New from The Concert director Radu Mihaileanu, The Source is a modern-day fable exploring female empowerment in the Arab world.
Set in the remote village of Maghreb, it sees the women of the community toil whilst the men folk claim their patriarchal right to lounge around drinking tea and playing cards. Young wife Leila (rising star Leïla Bekhti, All that Glitters), an outsider from the more easy-going south, is concerned by the number of accidents occurring on the steep mountain path the women navigate each day to fetch water. Supported by her widowed neighbour and free-thinking schoolteacher husband Sami (Saleh Bakri, The Band’s Visit), Leila proposes the women launch a love strike: no more sex until the men bring running water to the village…
… the writer-director tosses everything he can into this two-hour-plus humanist couscous, stirring in a mix of songs, sentiments and socio-religious questions set beneath breathtaking North African landscapes, and carried by a strong central performance from actress Leila Bekhti.
The Hollywood Reporter
