Sacrifices (2002)

A very strange film indeed. It is something of a cross between Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention and the collected works of Sergei Parajanov. In the remote wilderness, a large family lives under a tree. The dying patriarch wants to name one of three newborn sons after himself, but cannot decide which he likes best, and dies before naming them. Thus the cousins go through life nameless. Director Usama Muhammad has a very stylized and expressionistic style, and he jumps right into his bizarre and fantastical world. One of the cousins falls in love with the orphan girl Feyrouz, one is a masochist, and the other is a sadist. Hell, all of them look exactly alike, and they sometimes meld into one person. The father, an avowed Ba'athist, goes off to fight the Israelis, and returns a raving lunatic. Televisions, mirrors, and radios project the characters lives back to them. This is a difficult film to watch, it is slow, and eschews narrative conventions, but the visual sumptuousness of the direction, and the sheer creativity of it will reward the patient. The world of Sacrifices exists almost outside of time, sealed up and enveloped within itself. Definitely worth checking out, and a great introduction to Syrian cinema.