Taking place in the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, Naji Abu Nowar's Theeb is a quietly observant coming of age tale with a pessimistic bite. The story follows a young Bedouin boy, who along with his older brother, embarks on a journey across the desert to guide a British officer to an undisclosed destination. On their journey, the expedition is attacked by bandits, leaving only this young boy alive. Introduced to the harsh reality of life and death, the young boy's coming of age is hastened as he befriends one of the wounded bandits in order to survive. Personally, I've grown a bit tired of the coming of age story, which has got to be the most consistently overdone narratives in the history of cinema. That being said, one of Theeb's best attributes is how it captures the desert, which essentially feels like its own character in the film. From the dry, desolate landscapes to the constant barrage insects, Theeb makes the desert an unrelenting, all encompassing character, almost taking on a mystical quality. Theeb really captures the vast contrast between the desert during the day and night, giving each time period very different atmospheres, as the nighttime sequences give off a cold, dark, isolation atmosphere where one can't even see more than three feet in front of their face. There is a different type of mystery during the day, where everything is revealed due to the punishing sunlight, with the utter desolation of the world around them creating a distinct type of mystery even though so much is visible to their eyes. Theeb captures an exotic world through the impressionistic eye of a young boy who is forced to grow up much to fast. While I'd argue the film stumbles a tad when it comes to examining its main protagonist, Theeb is more than satisfied with showing how the harsh reality of the world, 'the survival of the fittest mentality', shapes so many, using the backdrop of World War I and this young boy's perilous journey to do so. While Theeb offers a lot of promise from a director's standpoint, the story itself doesn't bring all that much to the table, being a simple, albeit engrossing story of survival which finds the young boy becoming a man through violence and the discovery of his individuality.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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