Displaying items by tag: Moe Alitawi

WITHIN SAND

Saudi Arabia, 2022, 116 minutes, Colour.

Ra'ed Slsammari, Adwa Fahad, Obaid Alwadaani.

Directed by Moe Alitawi.

This is a drama from Saudi Arabia, the writer-director’s first feature film after some shorts. He grew up when cinema was not flourishing in Saudi Arabia and he studied in London.

The film was shot in the Saudi desert, some extraordinary vistas right throughout the film, extraordinary rock shapes, the vastness of the desert itself, a sand storm.

The focus is on a group of travellers, merchants, on their way home, a young men, confident of himself, tobacco merchant, deciding to take a shorter route, not telling the leader. Which means that the most of the film focuses on him and his journey through the desert, a survivor in the desert, initially robbed, his horse taken, his managing, digging for water, threatened by a Wolf who later becomes a companion and friend. He has various nightmares, vividly lost in the desert, trapped in the canyons. He also has a dream of the sea, sitting and luxuriating in the water.

The film also shows the women at the encampment, the young man’s wife pregnant, eager for his return before the birth.

Eventually a search party is sent out for him and they meet, and a dramatic moment as his friend thinking the wolf is menacing, shoots it. The young man covers it with a garment. And, on return home, tells his wife that their new son is to be called Wolf.

The most audiences, the setting is quite unfamiliar – beautiful and intriguing.

1. The title, the desert? The group within the desert, the individual surviving the desert?
2. The Saudi Arabian film, the director, the cast, the crew?
3. The location photography, the beauty and ruggedness of the desert, the terror, day and night, rock formations, the sand, close-ups and distance? Humans in the desert? The wolf? The musical score and atmosphere?
4. The opening, travelling the desert, the group, trade, tobacco, perfume…? The entourage, the leader? The plan, the artillery, the discussions, conflict? The leader and his influence, his control over Snam, Snam defying him?
5. Snam, his age, tobacco and trade, discussions, his reliance on Awad? His defiance, rash, the alternate route, wanting to return to his pregnant wife?
6. The camp with the women, their work, the pregnant wife, the cradle, her mother-in-law? Women and the tribes in the desert?
7. Snam and his story of survival, the horse, food and water, possessions, clothes in the desert? The rabbit, going to shoot? The robbers, the two brutal robbers, the confrontation with guns, knives, the attack, the leader arriving, a touch of compassion, letting him go? Snam’s later encounter with the big thief, the confrontation and fight?
8. The journey through the desert, his self-confidence, affected by the encounter with the thieves, his map and gauging directions, food and water, digging the hole, the sandstorm,? His dreams, – and the prologue to the film, watching himself with a child, digging? The pursuit through the rocks, dead ends? And the dream of the sea, sitting in the water, luxuriating in the water? The impact of the dreams?
9. The wolf, menacing, the confrontation, following, his giving it food, the companion, following, sleep, the fire, the dead camels, Snam relying on him for company?
10. Awad, his role in the group, interrogation by the leader, the return home, wife and her grief, not telling Snam’s mother? The request to go to search for Snam?
11. In the desert, meeting, the Wolf, Awad thinking it a threat, shooting it, Snam’s grief, covering it with the cloak, and calling his son Wolf?
12. The return, the embrace? The return to his wife, his son? The effect of the experience on him?