Theeb - 1 nomination

Foreign Film - Jordan; Directed by Naji Abu Nowar

Theeb is the story of brothers trying to assist a British officer who is importing train tracks to Jordan in 1916.  Along the way, they encounter bandits who try to kill them, and when the child (Theeb) is left on his own, he must find a way back to safety and must trust his own instincts to stay alive.

The story is basically a shoot out and then an unlikely buddy story, but I can't really figure out how this film made it to the top 5 foreign films.  The child is certainly cute, but each event is overly simplistic and for such a perilous situation, the young actor barely shows any fear.  Perhaps that was a character detail that he should be so unfazed by life and death situations with only revenge on his mind, but it might also be that the acting was just not that good.  It was a challenge to find this story to be believable, and required so much suspension of disbelief, that I couldn't really find what made the film compelling.  In the end, it felt like a linear story that your friend tells you that sounds like "and then this happened and then that happened," with no drama and little to engage the audience.