Clearly made on a shoestring, this surprisingly effective and moving film, set in a Arab-Israeli village in 1964, introduces us to a group of villagers whose lives are linked by both a mutual history of loss (a title card explains that many of
them were robbed of family members by the war of 1948) and their present powerlessness. Mabruq (Suheil Haddad), one of the walking wounded, is the village idiot. Mahmmud (Muhammad Bakri), a metal worker, takes care of Mabruq and courts schoolteacher Suad (Amal Murkus). Suad is also coveted by
Muhammed (Salim Dau), the dissolute son of the village's leader, the Mukhtar (Makra Khoury). The Mukhtar, meanwhile, is coping with a c...
Released:
1997
Rated:
NR
Length:
104 mins