Sharqiya

No one really appreciates Kamel Nadjer (Ednan Abu Wadi) – the young Bedouin security guard at the Be’er Sheba central bus station – neither his relatives, nor his Israeli colleagues. When the poor tin shack he shares with his family in the desert is menaced by demolition orders, Kamel decides to take action. He will first stage a bombing in the bus station, then he will prevent it. Reinvented as a hero, he will save his village and win the admiration he so desires. The pains of the Bedouin people come into focus with great accuracy, nuance and style, as well as questions of identity, the clash of traditional cultures and the shift to modernity. How can the Bedouins preserve an existence that is constantly threatened with destruction on multiple fronts? “The film has a rhythm of its own, unusual in Israeli films… Livne has a great cinematic vision, and mainly insight and cinematic fairness, which provide the film its volume and authority.” Haaretz