SAND STORM/ SUFOT CHOL
Israel, 2016, 87 minutes, Colour.
Lamis Ammar.
Directed by Elite Zexer.
Sand Storm is an Israeli film, about a Bedouin village and its customs, spoken in Arabic.
As the film opens, we see traffic on the highway, the goods train passing by, and then a dirt track down into the Bedouin village. A father and daughter are driving, carrying a bed which he cannot take into the house because women are present and his first wife is preparing for his marriage to a second wife.
Immediately the focus is on the role of women in this village, the domination of the men, the subservience of the wives, the older wife having to prepare the house and the marriage celebration for the younger wife, while the younger wife is young and inexperienced. The man already has four daughters.
Another complication is that the rather wilful oldest daughter has been seeing a young man in secret, wants to marry him, the father forbidding it and organising a husband for his daughter. The prospective young man comes to the village to visit, the mother hides him amongst the washing so that he won’t encounter the father, but he does.
The film shows the somewhat cavalier and patriarchal attitude of the father, the determination of the young daughter, the suffering of the mother who then leaves the home to stay with her own mother.
The action of the film is inconclusive – one of the mischievous younger daughters who has already laughed when the new wife has sat on the bed and it collapsed, is now looking at the young wife again, and the credits roll.
1. A film from Israel? A story of Palestine? Bedouin village? The situation of the 21st-century?
2. The impact of the locations, the highways, train lines, the roads off-track to the Bedouin village, the desert, the town? And the city sequences? The musical score?
3. The introduction to Layla, with her father, driving, the result in the exams, his displeasure? Transporting the bed? Her father’s marriage to the younger wife? The presence of his first wife, working hard, not allowing him into the house because of the women, putting the bed together, organising the celebrations, the young bride, her dress, entering?
4. The house, lavish, the household, the rule of the father, the mother to work, hospitality, meals, the washing? Introducing herself to the new bride? Her relationship with her daughters?
5. Layla, seeing the young man, wanting to marry? Her mother’s severe reaction? Meeting the young man, his decision to visit? The mother hiding him? Meeting the father and his severe reaction? The father and his plan for Layla to marry his choice?
6. The mother, her experience, with her husband, leaving, going to live with her mother, taking her daughters? Layla’s visit, the confrontation with her grandmother?
7. The father, with the men, the planned husband? Layla, upset, dragging down the washing? With the new wife, getting the groceries, leaving? Driving to her mother?
8. The new wife, the mischievous little girl who wore jeans, playing, watching the young wife collapsing on the bed?
9. The final sequence, the young girl, watching the young bride – and leaving it to the audience to ponder?
10. The film immersing its audience in the location, with the characters, and with the issues of men and women in the Bedouin village?
