Photo Credit: Film Movement
A Bedouin boy faces the dangers of the Arabian desert in Theeb, the feature debut of British director Naji Abu Nowar.
Set in 1916, during the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the First World War, the Jordan/U.K./United Arab Emirates/Qatar co-production stars newcomer Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat as Theeb (which means “Wolf”), an orphaned boy who leaves behind his nomadic tribe to accompany his older brother, Hussein (Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen), in escorting an English soldier (Jack Fox) and his guide (Marji Audeh) to a water well hidden deep in the perilous desert.
Theeb, who is oblivious to the politics and uprisings of his time, finds himself isolated and must take on the desert’s endless supply of bandits and mercenaries. Relying on the teachings passed down to him by his family, Theeb prematurely comes of age into a violent world where the lines between friend and foe are as ambiguous as the desert’s reach.
Abu Nowar, winner of Venice Film Festival’s 2014 Venice Horizons Award for Best Director, shot the film in Jordan, where he was also raised alongside his hometown of Oxford, with a cast of first-time Bedouin actors. And following eight months of acting workshops, Abu Nowar narrowed down his group of 250 recruits to the final 11. (He and his co-writer, Bassel Ghandour, also spent a year living with the Bedouin.)
The risky decision to cast inexperienced actors who were foreign to the world of cinema ultimately worked out for the best, particularly for the young lead, Al-Hwietat, whose natural, unaffected performance carries this striking adventure about brotherhood, loyalty, and war.
To coincide with Theeb‘s North American theatrical release, I interviewed Abu Nowar about his unique way of preparing for the film, diversity in front of and behind the camera, and the pressure of depicting the Bedouin culture.
Photo Credit: Film Movement
ScreenPicks: This film is set during a time of major conflict. Of course, World War 1 (1914-1918), The Arab Revolt (1916) and the decline of the Ottoman Empire (1301-1922). As viewers of the film, we experience this setting and period in time vicariously though the eyes of this little boy named Theeb. What advantages do you think having a child’s perspective, as opposed to an adult’s, has on our understanding of war?
Abu Nowar: “There are a couple of things that interested me in that. Firstly, what I wanted to do was — having lived with the Bedouin for a year, we’ve grown to notice that a lot of their storytelling centered around these coming-of-age stories of young boys and their transition into manhood. It’s actually something called the circumcision ceremony; it happens when they’re roughly thirteen years old. They’re circumcised and they’re given these trials and initiations. They often occur around the world. So when Bassel Ghandour and I, who I also wrote the film with, when we were developing the screenplay, we thought that that was going to be the kind of essence. The story that we wanted to tell was this story of a young boy and his journey into manhood.
“The second thing is something that I’m very fond of … It’s very useful as a tool to be able to allow the audience to enter into the shoes of a character. A child is innocent and has less of the baggage or less of the discriminating factors that an adult may choose not to relate with a character or empathize with a character because they’re an adult and because they’re a certain gender or a certain ethnicity or a certain religion or a certain personality type, whereas a child, we often find more easy [to] relate to. So I like this idea of having the ability to draw the audience in and let them see the world through the perspective of a child and walk in the shoes of a child. The other thing is I find fascinating that someone who is innocent and totally ignorant of what was going on in the rest of world — how you would experience the arrival of the Arab Revolt in the form of this alien Englishman arriving. I thought that was a fascinating thing to occur.”
ScreenPicks: As you just mentioned, you and your co-writer [Bassel Ghandour] spent about a year living with the Bedouin tribe. You guys also did about eight months of acting workshops with the Bedouin cast. How important is it for filmmakers to immerse themselves into a subject beyond traditional research of looking online or through books?
Abu Nowar: “I’m sure, for instance, if a filmmaker is doing a science fiction film, there’s not much to immerse themselves in that environment. I also think there’s many very talented filmmakers that their process is in a totally different way. Perhaps they work much more in their personal imagination and the imaginations their team members create; they’re working with more fantasy elements … So I kind of feel like each film requires a different thing.
“I find often the truth is often more interesting than anything you could make up yourself. That just comes from the experience of researching several different screenplays that I wrote before I made Theeb. I often found the things I really loved the most, when I was researching the screenplays, was the truth, the things I found investigating on the ground … It’s a joy to go down and do those things and experience those things, but obviously I do have other projects coming to mind, or things I want to do in the future, that you wouldn’t be able to do those things.”
