Catching up with a BFLF nominee, Naji Abu Nowar's family desert adventure, THEEB

THEEB translates as wolf, and it doubles as the name of the main character of this eponymously titled movie from director and co-writer (with Bassel Ghandour), Naji Abu Nowar. The movie was one of the past year's nominees for Best Foreign Language Film and was submitted via the country of Jordan, though it was heavily backed financially by the United Arab Emirates. "Wolf" is an appropriate moniker for our very young hero, too. The initial screen crawl of a Bedouin proverb having to do with the wolf becomes both clear and telling by the end of this strange and generally entrancing film that proves once again: Blood is thicker than just about any of those other "ties that bind."

The filmmaker, pictured at right, offers up a slowly unfurling desert adventure set in 1916 -- at a time when North Africa was undergoing a lot of change: modernization (the coming of the railroad), revolution (within the crumbling Ottoman Empire, which controlled the area in which the film takes place), and of course World War I (during which the Ottomans aligned themselves with Germany). Despite all this, Theeb is resolutely small-scale, with a cast of major characters that basically includes an older brother (Hussein Salameh, below, right) and younger brother (our Theeb is the latter), a British soldier (Jack Fox, shown at right, two photos below), the soldier's guide/interpreter, and one in a small group of outlaw marauders who attack this ill-equipped foursome.

How this plays out -- slowly but not uninterestingly and set against some ravishingly beautiful desert landscapes -- makes up the movie's plot. There is a good deal of violence along the way, a fierce gun battle, some suspense and both help and betrayal coming from unexpected sources.

The movie has been called an Arab western, and the description is not inapt. But for all its nods to the western genre, the film is mostly a kind of dark and forced-by-necessity coming-of-age tale, as Theeb must make decisions and take actions that will push him from boyhood into young manhood with alarming speed.

Performances are fine throughout, though there are only two of these that count for much: Jacir Eid's as Theeb (in the three photos above) and Hassan Mutlag's as the member of the marauders. How these two interact, learn from and help one another provides the most memorable portion of the movie -- the outcome of which is a stunner, though not really unexpected, given the time period, place and people involved.

From Film Movement and running 96 minutes, Theeb, after playing a limited run in theaters all across the country, will be available on Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday, May 17 -- for purchase or rental.

FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE AEGEAN: Maria Iliou is back with a follow-up to her fine "Smyrna" doc

Evidently, though I did not realize it at the time, Maria Iliou's excellent documentary, Smyrna: The Destruction of a Cosmopolitan City, 1900-1922, was but the first of a two- (and maybe even more) part series that now continues with FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE AEGEAN: Expulsion and Exchange of Populations, Turkey and Greece, 1922-1924. No one would ever accuse Ms. Iliou of creating marquee-friendly movie titles, but she certainly does give us interesting films about a part of the world with which most of us will have had little familiarity.

In this second work, the filmmaker (above, left) and her historical consultant, Alexander Kitroeff (above, right), take off pretty much from where the first film ended. We do see some of that history of the great cosmopolitan city of Smyrna and what happened to it and get a quick course in the part played by WWI and the "Great Powers" in this whole sad business. This takes up perhaps 20 minutes of the new film, and then we're pushed ahead to see and learn what happened after the destruction and how and why well over a million refugees (1,100,000 Greeks alone!) were herded unnecessarily from what was now -- after the end of the Ottoman Empire -- suddenly part of Turkey or Greece. (Unless I missed it, I don't think figures were given for how many Muslims were sent packing back to the "new" Turkey.)

We learn more about the Lauzanne Negotiations, and what these meant to displaced Greeks and Muslims/Turks. These refugees were families who, often for generations, had lived in the same towns and had sometimes very important jobs and businesses -- for which their compensation ranged from little to none. One thing this documentary makes enormously clear (as did the last one) is how the push for "nationalism" rather than for cosmopolitanism, can create such havoc in so many lives.

Once again we see and hear interviews with younger family members who tell us stories they heard from their elders, and all this is woven together with the use of more of those wonderful archival photos. One thing the movie will probably have you considering: How much better may have been the old Ottoman Empire, with its grand inclusivity of cultures, religions and ideas, when set against the nationalistic states that have, in its place, since surfaced: Turkey, The Balkans & the Middle Eastern states.

One thing I noticed in this second documentary is that Ms Iliou seems less quick to blame Turkey over Greece for all that happened here, something I felt might have been a tad imbalanced in the first film. This second documentary doesn't whitewash anyone but simply seems less pushy toward the Turks. Hearing the stories of the displaced Muslims, as well as the Greeks, goes a long way toward achieving a good balance.

These tales make you realize anew that refugees and their stories are so very similar in so many ways. This is a terrible way to live, and it doesn't matter who is on the giving or receiving end.

If From Both Sides of the Aegean doesn't quite come up to the level of the earlier Smyrna documentary, this may simply be due to its not having a subject as grand and awful as the horrible destruction of that in-some-ways model city.

A must-see for anyone whose family hails from these parts, the movie should also appeal to anyone curious about the history of the world outside our relatively small sphere.

The new documentary -- from Proteas and Proteus NY Inc. and running 87 minutes -- opens this coming Friday, March 21, for a two-week run at New York City's Quad Cinema. Elsewhere? Not sure. But you can click here to keep up to date with other scheduled screenings.

Filmmaker Maria Iliou and Historical Consultant Alexander Kitroeff, will attend the opening night screenings on March 21 at 7 and 8:30pm and on March 29 at 7pm for a Q&A. Cinematographer Allen Moore, Historian Eleni Bastea and director Iliou will be present on Saturday, 

March 22, at the 7pm screening for a Q&A.