Directed by Naji Abu Nowar
Jordan, 2014
ReidsonFilm are missing someone. Theeb, our film this week, is set in the desert dunes of Jordan and our most intrepid reviewer, N, decided to tread the sand and follow the storyline … on foot … without a guide. In his stead for this week we are joined by a locum reviewer, J. She is N’s mother. He returns next week … we hope.
This week we have our fourth film of the season set in a desert landscape. Why so popular? The light is great, the setting is beautiful and the desert often has a persona of its own – a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps cost is a factor too; at least it was in the early days of cinema … no sets to build. From Spaghetti Westerns to The Martian, the range has been broad but perhaps the greatest desert movie of them all is David Lean’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, starring Peter O’Toole . When it was first shown in Super Panavision in 1962 cinema audiences had never seen the desert as Lean gave it to them. Lawrence of Arabia was shot on location in Jordan, as was Theeb. The two films are set during the Arab Revolt in World War I. They also both feature a singular, lone, blond British Army officer. But Theeb is a very different film. In fact it could be the antithesis of Lean’s epic.
Theeb focuses on the story of the Bedouin tribes and we watch through the eyes of the titular character, whose name is the Arabic word for wolf. Theeb’s older brother Hussein (Hussein Salameh) is tasked with assisting the army officer in finding revolutionaries who are fighting the Ottoman Turks. Their aim is to sabotage the Ottoman railway, the ‘Iron Donkey’. Theeb follows the men and eventually joins them. Naji Abu Nowar, the director, takes his time in telling the story despite a running time of only 100 minutes. Lawrence of Arabia was 222. Over the opening credits we hear Theeb’s recently deceased father, the tribal chief, instructing him on life and the Bedouin code.
“And if the wolves offer friendship, do not count on success. They will not stand beside you when you are facing death.”
The first scenes show the 11-year-old boy standing over his father’s grave, with an unadorned headstone marked by the tribal symbol. His brother teaches him to hunt and Theeb watches the elders play a board game as they discuss the importance of hospitality and honour.
The British officer arrives, and is invited into the camp as a guest. At this point you may conclude that you can see where the story is going (especially if you have seen the film’s trailer) but you are likely to be wrong.
What does follow is a rite of passage for Theeb, in a remarkable performance by Jacir Eid Al-Hwieta in his first film role. He plays his relationship with his older brother perfectly – reminiscent of the two brothers in our earlier film Abouna. In fact the only professional actor in the cast, Jack Fox the army officer, is the only member of the cast who seems oddly, or perhaps deliberately, out of place. To say much more about the plot would really spoil the film but what begins as a measured meditation on Bedouin lore unfolds into a tense drama filmed in a stunning landscape, that is punctuated by bandits, shootouts, and of course, camels.
The second half was more compelling, but yeah, my Tik Tok attention span definitely inhibited me – C
Colonialism, brotherhood, and the inevitability of the modern are touched upon here but without the need for exposition. Unsurprisingly the value of water is a recurrent theme but the three desert wells we encounter are so significant they could have been cast as characters. And the audience is left to judge who is really the wolf.
There is a definite feel of a stripped-down Western about Theeb, which serves it well. As for the final confrontation … it is a scene that Sergio Leone, the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western, would have been proud of.
I was particularly troubled when the lead character, Theeb, who looked like N as a boy fell into a well – J
Reids’ Results (out of 100)
C - 67
T - 70
J - 70
S - 78
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80 - loved it !