SummaryAs wedding festivities get underway in a Bedouin village in Southern Israel, Jalila finds herself in the awkward position of hosting her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila stumbles across her eldest daughter Layla’s involvement with a boy from her university—a strictly forbidden liaison that ... Read More
Directed By:Elite Zexer
Written By:Elite Zexer
Sand Storm
Metascore
Generally Favorable
74
User score
Mixed or Average
6.0
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
92% Positive
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
8% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Oct 6, 2016
100
Sand Storm's great gift is that it is human, not didactic, showing not only how difficult this iron web of culture and tradition is to escape from but also how much it poisons the lives of the men who enforce it as much as the women who are victimized by it.
Sep 28, 2016
80
In short, Zexer's film — scraped of sentiment but still coursing with feeling — is an ethnographic melodrama, rich in cultural specifics but also universal longings.
Apr 15, 2020
75
Sand Storm builds a sense of dread into the proceedings. It’s not literal “head cut off” violence that we fear. It’s the victims getting nothing out of all this acrimony and negotiation. It’s knowing this film will never deliver “a Hollywood ending.”
Jul 18, 2016
75
Rather than proposing solutions or envisioning a tight happy ending, Sand Storm lingers in the crevices of a fascinating cultural challenge.
Jul 18, 2016
70
Arab critics may lament that Israelis are telling their stories, but they won’t dispute the gritty reality on the screen.
Sep 28, 2016
63
It’s a fairly familiar critique of patriarchy from a humanist and feminist perspective, but one put across with some very impressive filmmaking skills by a first-time director.
Jul 18, 2016
60
The lead performances have power, whereas pictorially the film is pretty rough and ordinary.
User score
Mixed or Average
67% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
17% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Oct 10, 2016
8
It is a movie by Israeli director Elite Zexer (her debut, by the way) about a girl and her mother in a Bedouin village. It could be called a modern Romeo and Juliette of today's Islam world. A young college girl falls in love with a boy from the university she attends. Having an affair with a boy will inevitably bring lots of shame to her family. Will she be ready to put her family through shame in order to pursuit happiness? There is no death in this movie, no blood spilled but it is no less tragic than original Shakespeare's play. We do not see much of "Romeo", mostly the girl and her parents. And the movie is about woman's fate in that part of the world, in that culture, her place in the society. There are no bad people in the film, just backward traditions that break peoples lives. The movie is extremely authentic, it is very subtle and nuanced. Great debut!
Production Company:
- 2-Team Productions
- Gesher Multicultural Film Fund
- Israel Film Council
- Rabinovich Film Fund Cinema Project
- Rotor Film
Release Date:Sep 28, 2016
Duration:1 h 27 m
Tagline:Sacrificing your freedom for the benefit of the family.
Awards
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy
• 6 Wins & 12 Nominations
Stockholm Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Seattle International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
