Waleed (40) lives in Haifa with his wife and children and dreams of a writing career while suffering from chronic depression. He develops a close relationship with his neighbor (a small-time crook) with an ulterior plot in mind. While the scheme turns into an unexpected friendship between the two men, it leads them into a journey of dark encounters.
Thanassis Karathanos Martin Hampel Juliette Lepoutre Marios Piperides Baher Agbariya Pierre Menahem Janine Teerling
Fièvre Méditerranéenne, 메디터레이니언 피버, Středomořská horečka, Mediterrán láz, 地中海热, 地中海發燒友, Mediterranean fever
France
Cannes Film Festival
France
Germany12
France
Germany
The first two acts of this movie are so good it’s actually a shame that it all leads to such a disappointing conclusion. The potential is there… it’s just never lived up to.
An incisive and urgent expression of the loneliness inherent to suicidal ideation. The isolation of being unable to express yourself honestly to strangers and family alike without a severe backlash is claustrophobic and omnipresent, despite depression seeping into most characters we see. Both Waleel and Jalal suffer from the same condition, yet Waleel's offer of a solution is met with scorn and anger, and ultimately denied to him. Meanwhile, Jalal's abrasive and carefree attitude is a facade to protect his ego, but it does nothing to protect him from himself, forming an internecine toxic masculinity which dooms him to suffer in (relative) silence.
The personal depression is used as a metaphor for an endless national grief for Palestinians living in…
For most of its run time, I can see why Maha Haj’s slightly skewed buddy movie won the best screenplay award in the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes this year except for what I thought was a major hiccup close to the end.
Like all good buddy movies, this pair start off as antagonists. Waleed (Amer Hlehel) is a chronically depressed wannabe writer, living with his nurse wife (Anat Hadid) and a couple of pre-teens in an apartment near the beach in Haifa (the film came with a MIFF trigger warning for suicide). His first encounter with his new neighbour, Jamal (Ashraf Farah) comes when Waleed is trying to write (I.e. sitting and looking at his blank computer screen)…
احترت أركّز بحلاوة حيفا ولا الفيلم!
رأيي يمكن منحاز لأني بحب مها وعامر، بس اه صراحة عجبني الفيلم جدًا
وعمومًا، مذهل كيف ما كان في وجود اسرائيلي فيه، الكوميديا السوداء الفلسطينية عظيمة وهي نوعي المفضل
بعد العرض المخرجة لما انسألت عن اسم الفيلم حكت جملة قد تبدو كليشيه بس أنا من أشدّ مؤيّديها: الاحتلال هو الحمّى في العالم الآن، وطوال ما في احتلال رح تضل هاي الحمّى
This comedy about a depressed man in Palestine is so dry only camels will get it.
What feels like a sequence of random scenes slowly takes shape and creates a film worthy of the best screenplay it won in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes 2022.
It was funny without trying, if only it had tried to be funny more often.
- انت واحد جبان.
- أنا مش جبان، الجبان هوي اللي بخاف من الموت وأنا بدي موت!
- الجبان هوي اللي بخاف من الحياة.
مبسوط أنو السينما الفلسطينة بأخر كم سنة، مش عم بتكون سينما قضية ومقاومة بالمطلق، عم تكون أقرب لهموم الإنسان اللي عايش بفلسطين، والإحتلال موجود بالخلفية بس الأثر النفسي تبعو طاغي على جميع مفاصل الحياة بفلسطين، وعم يكون اللجوء للكوميدا السوداء للتعبير عن هل الهموم أسلوب وإتجاه واضح بالسينما الفلسطينية، اللي بلشها إيليا سليمان بالزمنات.
Mediterranean Fever reminds me of the work of the Coen Brothers as if their mid 00’s crime comedy work were planted in the steep social realist world of Andrey Zvyaginstev.
A mysterious illness grips the family’s son while his father finds himself aimless and depressed, bemoaning the constant bad news on TV and difficult whims of his family. He’s indifferent.
His new neighbour of planetary opposites seems rude at first, indifferent to the state of Palestine, and to the noise pollution he causes. Yet he’s charming, almost a George Clooney doppelgänger and only slightly removed from the ‘Great Gatsby’ appeal of Steven Yeun’s character in Burning.
This was an unexpectedly gripping drama infused with sardonic, dark comedy, exactly the sort of underrated banger that warranted it the Best Screenplay win at Cannes Un Certain Regard this year.
Mid, some cool ideas but a disappointing 3rd act and doesn’t really succeed in the balancing act of depression and comedy
مشاعر كتير مصاحبة للفيلم ده ودموع كتير كمان. بسأل نفسي حاليًا أسئلة كتير أوي ومن ضمنها التساؤل اللي أرهق وليد، ليه بنفيق كل يوم الصبح؟
فيلم عن شخص مكتئب، اكتسب صديق، الدنيا أصبحت أخف عليه بكتير فترة صداقتهم، بيحاول يبقى كاتب بس مش بيكمل، بيشتغل مبيكملش، مش فاهم مغزى لأي شيء بيعمله ومش قادر لأي حاجة.
الفيلم زعلني وفي النفس الوقت اداني لهجات بهيجة كده كانت موجودة في الأغاني بتاعت الفيلم وفي أجواء حيفا الجميلة أوي أوي. لو كان عندي جار زي جلال بيصبحني على ذوقه الحلو في الأغاني ده عمري ما هقوله يوطي الصوت.
أغنية النهاية اتحفرت جوايا والله من كتر جمالها، والتايب من الأغاني ده مقرب أصلًا لقلبي.
شُكرًا لمها حاج حقيقي على التحفة العظيمة دي اللي هتفضل…
I keep thinking about the very last scene of the movie - so darkly funny. I also really loved how the movie made commentary on the occupation and how it intersected with Waleed’s life and depression, without reducing Waleed’s character to the sole fact of the occupation. Cinematography also slapped.
P.S. if you like Yorgos Lanthimos (I stan) you’ll probably like this movie bc very similar vibes
