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Theeb Reviews
An inversion of Lawrence of Arabia -- a film told from the perspective of Arab bedouins rather than colonial adventurers, a scrappy coming of age story rather than a grand tale of epic, colonial ambitions.
| Feb 22, 2016
The effectiveness of the story hinges largely on Al-Hwietat, whose performance is both convincing wide-eyed and complex.
| Original Score: B+ | Feb 20, 2016
The burden rests on Eid's shoulders, and he more than carries it. He's a natural, showing us Theeb's curiosity, loyalty and ingenuity while still retaining the innocence of a boy who has been sheltered from the world outside the desert.
| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 14, 2016
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.
| Dec 10, 2015
The further this strikingly assured debut feature by the British-born director Naji Abu Nowar goes along, the more it seems a metaphor for fierce self-determination - an origin story for Middle Eastern discontents.
| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 3, 2015
Viewed from the perspective of this young Bedouin, Theeb presages both the treacherous partitioning of Arab lands at the end of the Great War, as well as all the terrible echoes of the colonialism that continue to plague us today.
| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 3, 2015
A disarmingly complex boyhood adventure with no shortage of tension or harsh beauty, "Theeb" marks a winning debut feature for co-writer and director Naji Abu Nowar.
| Nov 26, 2015
As the quiet, compact vessel for roiling fears and ambivalence, Al-Hwietat's Theeb winds up being a strikingly memorable character, whose deceptively simple tale possesses both haunting power and a whiff of prescient pessimism.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 25, 2015
A modest classic.
| Nov 12, 2015
A cautionary tale about survival - and keeping one's enemies in their place.
| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 12, 2015
The desert in Theeb feels intimate, rough, real. You can run your hands through the sand and feel the flies on your face. That realism extends to the characters as well, thankfully.
| Nov 9, 2015
If it is more art-house than epic, Theeb is classic enough - watching the final scene, somewhere Sergio Leone smiles and whistles weirdly.
| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 6, 2015
That same overbearing heat works to slow the film's dramatic betrayals and reversals. However, the resulting film feels timeless and polished, nonetheless.
| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2015
The themes that Theeb explores are the clashes between modernity and decay, brotherhood and legacy, innocence and survival. There is little exposition about the colonial struggle, not that it is needed.
| Nov 5, 2015
Nowar ... has described "Theeb" as "an Arabic western" in the tradition of Sergio Leone. The movie is that and more.
| Nov 5, 2015
The film's delights ... include nods to classic Westerns and David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia.
| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 5, 2015
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.
| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 4, 2015
A simple, old-fashioned adventure story, combined with a coming-of-age tale, that could stand to be considerably less simple.
| Original Score: C+ | Nov 4, 2015
A young Bedouin boy has to grow up fast if he's to survive practically alone in the 1916 Arabian desert in Theeb, the confident debut feature of U.K.-born, Jordan-based filmmaker Naji Abu Nowar.
| Nov 3, 2015