Film Review – The Source

Newsroom 02/04/2012 | 07:16

In a village somewhere in North Africa, a group of young women struggle up a mountain in the scorching heat to collect water. Despite the trying conditions they laugh and joke. Then one of the women, pregnant, stumbles and begins to bleed. Meanwhile, back in the village the men sit drinking tea and chatting, leaving the women’s repeated pleas for a water pipe ignored. Something must be done…

Debbie Stowe

The village women decide they have had enough. With a few honorable exceptions their men are an unreconstructed, lazy bunch, and see no need for running water when their wives and daughters slog up the mountain to get it while the men shoot the breeze. Exercising the only power they have over the men, the women decide to withdraw sex – or go on “love strike” – until the men act. Can the women – led by the educated and determined Leila – get their way and their water pipe? Or will the more brutal male villagers crush the rebellion and maintain the status quo?

If you come to this film only knowing that the director, Radu Mihaileanu, is Romanian and expecting another 432 or Mr Lazarescu style effort, prepare for a surprise. While the Romanian New Wave is characterized by its local focus, low production values, grimness and naturalism, The Source is international, lavish, uplifting and mythic. It’s also – whisper it – unashamedly feminist.

At two and a quarter hours long, such a straightforward fable could drag, but in Mihaileanu’s hands it retains its grip on audience interest. There is no weak link here. The cinematography is sumptuous, with sweeping North African plains hinting at the universality of the story. The script and plot are super, with ardent social comment couched in a deceptively simple tale delivered with delicious humor.

And the acting, too, is top quality. Leila Bekhti is the undoubted star, powerfully conveying the gamut of emotions – pride, doubt, fear, family loyalty, love, anger, righteous indignation – of her plucky rabble rouser. Other impressive turns come from Saleh Bakri as Leila’s conflicted but loving husband and Hiam Abbass as her nightmare of a mother-in-law, who oozes bitterness. The show is stolen, though, by veteran Algerian performer Biyouna, whose spirited village matriarch channels the camp flamboyance of a pantomime dame.

With masterful control of his subject matter – which runs from lovelorn teenagers exchanging soppy notes to domestic abuse and even rape, but never feels disjointed or misjudged – Mihaileanu has crafted a movie that brims over with warmth and hope.

debbie.stowe@business-review.ro

Director: Radu Mihaileanu

Starring: Leila Bekhti, Saleh Bakri

On: Cinema City Cotroceni & Sun Plaza, Glendale Studio, Grand Cinema Digiplex Baneasa, Hollywood Multiplex

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