‘Eid’s moving tale of a Bedouin who wants to write - review

Eid is the first movie directed by a Bedouin, and for that reason, I was curious to see it, but it’s far more than an interesting milestone in Israeli film history. It’s the debut of an extraordinarily talented filmmaker, Yousef Abo Madegem, and it tells a very particular story set in Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in Israel, with such skill and intensity that it transcends its setting and will have a universal appeal.

Eid (Shadi Mar’i) is a construction worker who has problems fitting into the conservative society he has been born into, for several reasons. First, he was sexually assaulted as a child by a respected man (Ashraf Barhom) in the community, which he has never told anyone about, and this secret eats at him and makes him feel alienated from his family and acquaintances.

He loves literature and has turned to writing to try to work through this trauma. He is inspired by the works of French playwright Jean Genet, who spent time in prison and wrote about it. Eid is working on a play that will tell his story and dreams of having it produced.

He is encouraged in his dream by Donya (Zalfa Seurat), an Arab actress in Paris, with whom he communicates via Skype. She is married, but they flirt and joke, as well as speaking intimately about their hopes for the future. He feels she understands him, or at least tries to.

But the tension between what he wants and what he is expected to do grows all the time. He doesn’t fit in with the other building workers, and they tease him. He is a devoted son and turns almost all of his salary over to his parents.

Early on, they pressure him to marry the sister of the man his own sister is engaged to. Her name is Abir (Angham Khalil), and while she is beautiful and gracious, she is a little bit older than a bride is supposed to be, which is why her parents ask for this deal. His father (Hisham Suliman) has agreed to the match, and as far as his parents are concerned, it’s settled.

It’s the last thing he wants, though, to be joined for life to an uneducated woman who will never have the faintest clue about his inner life. He longs for Donya and wishes she would leave her husband. She encourages him to come to Paris and thinks he can get his still-unfinished play produced there. But Rahat is a long way from the City of Light, and he can’t refuse this arranged match.

He isn’t happy about it, and he lets that show, as he struggles to complete his play and cope with the feelings that writing it stir up in him, especially about the man who raped him. He still sees this man around and he tries, hesitantly, to confront him.

Life in his community is about creating a family and supporting it. If there is trauma, if there has been abuse, it isn’t to be talked about and certainly not written about.

It’s a complex story, and you’re with Eid from start to finish, hoping he can find a way to live and be true to himself. It’s much more than a film about a young man from a repressive culture who must break free. While this culture may be repressive, it’s Eid’s culture. Fleeing to some alien world, whether Paris or Tel Aviv, might bring some satisfaction, but it would also be a loss for him.

The movie is particularly effective in how it deals with his relationship with Abir, who is understandably confused by him. She does everything she has been taught to please him, but he makes it clear that his real life is with the woman he speaks to on Skype.

He can’t relate to a woman like Abir who has only a rudimentary education and doesn’t read books. So he struggles to juggle the marriage and his writing, in a place where no one understands him.

The movie won the Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature at the Jerusalem Film Festival this summer. Shadi Mar’i won the Best Actor Award at the festival, as well as the Ophir Award for Best Actor. Mar’i is a familiar face from his performances in Fauda, Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem, Eran Riklis’s A Borrowed Identity, and other roles.

He is always good, but this performance is extraordinary, one of the best performances by an Israeli actor ever. It’s a very tricky role to pull off, because he is in just about every frame of the film and has to display a range of complex emotions, the kind of part that used to be called a tour de force. He can be likable, arrogant, self-involved, and vulnerable, all in one scene.

The rest of the cast is excellent as well, especially Angham Khalil, who makes you care for Abir when Eid mostly sees her as an encumbrance.

There have been other movies about the Bedouin community in Israel, notably Sharqiya (2012) and Sand Storm (2016), and while both of these were well done and carefully researched, they were made by Jewish directors. Madegem brings you into Eid’s world in a way that no outsider ever could.

Every aspect of the movie has been created with care, from the cinematography to the music, to the production design. The script by Yuval Aharoni, who developed the idea with the director, avoids clichés and easy answers.

Just when you think you know where the story is heading, the movie surprises you, often by showing an aspect of Eid’s character that was hidden until that point. But just as important, if not more, it’s a moving, entertaining drama that will keep you engrossed from start to finish, even if you’ve never thought much about Bedouin culture before.

But if you are interested in this community, you will never see them the same way again, because after you see the movie, every time you pass a building site, you will understand that one of the workers could be a guy like Eid.