Reviews

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  ★★★★½ review by DirkH on Letterboxd

  I love films that manage to have a small focus but a huge scope. This seemingly simple film relates a story that has a resounding impact as it gives insight into a culture that will undoubtedly be unknown to many.

  It deals with a Bedouin community in Israel and specifically with a wife and her daughter. We are thrust into their lives and get to know them through their daily routine, an incredibly effective story telling mechanism in a film like this. There is seemingly no plot, but there is a catalyst that sets director Zexer's narrative in motion, revealing its true intentions. The head of the patriarchal group decides to get a second wife, thus 'demoting' the status of our protagonists.

  The way Zexer handles this is without cheap manipulation. This film has such a natural feel to it that the struggles and tiny acts of rebellion mother and daughter get up to become tangible and feel real. And this struggle of finding a place in a male dominated society is so easily transported to the state the world is in currently. Watch this film and see a template of a community that fits a bit too easily on the brunt of global societies.

  I don't think it is Zexer's intention to condemn or judge. She handles the central theme of choice or lack there of with subtlety and with and impressive objectivity. She doesn't empower women for empowerment's sake, but instead she focuses on bringing out real strength in a real situation with real issues. And that is the reason why the way things eventually unfold become almost excruciatingly bitter.

  This is a hugely underseen film, something that needs to be remedied in my opinion.

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  ★★★½ review by Alejandra on Letterboxd

  Some men are not people but diseases.

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  ★★★★★ review by Chris Hormann on Letterboxd

  One of the drawbacks of seeing so many films at a Film Festival is there's a risk of exhaustion and of films blending into a homogeneous mess. But on the other side of the coin, you can also go into a film knowing nothing about it and be utterly surprised and delighted.

  So it was today with Sand Storm, a wonderful film which deals with its complex issues in an intelligent and enlightening manner. It contains unheralded actors giving touching and devastatingly good performances and all brought together with magical directorial flair by Elite Zexer. An outstanding film, which opens up a world so little seen by Western eyes.

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  ★★★★ review by Dianne Lo on Letterboxd

  Love how quiet it is.
  
  Shows loneliness and the hard quiet life of women.
  
  It falls hopeless.
  
  With no break through, no scape its a cycle.
  
  Saddest stories are probably the realest ones.

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  ★★★★ review by rosie on Letterboxd

  there's nothing more special than women telling women's stories

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