Theeb (Arabic for wolf) is a 2014 Jordanian movie directed by Naji Abu Nomar that won various awards and was a 2015 Oscar nominee for best foreign film.
It’s set in the Mideastern theatre of WWI, with the Arab uprising against the Ottoman Empire (Lawrence, anyone?) as the background.
A Bedouin boy, Theeb, is the youngest of three sons of a nomadic desert family, who in the past, earned their livelihoods as “pilgrim guides,” folks who would guide people on the Haj across their stretch of desert to Medina, knowing where the various wells and oases were. The war and the new railroad have almost eliminated their livelihood. The father has recently died, and the oldest brother is now head of the family, with Hussein, the middle son perhaps in his early 20’s, and Theeb a pre-adolescent – all deeply rooted to their way of life, knowledgeable about the geography of their area, and bound by codes of hospitality and service to fellow clans.
One evening an Arab and a young blond Englishman (Lawrence, anyone?) appear at their camp and request to be guided across their stretch of desert to the next set of wells. Though somewhat reluctantly, given the war, the Ottomans, and the Arab revolt against them, they agree. Hussein is to be the guide. When they set off, Theeb trails behind – and eventually, as the Englishman insists they don’t have time to go back with him, accompanies them.
Things get complicated – the well to which they were guiding them is now poisoned by the blood of some of the men they were to meet, and as they reach the next well, they are attacked by a group of former “pilgrim guides” who are now allied with the Ottomans. The Englishman, his Arab companion and Hussein are all killed. Theeb survives and shows skill and cunning beyond his years to survive, eventually meeting the badly wounded former “pilgrim guide” who had been part of the group who had attacked them and killed Hussein and the others.
Theeb and the wounded man stay together and get to the railroad station where the man sells the goods he took from the Englishman to the Ottoman lieutenant. And the story reaches its conclusion…
In some ways a coming-of-age tale; in others a revenge story, and in a sense a desert western — a couple of absorbing hours, with Arab hospitality, lots of camel riding, cleverness, and transport to one of those wonderfully different worlds. Well worth seeing.