If you’re looking for purple romance with a social conscience, it doesn’t get much more purple than “God’s Sandbox,” which opens for a week-long run Friday at Facets Cinematheque.
A double-stranded tale of cross-cultural Israeli-Arab relations in the 1960s and today, “God’s Sandbox” begins in the present, with the soapy story of weary middle-aged Israeli author Liz (Razia Israeli), trying to get back together with her estranged young daughter Rachel (Orly Perel), who’s staying near a beachside cafe in the Sinai Desert. As mother and daughter fuss, Rachel’s friend, cafe waiter and storyteller Mustapha (Sami Samir) tells them the tale of Leila (Meital Dohan), an Israeli free spirit who visited the same area back in the ’60s and had a sizzling affair with Najim (Juliano Merr), the son of a local sheik. As things turn out, he couldn’t have made a stranger or more consequential choice.
You’d have a hard time believing the main plot twist of “God’s Sandbox,” so I’ll try to keep it a secret–something the movie itself is not too sharp at. But even more amazing is the major social message that pops up here, involving the worldwide problem of ritualistic or religious female genital mutilation.
“God’s Sandbox” is well-shot and well-filmed, somewhat over-acted, and interesting primarily because it goes so crazily off the rails, both romantically and politically. The movie is not at all boring. But, as mutilation message movies go, it’s behind last year’s “Moolaade,” from Africa’s Ousmane Sembene. Among outlandish desert romances though, it’s within hailing distance of Rudolph Valentino’s “Son of the Sheik.”
7 and 9 p.m. Fri.-Thu., Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.; 773-281-4114, www.facets.org/cinematheque.
`God’s Sandbox’
(star)(star)1/2
Directed by Doron Eran; written by Yoav Halevy, Hanita Halevy, based on the novel “Serus” by Dorit Zilberman; photographed by Claudio Steinberg; edited by Shimon Spector; music by Arik Rudich; produced by Yoav Halevy. In Hebrew, English and Arabic, with English subtitles. An Indican Pictures release; opens Friday at Facets Cinematheque. Running time: 1:26.
Najim …………… Juliano Merr
Liz …………….. Razia Israeli
Leila …………… Meital Dohan
Rachel ………….. Orly Perel
Mustapha ………… Sami Samir
No MPAA rating (Adult; parents cautioned for sexuality, nudity and violence).
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mwilmington@tribune.com
