Sharqiya

A Bedouin who works as a security guard struggles to find a way to save his "village" in the Israel Film Festival entry Sharqiya. (His village is four shacks on a plot of land where his brother and sister raise goats hence the scare quotes around "village".)

The Boy did not like this film and it's not hard to see why: Kamel, our hero, engages on several avenues of approach to making change in his life, like going to the Office of Bedouin Affairs, trying to get stationed at the front gate of the mall instead of the back, and at one point even planting a fake bomb so he can become the hero, and thereby get media attention for his plight.

Spoiler alert: Nothing works. But, that's okay, because ultimately the danger to the village is at worst a minor inconvenience.

I didn't hate it. I thought the camerawork was pretty good. The characters are lightly developed, in the sense that you're given a picture of them as being one way throughout the movie, and at the end the picture is slightly altered.

Kind of sad to think these are the people who kicked ass with Lawrence of Arabia, though.

Difficult to recommend.