Photo Credit: Film Movement
ScreenPicks: Since you’ve now lived this Bedouin lifestyle, and been embraced by their people, are there any practices and beliefs that you’ve now adopted into your own everyday life?
Abu Nowar: “Once I returned to urban city life, and once I began the process of promoting the film and doing those things, I realized that I was starting to lose the patience, the calm patience that I had and that they have and that I developed living with them once I spent that year there … They’re very calm. You don’t see them get flustered very easily even in the most difficult circumstances. They’re very patient people, they’re very patient with guests, they’re very patient with strangers, they’re helpful to people … I went back to the city and back to living that more fast-paced life. I noticed I started to lose things. It’s something that I’m conscious of that I want to keep is that patience with people and calm and not getting so stressed out and flustered in day-to-day life.”
ScreenPicks: In this cast the only professional actor is Jack Fox, who plays the English soldier. Besides the authenticity in portraying their [the Bedouin] culture, what advantages do you think casting first-time actors are to carry a film of this scope?
Abu Nowar: “It’s difficult for me to describe because I come from a place where there is no film industry. So I’ve never experienced working with professional actors before. I don’t have any kind of point of reference. That choice came out of necessity — the need to make a film at a certain region … The truth about working with non-professional actors is that, especially the Bedouins, because they’ve never seen films, it’s not like copy their favorite stars or they’d seen certain cliche moves that they were trying to copy. They were just themselves. Once you’ve provided an environment where they can really be comfortable and just be themselves, you were able to get these very authentic performances because they weren’t ruined by having seen a million action movies and trying to copy their favorite actor.”
ScreenPicks: I also wanted to talk a bit about the violence in the film. Since we are so accustomed to seeing it on film or television, when we see an adult wielding a weapon, we become desensitized to it. But when you see a child using a gun it still pushes people’s buttons. It’s still both enticing and disturbing at the same time. What do you think about the juxtapositon of children and violence on screen and why it continues to be so provocative?
Abu Nowar: “I had a very hard time with the final scene in the film. It’s something that was a sort of great moral debate for me throughout the process of developing the screenplay and making the film … As someone who’s grown up in England and Jordan — both states with civilized society, with courts of law, with police, with judges, with a process of correcting grievances and dealing with incidents of violence in a civilized way — it was very difficult to get around the psychology and the head space of 1916 in the desert. When you’re living in a world where there really isn’t [laws], even though the Ottoman Empire is ruling it, they’re not there. So really it’s a lawless terrain.
“In my philosophy, in this film, and generally for us with filmmaking, you’re looking to find truthful moments. In another film you would have to try to have the situation corrected in another way … But when you’re dealing with the wild west, a historical world where you don’t have that, if you want to create a truthful moment, that’s the truthful moment. And I think that’s very important because I think it’s very relevant to what’s happening in Syria today and in Iraq. I think we need to recognize that, and I think it’s something we need to deal with. What’s happening to Theeb in this film is not so foreign that it’s not happening today and, in many ways, in those countries.”
Photo Credit: Film Movement
ScreenPicks: In making this film, you were basically granted the responsibility and privilege of representing the Bedouin people’s history and culture, and for many Western audiences it will be our first time being introduced to the Bedouin people. How did you deal with that pressure, knowing that you were introducing audiences to these people for the first time?
Abu Nowar: “My greatest fear was that the Bedouin didn’t like the film when they saw it; that was something I was really terrified of. Because although I’m extremely, extremely honoured and very, very happy and it’s been amazing sharing this film around the world — that’s really been the highlight of my life, one of the most amazing things — but if the Bedouin hadn’t liked the film, I would consider the film a total failure. No matter how many awards we won, it would’ve been a failure. So I was extremely relieved and very happy that they loved the film.
“That was the most special moment when we did the premiere in the desert with the Bedouin; their first experience with cinema. We invited all the tribesmen from the local villages and they came and they watched the film on the big screen under the stars. It was a really special moment, and thankfully they loved the film. But I’d never been so nervous. I actually left and went by myself in the desert for the entire screening ’cause I just couldn’t take the pressure of sitting in the area with them.”
ScreenPicks: This week Theeb will finally open for audiences in America and here in Canada. In films that deal with war in foreign settings, we’re generally used to seeing a western man as the white saviour in a foreign land. However, what I think is refreshing about this film is that the English soldier didn’t really play that part that you expected him to play. So it’s essentially a story about the Bedouin people and told from their perspective. Do you think that this film will hopefully encourage more diverse voices to tell their stories on the big screen?
