Popular reviews

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  Review by DirkH ★★★★½ 2

  I love films that manage to have a small focus but a huge scope. This seemingly simple film relates a story that has a resounding impact as it gives insight into a culture that will undoubtedly be unknown to many.

  It deals with a Bedouin community in Israel and specifically with a wife and her daughter. We are thrust into their lives and get to know them through their daily routine, an incredibly effective story telling mechanism in a film like this. There is seemingly no plot, but there is a catalyst that sets director Zexer's narrative in motion, revealing its true intentions. The head of the patriarchal group decides to get a second wife, thus 'demoting' the status of…

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  Review by barbi ★½

  im no stranger to female led films that critique the misogynistic aspects of certain middle eastern cultures but the portrayal of this specific community seemed so suspicious to me and what do you know a white israeli woman wrote and directed it and israel submitted it for the foreign language oscar lmaooo cartoonishly evil little colonizer state

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  Review by Alejandra ★★★½ 3

  Some men are not people but diseases.

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  Review by Hell Baby ★★★★

  Love how quiet it is.
  Shows loneliness and the hard quiet life of women.
  It falls hopeless.
  With no break through, no scape its a cycle.
  Saddest stories are probably the realest ones.

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  Review by Jake Thurman ★★½

  I very much enjoyed the performances of Lamis Ammar as Layla and Ruba Blal as her mother, Jalila. They were definitely the best part of the film for me. The story itself was compelling at times, though largely predictable. The fact that the director is merely an observer of Bedouin culture shows through in the lack of context and other flaws typical of outsiders making films about their "othered" neighbors.

  While there are, I'm sure, many truths told in this piece, I can't help but wonder what is being missed. There are plenty of examples of the detrimental effects of patriarchy present in all of our cultures. I'd love to see someone with Zexer's talent turn an analytical eye on a culture she might be better equipped to dissect.

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  Review by Zig ★★★★½ 3

  It begins with a celebration, a wedding. A genre staple for arthouse family dramas at this point, but the moment is reinvigorated by its setting -- a Bedouin village in southern Israel. The scene is joyous, brimming with life and color despite its rustic simplicity.

  But the endless desert swallows it whole. At the center of Elie Zexer’s directorial debut are Jalila (Ruba Blal) and Layla (Lamis Ammar), a mother and her adolescent daughter. Their relationship is brittle, close to breaking. The reason is petty, but considering the restrictive Bedouin culture, damning.

  Sand Storm tempers its melodrama with a tender fragility. The emotions rise on their own, cooked by the interwoven relationships of its characters, trapped between tradition and progress,…

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  Review by Rachel ★★★★½

  Women are too good for men

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  Review by veeshno ★★★

  The film is extremely picky and that's why it feels off. 

  
  There is a great story, the cast are doing good, cinematography is good, and there is a great contrast in society which is interesting and makes me curious to want to see more. But there are missing pieces of this puzzle that Elite Zexer decides not to share with the audience. 

  It falls flat because the conflict goes way deep inside the characters head than expected. Everything in the film happens so peacefully while the conflict is huge.  And it's going on beneath the surface. 
  I would prefer to cut the long silent reaction shots shorter, or, I would prefer to let them talk rather than staring at each…

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  Review by Robert Fuller ★★

  As the movie started, and I sat through about ten minutes of company logos, I thought to myself, I bet this movie is going to start with the opening credits on a black background with the audio of the opening scene playing over them. Unfortunately, this wasn't the only prediction of mine to be proven true, including the one concerning how the film ends. Girl loves boy, but girl is set to marry another boy in an arranged marriage, parents disapprove, etc., etc. Classic boilerplate plots are fine, provided they offer something else that's new or interesting. This doesn't. The director shows little understanding of visual storytelling or spatial sense; I never did figure out where the two houses where most of the action takes place were in relation to each other. I also kind of hate the title, which is meaningless other than as a puerile metaphor.

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  Review by lailaghamdi ★★½

  kinda sick of middle eastern films dealing with the same thing lol it’s always war or girls getting married/how oppressive islam is

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  Review by Glen Grunau ★★★½

  What happens when the women are wiser,  stronger and more courageous than the men in a patriarchal culture? Sand Storm.

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  Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸 ★★★★

  52 Films Directed by Women 3: Days, Not Weeks

  44/52

  Tradition vs progression clash once again, this time in an Israeli Bedouin community.

  This is a regular ongoing theme in almost all Middle Eastern films I've watched recently and is given a particularly head-on treatment here. Nothing really seems to move on here, despite a feeling among all of the members of the central family that they could, if they wanted to. But beholden to traditions and a village watching over their every move, they're anchored to the past and their religion.

  The ending is especially strong and, without giving too much away, could be seen to be very downbeat and negative. I'm not sure really. The feeling I got…