Theeb
Wolf

The title character of Theeb (“wolf,” in Arabic) is an orphaned Bedouin boy coming of age in Jordan during World War I. Theeb lives in a tribal desert camp with his two brothers. When an English soldier and his Arab guide appear at the camp, Theeb's oldest brother, compelled by the rules of Bedouin hospitality, assigns the middle brother to accompany the strangers to their destination, an abandoned well near a newly established Ottoman train track. The curious Theeb follows, joining the company on their mysterious mission, which quickly turns dangerous. In order to survive the ensuing ordeal, Theeb must grow up faster than any child should have to.

You'd never guess that this is U.K.-born, Jordan-based filmmaker Naji Abu Nowar's debut film. His direction is strikingly self-assured, with understated nods to American westerns and the films of Sergio Leone, but most of all to Lawrence of Arabia. Any serious film lover can’t help but notice the similarities between the two pictures: Theeb takes place in the same year and even in some of the same locations as David Lean’s masterpiece, and both movies begin with a Bedouin guide leading an English soldier to a desert well. But Nowar grounds us so successfully in his young protagonist’s perspective that the cinematic comparisons feel subtle, and never distractingly reverent or ironic.

Nowar's screenplay, which he wrote with co-producer Bassel Ghandour, is spare and riveting. Cinematographer Wolfgang Thaler—shooting in anamorphic super-16mm film—crafts stunningly composed images. With the exception of Jack Fox, who plays the English soldier, the entire cast consists of actual Bedouin villagers with no acting or filmmaking experience, which makes their magnificent performances even more impressive. In the title role, Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat turns in one of the best and most natural performances I’ve ever seen from a child.

The film, which has so much going for it, also has much going on. It's at once an old-fashioned adventure tale about an individual struggling to survive in a harsh wilderness and a poetic metaphor for Middle Eastern cultural survival. While Theeb is an eyewitness to the beginnings of sweeping social and political change, he's only a child, unschooled and ignorant of reality beyond his tiny world, and his limited perspective prevents him from grasping the magnitude of what he's seeing. By presenting the story from this single, tiny vantage point, Theeb serves as a counterpoint to the epic scale of Lawrence. Although it never feels overtly political, the film resonates with historical significance.