Expected more

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A very compelling and well made film. Every shot, every line of dialogue has a putpose and adds to the multi-layered story. It is amazing how much can be told in such a short time. On the surface, it is a story about issues women have to deal with in a traditional tribal society. But it is just as much about Suliman, the man of the family, and complex choices the family has to make for their sirvival. It is clear that Suliman has his daughters' best interests at heart and loves his first wife but he has to fit in the tribe and play by the rules because their support is all he has if tomorrow, his home gets bulldozed by the Israeli government and he ends up losing everything, the way Anwar's relatives did. This is the fate he wants Layla to avoid and when he tells her about her future husband, the only thing he cares for is that she "finds peace". Peace and security are the most important values, in his eyes. When you are a second class citizen in your own land, community/clan can sometimes be perceived as the only source and guarantee of security.An arranged marriage is not necessarily what Suliman wants for his daughters in the first place. He wants Layla to be independant and have an education and better future, he is concerned about her grades even more than she is. But when Layla and Anwar decide to marry and he learns about Anwar's situation, he feels he has to prevent their marriage at all costs. Apart from Anwar's not yet being able to support Layla financially, the family also risks losing respect and support of their village, and he has younger daughters to provide for. It is for the same reasons, to gain favours from the community, that Suliman takes the second younger wife whom he doesn't love and doesn't sleep with. But apparently, the new wife comes from a relatively wealthy family who helped build and furnish a new house for the couple whereas Suliman's own financial situation leaves much to be desired. Jalila understands all this, both she and Suliman roll with the punches but in the end, she can't help but feel resentment and disappointment towards her husband for his lack of independence and self-respect.Suliman believes that he has to make sacrifices for the future of his family but all it leads to is the young generation having to make sacrifices of their own, and the cycle goes on.

The film Sand Storm directed by Elite Zexer is a drama different than other drama films I have seen. Since the setting of this film is in Bedouin Village in Israel, their living environment and customs are absolutely different apart from my life. While Jaila is preparing wedding for her husband and his second wife, Jaila's daughter, Layla fells in love. However, when Jaila finds out, she does not want Layla to see her boyfriend again. Layla has ran away, but she stops and still comes back for the arranged marriage her family made for her. I was very touched when I saw the scene of Jaila actually allows Layla to run away. Although Layla's escape is going to damage her family relationships, she still respects her daughter's decision. I think the reason she allows Layla to run away is because Jaila does not like her marriage, and she does not want to put her daughter in the same situation as herself. However, this film as a whole has a very sad atmosphere. I would rate this film a 7 out of 10 because I am not used to the pace of this movie.

This was an interesting movie, because things turned out differently than expected. Layla, one of the main characters in the film lives in a Bedouin community with her mother and siblings, and they start having a hard time coping to life, when their father introduces his new wife. Layla goes to college outside of the territory, and she starts falling in love with a student in the school. This becomes an issue, when he is introduced to her dad Suliman, because he is not part of the Bedouin community. Layla has to marry an old guy, whom her father has arranged for her, and at the end she ends up marrying him. Towards the end of the film, I was very surprised, because when Layla was in her car on her way to see Anwar, she turned off the engine of the car, and went back to her family. I did not expect this to happen, because Layla did not want to marry a random guy whom she was arranged to marry, and her mother started excepting her choice to leave, but she decided to act otherwise. I did not like Layla's dad in the film, because once his new wife came along, he abandoned his children, and left them in a rotten house, while he lived in a newly built one, he took away their electric power, and they were left with nothing. Layla's mother was upset when this happened to her and her children, that she decided to stay with her parents, Layla was taking care of herself and her siblings, but dropped them off to their mother, when she wanted to run off. Overall I would give this film a 4 out of 5.

The film follows the struggle of a young Bedouin girl and her will to be free of old traditions that try to keep her caged in a man's world. The main plot follows Jalila (Ruba Blal-Asfour), the first wife of a man that is trapped under the pressure of having a new young wife join the clan. Her daughter, Layla (Lamis Ammar), has a secret lover at school, and Jalila must decide if she is part of the mechanism that will trap her daughter too or going to fight for the next generation to have more than she could ever dream of. The brave directing and storytelling brings to the screen a complex story, exhibiting female struggles from a very specific perspective yet in a very universal way. It is not by chance that the film has had such a successful festival circuit.