Abu Nowar: “I hope so. I remember that there was — I’m not going to name the person — it was a European producer. When we were trying to raise money for the film, and no one from Europe wanted that film, we showed them a mood board with the character of Jacir playing Theeb, because he was one of the first people we cast, and we used that mood board to try and raise money for the film … Even in reviews where people don’t like the film, they still say Jacir is great. And she says, ‘You shouldn’t cast him; he’s too ethnic.” You should cast someone who is a bit closer to white is basically what she was saying. And that really pissed me off.
“The thing that I think is really great is that wherever I’ve gone in the world — you know, I’ve gone to, like, over 25 countries myself to screen it — and the film has played in over 50 countries around the world, audiences respond to it. They don’t care that it’s [an] ethnically Bedouin film. Given the amount of worldwide prejudice in the Arabic culture right now, given the events of the last 10, 20 years, it’s really great to see that [through] film those prejudices can be overcome and art can be shared and cinema can be shared and that can happen … I hope that, you know, hey, if it can happen with the Bedouin culture, it can happen with any culture.”
Photo Credit: Film Movement
ScreenPicks: When I read articles and reviews of your film, the one film that consistently came up was understandably Lawrence of Arabia. But I understand that you were originally drawn to the idea of making a Bedouin western. What is it about the western that you think has had such a long-lasting and crossover appeal across international audiences?
Abu Nowar: “I think the western, whether it be the American western or the Kurosawa eastern Samurai films that inspire me, they’re very simple, almost difficult type [of] tale. They kind of hit the things you’ll see in folklore around the world as well; they’re an extension of that, in a way … It’s usually at a time of great change, shifting power dynamics within a country or a village or wherever the case may be. In the spirit of most fairy tales and folklore as well, there’s usually an element of cathartic violence in there — the shooting of the bad guys, the slaying of the dragon.
“I think that those elements that you get in a classic western are throughout time and disinformed. They may not be described as westerns, but they’re there throughout time. That’s why I think it’s got those universal qualities that all cultures can relate to and can suspend their disbelief and follow. I personally experienced that with this film, having traveled around with it and seeing it. I never thought that this film would travel as far as it would, not because I wasn’t proud of it, but I just felt that people would find it difficult to watch a story in a very distinct and very specific culture that they’re not used to. It’s been really great to see people respond to it that way, and I think that’s because of those things.”
ScreenPicks: On a similar note, this film can be interpreted in so many ways by different audiences. You can see it as a coming-of-age story, about war, survival, or brotherhood. And I know that you personally see it as Theeb’s journey of finding a surrogate father after the death of his own father. Has there been any opinions or perspectives that audiences have told you about the film that surprised you or moved you the most?
Abu Nowar: There’s been surprising ones. One of the ones was — okay, so the tribal mask is a triangle and that’s because the mask in the tribe that we were working with, which is all over their camels and everything, is an upside down v. So, in order to maintain continuity and not have too much trouble, we made the tribal mask a triangle so that we could easily fix any of the markings on the camels or anything like that. We did it for simplicity reasons. Some people have gone up to me and gone, ‘You’re a Mason, you’re an Illuminati. You’re trying to put secret codes in the film.’ So that’s been very funny. I’ve had that a couple of times … No, I’m not a Mason. No, I’m not a part of the Illuminati. (laughs) Yeah, there’s been some cool stuff. There’s been a lot of political stuff that hadn’t been what we intended.
“But really I don’t like talking about the meaning of the film because I think that once you make a film it’s owned by the audience. Whatever crazy thing someone wants to believe the film’s about, that’s their right. I don’t think I had the right to correct them about that. I certainly hate it when I watch a film and there’s a really powerful meaning that I’ve personally taken from it. And then maybe I watch an interview with the director or a DVD commentary, and they tell me it’s not what it’s about. I’m happy with whatever meaning I took myself, and I feel that’s my right to be inspired in any way I want. I never really talk about the meaning of the film, in any kind of detailed or neat way, because I don’t want to have that happen to another audience member. I will not talk about it in my own personal things that I was going through and that I used in the creative process to kind of — a therapy for. I’m not going to talk about that. (laughs)”
Theeb opens in New York, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver, on Friday, November 6.
The post Interview: Naji Abu Nowar on His Feature Debut ‘Theeb’ appeared first on ScreenPicks.