Director: Doron Eran / Israel 2002

Genre: Fiction

Category: Feature Film

Production: Yoav Halevy: Open Doors Films/Tmuna Communication Ltd.;
Supported by the Israel Film Fund and IBA1, Channel One, Israel.

Cast: Meital Duhan, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Razia Israeli, Orly Perel, Sami Samir, Amos
Lavi, Amnon Fischer, Lutuf Noyser.

Language: English, Hebrew, Arabic

Subtitles: English / German

Length: 86 minutes

The horror of female circumcision in the Bedouin tradition is explored in this challenging
film. The film is starring: Israeli-Arab actor Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was shot to death
in Jenin in 2011.

Liz, a successful author arrives at a beach in the magical Sinai Desert in
search of her daughter Rachel who ran away. Liz decides to stay at the beach despite
her daughter’s objections and meets with a Bedouin storyteller. It is here that she learns
of the unusual love story of Leila – a Western tourist – and Najim, the son of a Bedouin
Sheik. This extraordinary love story, that took place many years before on the same
exotic beach, began to fall apart after the expulsion of Leila and Najim from his tribe.
While wandering alone in the desert, Leila is exposed to a traumatic female circumcision
ceremony that horrifies her and shatters the love story. Liz, captivated by the love story,
undergoes a journey of psychological torment, during which her daughter Rachel
discovers surprising facts about her mother’s life.
Cast: Meital Duhan, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Razia Israeli, Orly Perel, Sami Samir, Amos
Lavi, Amnon Fischer, Lutuf Noyser.