This film was released on Friday 21st August 2015 and is no longer screening. 

EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI

This ambitious first feature from Naji Abu Nowar is set in 1916, in the Hejaz Province of the Ottoman Empire, where radical change to the region is imminent; though the young Bedouin Theeb (Jacir Eid) appears unaware of events in the outside world as he is introduced learning skills of everyday survival from his elder brother Hussein (Hussein Salameh). A British officer Edward (Jack Fox) stumbles into their tribe’s camp, and Hussein is assigned to accompany him as a guide. Seeking adventure, the uninvited Theeb follows them, unprepared for the dangers he will face.

Shot in striking locations in the Jordan desert, the film is cast with non-professional actors from one of the last of Jordan’s nomadic Bedouin tribes to settle down, and performances are exceptional. Theeb is an intelligent study of Arab history, a moving portrait of a child having to grow up fast, and plays like a rare, committed western. (Notes by MIchael Hayden,)

Don’t forget we now schedule weekly.