The Worthy is a 2016 Arabic thriller film directed by Ali F. Mostafa, and Image Nation. The post-apocalyptic movie, a one of its kind in the region, was released on 23 February 2017 in the Middle East.
Synopsis
The Worthy is a narrative film that describes what will happen in a post-apocalyptic future where political conflicts go out of hand. The story begins with a truck driver that goes by the name of Shoaib picking up a stranger. The stranger warns him of what danger is to come due to these conflicts taking frightening twists. Shoaib listens to the man’s advice and takes his two children Eissa and Maryam to seek shelter. One of the political parties decides to make matters worse by contaminating the water supply. Most of the population dies out of fear and hunger in the upcoming years; however Shoaib and his family along with a seven others find shelter with clean water in an abandoned airplane factory. One night, Shoaib, Eissa, his righthand man Qais and Daoud encounter bandits who hold a vulnerable women as bait; Shoaib falls victim to this but two other survivors passing by : Mussa and Gulbin save him. Shoaib invites them in for food and shelter as guests and debates with the others whether to keep them permanently, Eissa insists they keep them as they saved his father's life, while the others say they cannot be trusted. Maryam states she doesn't trust Mussa as Gulbin who does not speak the common tongue is scared of him. Jamaal another survivor in the factory mentions that Mussa still has a knife on him. When Shoaib goes to retrieve this as the rule is weapons must be in the cabinet, Mussa ends up killing him and states that the earth is only for the worthy, then he escapes. Thereafter Mussa starts killing one by one of the survivors, first by turning of the water supply which Gulbin shows Eissa, Raed a former teacher in the factory is the first to die as he turns on the water tank not realising it has been booby trapped with grenades, Daoud is also injured. Jamaal distrusts Gulbin and falls out with now leader Eissa, who takes a liking towards Gulbin, expels him. Later he along with Qais and Reya go out to search for water as they all cannot leave due to Daoud's injuries and an old couple, they find Jamaal hanging as bait which leads to Reya's death. Eissa and Qais return to the factory to find Gulbin who was on watch bleeding, Qais stays with her while Eissa goes in to find the rest dead except his sister Maryam who has a noose around her neck and is standing on a plane wing with Mussa on the other side, so he has a choice either kill Mussa and risk losing Maryam or save her and be killed, Maryam sacrifices herself and Mussa is killed. Eissa goes back to Qais and Gulbin to find him dead and Gulbin standing there, she speaks the common tongue and was the mastermind: she explains this was a test to find people to join their group who are going to build civilisation back up and to meet them in the Madina before knocking him unconscious. Now he is left alone wandering around in searching for food. He comes across the same man his father encountered: the Seer, who explains the group was formed to rebuild but as people's standards were dropping due to the catastrophe the group let in crazed people who liked the chaos, that's why he left and Shoaib helped him leave. Eissa leaves in the morning with weapons, heading towards the Madina.
The movie was released in theaters on 23 February 2017, but the world premiere was held at Vue Cinemas in Leicester Square in London, UK. The screening was full in London, and it gave high hopes to the producers. It is today also available on Netflix in the Arabic movies section. It was a very low budget movie, and Image Nation, the production company, always struggled to attract people to its movies internationally, but The Worthy seemed to be the one that changed this tendency with a mitigated reception of it. The budget and the revenue are unknown, as well as the number of entries.
Nominations
Ali F. Mostafa, the director of the movie, has been nominated in two categories during the 2016 edition of the Dubai International Film Festival for Best Emirati Director Award and Best Muhr Emirati Feature. Although he did not win these awards, the nominations themselves were great steps for his career.
Critics
The Worthy has been a largely viewed movie, first because of its extensive media coverage, but also because the synopsis was a one of a kind for the region. The local newspaperThe National gave it a 3.5 out of 5, saying : “The film rattles along nicely towards its inventive final stand-off, which once again makes the most of the relatively limited resources through ingenious use of some chains, an aeroplane wing and basic physics.” And AlloCiné, a French website where members rate movies and leave comments, gave it an overall rating of 2.5 out of 5. One of the website users said “No superhero, no impressive combat scenes, here it is real, with the struggle of a chief thorn between the survival of his own people and the appearance of two strangers asking for protection in this crazy world ; it‘s a good post-apocalyptic movie” while another one said “It is full of very dramatic and amateur performances, with a lot of moments that doesn’t make sense and too far from reality.”
