a suspect in an on-going murder investigation! Few facts of the case were true; the author had been born in Jordan but had been a resident of the US since 1973. Her husband, Johnny Toliopoulos, was linked to Chicago's Greek Mafia and both were wanted for duping a senile woman in her 80s out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The pair's shonky real estate deals were a whole other investigation.

Khouri also had children she seemed pretty casual about caring for - once absconding and leaving them in the care of a Queensland neighbour for months. Her hubby stayed on in his Aussie hide-out when his missus fled back to the US in the face of Knox's probe - a safer place to be than Chi-Town, what with the Feds after his hide and his criminal connections. The tanned and laidback Toliopoulos comes across as a charming reptile; quick with a smile, a joke and a compliment, probably even quicker with a .45.

Filmmaker Anna Broinowski (Hell Bento, 1996; Helen's War, 2004) does a cracking job of turning this remarkable, wild confabulation into a noirish documentary thriller. Using recreations and candid interviews with Khouri, all the key players and criminal experts, she makes use of the first act of her film to suck you right into this conwoman's world.

Having read a brief synopsis of Forbidden Lie$ beforehand, I genuinely believed that I had stumbled into the wrong film for the first 15 minutes. Didn't worry me. The story up on the screen seemed fine; I'd catch that Forbidden Lie$ doc some other time. When the rug is yanked and Broinowski opens up a trapdoor to the underworld, you just fall until you hit bottom.

Both Broinowski and producer Sally Regan stuck around for a Q&A session after the screening. They had even stranger tales to tell of Khouri's scheming and manipulation, enough for a second documentary. Elaborate twists within cons within conspiracies within hoaxes. Utterly fascinating; strange and impossible to reproduce as convincing fiction.

The bonus, of course, is that the story is still unravelling and there may well be the opportunity for a sequel documentary. Khouri is not in custody yet; her movements are being monitored by multiple law enforcement agencies; and more of her, and her husband's, past capers are coming to light.

Khouri is clearly an amazingly talented, pathological liar. On some level she has convinced herself of her own innocence. This gift allows her to draw anyone into her web. Veteran detectives, psychologists and journalists all attest to Khouri's remarkable skill at deception. Producer Sally Regan refused to meet Khouri until the documentary was wrapped, concerned that she too might fall under the spell as, apparently, director Broinowski had early in their shooting schedule!

A phenomenal Australian documentary - see it before Hollywood snatches up the remake rights! I'm backing James Spader to play Johnny Toliopoulos.

There's more information about Brett's cartoons, books & writing at his myspace thing.

23 Septmeber 2007

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