Set in 1916, this suspenseful, historically freighted Jordanian film concerns a watchful young Bedouin obliged to guide a British officer through the spectacular desert of Wadi Rum. Best Foreign Language Oscar Nominee 2016.
Free of sentimentality, Theeb is a beautiful tribute to a way of life that has nearly come to an end, set during the crucial period when it began to disappear.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2016
Theeb 2014
“Eye-searing landscapes and a fascinating historical setting turn this tale of innocence lost into a classic adventure film. First-time director, Oxford-born, Jordan-based Naji Abu Nowar, calls it a ‘Bedouin western’, and the honour and hospitality which his nomadic tribespeople value above all else informs Theeb first to last.
It’s the story of a British army officer at a desert encampment during WWI who orders young Bedouin boy Theeb (Jacir Eid) and his older brother Hussein (Hussein Salameh) to escort him on a perilous journey to the nearest waterhole. The events are seen from the child’s perspective, which might leave some viewers struggling to fill in the historical gaps (we’re in Lawrence of Arabia territory, with Arab tribes caught between the Brits and the Ottoman empire), but it does give the mounting peril even more heart-in-mouth intensity.” — Trevor Johnston, Time Out
“A lean survival picture set in the Ottoman province of Hijaz in the throes of the Great War, Theeb seems, as its perilous cross-desert adventure gets under way, to be a sand-lashed action-adventure epic… True, when the gunshots start cracking over the dunes, Theeb is galvanic in the classical style – but the difference is in the sensibility. Nowar, a smart, savvy filmmaker, keeps his focus narrow and the frame alert, eager to drink in not only action but nuances of culture and history. The civilized Englishman deigning to rescue primitive locals, the swarthy Arab conspiring only to swindle and kill: Theeb calls up the stereotypes of the desert epic only to flatly undermine them.” — Calum Marsh, Village Voice