Critics reviews

First-time director Naji Abu Nowar rehearsed his largely nonprofessional cast for almost a year before shooting began, and as the title character, Jacir Eid beautifully conveys a mix of emotions, from wonder to fear to determination. Surround sound adds menacing echoes amid the rocks; especially effective is Nowar's cutting between close-ups of the characters and long shots of them dwarfed by desert landscapes as they struggle to survive.

Nowar has a great eye for landscape and for the varying patterns and textures of the desert, both big and small.

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.

Any film by and/or about the region's nomads will stand in opposition to a portrait of colonialism, at least implicitly, but Abu Nowar isn't looking to settle a score here. He's crafted a simple, old-fashioned adventure story, combined with a coming-of-age tale, that could stand to be considerably less simple.

Magnificently shot in Jordan, and cast with non-professional Bedouin actors, notably wide-eyed, engaging young lead Jacir Eid, Theeb is a stark, tense affair that feels strangely timeless; with its leisurely but to-the-point pacing, it feels like the sort of laconic art-house drama that could have been made at any time over the past five decades.

An austere, often beautiful movie... [It's] a rare film told from a subaltern perspective, which treats all its characters with respect and empathy.

The feature debut of British-born Jordanian Naji Abu Nowar, Theeb is described by its director as a "Bedouin western" – which is fine as far as it goes. But there's a freshness and an integrity to the treatment that makes it more than a spinoff of an existing genre... Theeb marks a new highpoint for Jordanian cinema and a more than promising feature debut for its director.

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 — a worthy corrective.

Despite the film's measured pacing and simple plot, the story takes several surprising turns, confounding viewer expectations throughout. This combination of unhurried exposition and unexpected plot twists is a testament to the confidence of the filmmakers' vision and their faith in the strength of the material.

The film ends with the kid avenging his brother, and while this development comes out of nowhere emotionally, it's devastating. In a festival of many hard-knock finales, this was the most painful and pyrrhic.

The festival's one charming discovery was what people are already calling an ‘Arab western' and yes, Naji Abu Nawar's Theeb fits that description as well as the excellent Far from Men (mentioned in my last post) fits the tag ‘Algerian western'. Yet Theeb is an even better fit as an antidote to the imperial swagger of Lawrence of Arabia.