‘Theeb’ wins three awards at Trans-Saharan International Film Festival

AMMAN — Jordan’s submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, “Theeb”, has recently won three awards at the 12th Trans-Saharan International Film Festival in Zagora, Morocco, according to a statement from the movie’s distributor, MAD Solutions. 

Director and co-writer Naji Abu Nowar’s “bedouin Western” won the Jury Award, the Journalism and Film Analysis Award and Best Actor Award for Jacir Eid, who plays the titular character.

The win came a few days after “Theeb” made it to the Oscars shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film. 

The nine films currently contending in the category were selected out of 80 submissions.

“Theeb”, which was filmed entirely in the Southern Badia, is one of only two shortlisted films not from Europe — the second being Colombian feature “Embrace of the Serpent”. 

The other selected movies are from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary and Ireland.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2015 are being determined in two phases, according to the Oscars’ official website.

The “Phase I committee”, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 14. 

“The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist,” the academy said.

The shortlist will be reduced to the category’s five nominees by “specially invited committees” in New York, Los Angeles and London. 

“They will spend Friday, January 8, through Sunday, January 10, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots,” the academy added.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 14, 2016.

Last month, “Theeb” was released commercially in the US and garnered more than $136,000 in ticket sales within five weeks, the distributor said.

The film was also released in 12 countries in the Arab world and Europe and is set to have a limited re-release in several Arab countries, details of which will be revealed soon, it added.

The film’s producers collaborated with bedouin tribes to ensure the authentic depiction of life in the region. The cast was entirely formed from the local tribesmen of these communities after they were engaged in acting workshops in the eight months prior to principal photography.

Co-scripted with Bassel Ghandour, the film is set in the Arabian Desert of 1916.

It follows Theeb, a young bedouin boy, and his brother Hussein as they leave the safety of their tribe to venture on a treacherous journey at the dawn of the Great Arab Revolt.

“If Theeb is to survive, he must quickly learn about adulthood, trust and betrayal,” a statement from the distributor said.

In addition to Eid, the film also stars Hussein Salameh, Hassan Mutlag, Marji Audeh and Jack Fox, the only professional actor on the cast.

The crew included Wolfgang Thaler, an award-winning Austrian director of photography, British composer Jerry Lane and British production designer Anna Lavelle.

The film was edited by Rupert Lloyd.

Ghandour’s Bayt Al Shawareb, in association with Lloyd’s Noor Pictures, produced the film, in co-production with Nasser Kalaji and Laith Majali’s Immortal Entertainment.

Nadine Toukan — the producer of acclaimed Jordanian features such as “Captain Abu Raed” and “When Monaliza Smiled” — is the executive producer.