The Worthy Directed by Ali F. Mostafa
The Worthy
Directed by Ali F. Mostafa
Starring: Mahmoud Al Atrash, Ali Suliman, Samer al Masri
Year: 2016
Country: UAE
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
"I need water."
The Worthy, by young UAE director Ali F. Mostafa, presented at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival, is based on a script prepared for an American Hollywood film.
It is an apocalyptic, dystopian story, a sci-fi thriller. As always in this genre, narrating about the future there are many obvious links with current events.
The world is shocked, culture and civilization have disappeared, due to the lack of water. All sources are contaminated, only small reserves remain. Humanity is annihilated. Some people have taken refuge in closed, protected places, outside there are bands raids, who plunder everything they can find.
A group of survivors, led by Shuaib and his two sons, has fortified themselves in a large abandoned and ruined factory, but with a tank of decontaminated drinking water.
They are barricaded, they are armed, they do not go out, and they do not let anyone in.
One night, hunted by a gang, a man and a woman arrive. After a violent battle with the pursuers, Shuaib allows the couple to get in despite the doubts of others.
Foreigners represent a threat, a deadly threat. The new arrivals undermine the integrity of the shelter.
In the world, among the survivors, there is a community of individuals with a special quality. Their goal is to create a new world with a virgin existence, a great reset. These people are the Worthy.
The first scene is a flashback, the catastrophe has not yet broken out, a truck driver gives a ride to one hitch-hiker. He is sad and old, with a dark gaze and an inner torment. At Exit 77, the elderly man gets out and gives him advice: “Beware the black flags”. The truck driver is Shuaib.
The plot takes place in the vast and uninhabited industry. The Worthy is an action movie, fast, cruel with macabre and disgusting sequences. The clashes are rational, inhuman. Emerge the virtuous Eissa - the son of Shuaib - and the bad, the stranger Jamal.
The ending is top secret but the beginning and the end joined, enclosing the whole story in a threatening and scary circle.
The Arab countries base their immense wealth on oil, talking about a dystopian future for the scarcity of water seems like a joke. In reality, the idea is well adapted and the similitude obligatory. Oil will not last for eternity. If it were to end, or if it were no longer strategic, everything would fall apart.
Therefore, it is necessary to diversify, for the union of worthy people capable of adapting to the new situation, founding a multiform society, economically varied, without being entirely dominated by oil.
Countless menaces come from outside. An example is the old man's warning to the truck driver to be careful about black flags. Black flags are associated with terrorist attacks.
The other aspect is the meticulousness about immigration. The architectural and commercial development of the Arab countries depends on workers from abroad, but these governments, at the same time, have the maximum attention to the entrances. If one day an alien arrived, who declared to escape from a dangerous area, what should be the behaviour to avoid that enemies entered?
The film is adrenaline-pumping, always active. The tension increases in the confrontations. Many speed scenes are depicted in slow-motion helping make actions exaggerated and sudden. The challenge is in the traps, in the risky games, in the lethal tricks, in the bizarre deceptions and, above all, in the huge cruelty and the indifference to suffering. Atrocious pitfalls and subterfuges are placed to evaluate Eissa's deductive abilities and courage.
The author emphasizes the different human characters of the cohabitants in the building. Shuaib's valour, skill and generosity prevail. His severity in the checks has a weakness, and it is the end.
Eissa has the same bravery as his father, plus he adds audacity of youth, the willingness to be a leader, ready to sacrifice himself to save others.
Jamal is the ruthless stranger, he performs mortal machinations, regardless of being already predestined.
The director moves actors and effects with the will to surprise.
"May he rest in peace" and the camera rises to show the terrifying devastation near the factory. There is no life, only rubbish everywhere. Objects, considered daily essentials are abandoned.
The future does have no hope. If the world were destroyed, everyone would be condemned “we are in the same path” and the frame moves up to shoot a grave with a cross.
Even in peacetime, the survivors in the shelter are sad, with their past stories and whispered songs.
The author's colour is black, both for the dark night and for the dirty walls of the desolate factory. Black is also the blood, the tortures sought, the indispensable impairments, everything causes the physical and mental disorder, this is the purpose. He wants to confuse, eliminate the vision of global desolation around the survivors, it is useless to seek refuge in a fort in the desert.
The Worthy is a sign of the maturity of Arab cinema, the producer, Rami Yasin explains:
"The Arabic movies that travel to International festivals all come from a political background or a social background, generally speaking. They’re about Israel / Palestine, the Iraq invasion, Lebanese Civil War." (1)
Cinema is much more, it is not just a single genre, otherwise, the public gets tired:
"It’s great to do films that go to Cannes and open in Berlin and Toronto ... but they don’t encourage audiences to go the theaters." (1)
Ali F. Mostafa makes a dizzying, intelligent film to be seen worldwide. The actors help him.
Mahmoud Al Atrash is Eissa, very good at quick actions. He is focused on the role and sensitivity of being worthy.
Ali Suliman is Jamal; sadist, evil, cynical, detached, daring, with a cold and intolerable expression.
Magazine Empire Arabia – December 2016 issue 013