Synopsis
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Mark StrongSultan Amar
- Antonio BanderasEmir Nesib
- Freida PintoLeyla
- Tahar RahimAuda
- Riz AhmedAli
- Lotfi DziriSheikh of Bani Sirri
- Liya KebedeAicha
- Corey JohnsonThurkettle
- Akin GaziSaleh
- Ériq EbouaneyHassan Dakhil
Recommendations
- 50
The New York Times
A far, far cry from “Lawrence of Arabia,” but it has its diversions. - 40
Empire
Ambitious but very tedious and talkatively hackneyed, redeemed just a smidge by the money shots of a swarm of extras on horseback sweeping across the sands. - 40
The Guardian
There's undoubtedly a good film to be made out of the scramble for oil in the Arabian desert in the 1920s – but this, for all its herculean efforts, is not it. - 40
Total Film
Banderas hams and Pinto flutters. If it weren’t for Strong and some colourful art direction, you could chalk this up as a busted well. - 40
Variety
Helmer/co-scripter Jean-Jacques Annaud's rep for spectacle over screenplay is again borne out in this overblown yet oddly anemic epic of warring Arabian tribes during the nascent oil boom. - 0
Slant Magazine
There's an enormous amount of perverse pleasure to be had here for those who get off on the annihilation of nuance.
