Theeb (2014)
Country: UAE, Qatar, Jordan, GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 100m
Director: Naji Abu Nowar
Cast: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh
Synopsis:
During the First World War a sheikh sends one of his brothers to guide an English officer and his interpreter along a perilous and disused pilgrim trail to a well. The younger brother, named Theeb (wolf) follows, and soon must learn the nature of survival at a local level.
Review:
Inevitably evoking Lawrence of Arabia in its period setting and Jordan locations, as well as its portrayal of East meets West, this excellent first feature nevertheless offers a very different view of similar material. Here the relationship of the boys towards the English officer never ventures beyond cordiality, and the momentous nature of the world events unfolding, including the decline of the Ottoman star and crescent, are of only oblique importance. However, the skill with which the director latches onto all the precious foreign objects that intrude upon the boy's circumscribed world view (a cigarette lighter, a mysterious wooden box, the act of shaving) is a joy to behold. Quotations and the significance of actions such as at the well, and lining up a target, that occur early in the film, also have an impact on the viewer, whether consciously or not. By the end, the boy wolf has become a man. Finally, the film gives us a perspective on Arab culture that is revealing about the more recent past: here what counts are hospitality and brotherhood, water and camels, nothing more. The 'iron donkey rails' are signifiers of the materialism to come, and a loss of religion; the pilgrim trail is a place of death.
Country: UAE, Qatar, Jordan, GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 100m
Director: Naji Abu Nowar
Cast: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh
Synopsis:
During the First World War a sheikh sends one of his brothers to guide an English officer and his interpreter along a perilous and disused pilgrim trail to a well. The younger brother, named Theeb (wolf) follows, and soon must learn the nature of survival at a local level.
Review:
Inevitably evoking Lawrence of Arabia in its period setting and Jordan locations, as well as its portrayal of East meets West, this excellent first feature nevertheless offers a very different view of similar material. Here the relationship of the boys towards the English officer never ventures beyond cordiality, and the momentous nature of the world events unfolding, including the decline of the Ottoman star and crescent, are of only oblique importance. However, the skill with which the director latches onto all the precious foreign objects that intrude upon the boy's circumscribed world view (a cigarette lighter, a mysterious wooden box, the act of shaving) is a joy to behold. Quotations and the significance of actions such as at the well, and lining up a target, that occur early in the film, also have an impact on the viewer, whether consciously or not. By the end, the boy wolf has become a man. Finally, the film gives us a perspective on Arab culture that is revealing about the more recent past: here what counts are hospitality and brotherhood, water and camels, nothing more. The 'iron donkey rails' are signifiers of the materialism to come, and a loss of religion; the pilgrim trail is a place of death.
Country: UAE, Qatar, Jordan, GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 100m
Director: Naji Abu Nowar
Cast: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh
Synopsis:
During the First World War a sheikh sends one of his brothers to guide an English officer and his interpreter along a perilous and disused pilgrim trail to a well. The younger brother, named Theeb (wolf) follows, and soon must learn the nature of survival at a local level.
Review:
Inevitably evoking Lawrence of Arabia in its period setting and Jordan locations, as well as its portrayal of East meets West, this excellent first feature nevertheless offers a very different view of similar material. Here the relationship of the boys towards the English officer never ventures beyond cordiality, and the momentous nature of the world events unfolding, including the decline of the Ottoman star and crescent, are of only oblique importance. However, the skill with which the director latches onto all the precious foreign objects that intrude upon the boy's circumscribed world view (a cigarette lighter, a mysterious wooden box, the act of shaving) is a joy to behold. Quotations and the significance of actions such as at the well, and lining up a target, that occur early in the film, also have an impact on the viewer, whether consciously or not. By the end, the boy wolf has become a man. Finally, the film gives us a perspective on Arab culture that is revealing about the more recent past: here what counts are hospitality and brotherhood, water and camels, nothing more. The 'iron donkey rails' are signifiers of the materialism to come, and a loss of religion; the pilgrim trail is a place of death.