“Getting the trust and respect of the Bedouin tribes is very difficult, especially for a woman.” This is an unavoidable observation at the beginning of the film, as it may be a warning that makes the viewer in a state of anticipation and suggests to him that what he will see deserves special appreciation, for this reason it anticipates a judgment that may not take into account the difficulty that led to some stumbling blocks in the film’s march.
The film “Bedouins We Want to Live” by Italian director Tekla Tidelli shows how the rights of populations such as the Bedouins of South Sinai who simply want a basic right, the right to life, can be violated. The content can be expected through the title, and this is not in the interest of any film, because it then has to deviate from the course of expectations or present it in an innovative way that does not make every scene and every statement a boring repetition that has already been heard and seen.
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The marginalized people of Sinai… have roots in the ground for hundreds of years
The film opened with shots from South Sinai, the call to prayer, sunrise and a beautiful desert. This is an introduction to the place, followed by an introduction to the inhabitants. These Bedouins have been living in the area for hundreds of years. Through their stories, interviews, and witnesses, the director brings back the full story of the injustice they suffered from since the Six-Day War to ISIS today. Through the tourism revolution and the Arab Spring and the arrival of Sisi to power.
They are people deprived of their lands and waters that were hijacked by the big European hotels, deprived of basic human rights, such as owning a home, access to health services and education, they were finding water for themselves and pasture for their animals, and their lives were going on normally, but today they are confined to growing and selling opium and providing tourist services modest.
A man from the Sinai Bedouins wanders in the desert in disguise to tell about the Bedouins’ adherence to the desert
“They act as if Sinai is a land without humans.”.. Hotels of the invaders
The film moves from wide, quick shots and general talk at the beginning to more private cases, and it highlights a man in disguise that only shows his bright eyes and part of his dark skin, to tell about the Bedouins’ adherence to the desert as he wanders in it, they, unlike the rest of the Egyptian population, are not interested in immigration to Europe and are not attracted to living in Cairo.
Their kindness and love for the Sinai desert and their connection to the place is similar to the relationship of a mother to her child, they know every inch of it and every herb, and they expect the direction of the wind and the times of rain, the Bedouin speaks in English or his words are dubbed, he does not hear his voice in Arabic, and this left a strange trace, as he is the main speaker to whom the narration returns After other variations dealt with the film.
It was good to hear the voice of the main speaker in Arabic as it happened with the rest of the participants, because it gives greater credibility to the character within its desert surroundings, so it does not seem like it is coming from outside, in addition to the fact that he does not have scenes that bring him together with the rest of the tribe, or show him in his personal life, so it seemed As if he was outside the framework, as he repeatedly said about the change of life around the Bedouins a quarter of a century ago, and the lack of avenues in front of them, as even water was taken from them to be used for swimming pools and major hotels in Sharm El Sheikh.
The water problem is a real problem that may push these Bedouins to leave Sinai, as Musaad Abu Fagr, a human rights activist and a Bedouin who is currently exiled outside Egypt, asserts, saying, “They act as if Sinai is a land without humans.” He is the only one who spoke about the violations suffered by the authorities in his blog “We Want to Live” electronic website, he presents the Bedouins as individuals, and this is what annoyed the government, so that he was arrested in 2007 and imprisoned for three years without trial because of his blog.
A panoramic picture of the Sinai desert and how the Bedouins live in tents, as the Egyptian state has not given them their rights since their liberation from Israel
Tourism development authorities.. Israel and the West plan for the Sinai
The director supported what the witnesses said with scenes from the ocean, and also resorted to drawings and maps to give a historical overview of Egypt, the Six-Day War, the occupation of Sinai, the Camp David Agreement in 1978, and the withdrawal of Israel in 1982, and its remaining effect until today with the opium that encouraged its cultivation in the region, and then during the reign of Hosni Mubarak The state has drawn up plans for the development of the region that put the population outside it.
The Americans, Europeans, and Israelis have been involved in drawing up the plans over the years because the area is so attractive with its cheap prices, they established what they called “tourism development authorities” and gave the Bedouins unfulfilled promises to build schools, homes and hospitals.
Here the director adopted an important testimony of an officer who worked for twenty years with the police, including 12 years in Sinai. He also appeared in disguise and presented the state’s view of the Bedouins, for they are “traitors and not Egyptians, uncivilized Bedouin shepherds and they have no schools,” describing the state as behaving with them. As an occupied country, it did not give them their rights. Since their liberation from Israel, according to him, “they have been marginalized without services or civil records. The state took the lands and divided them and did not give any property to any Bedouin.”
A tribal sheikh in the Sinai, whose tribe in the area lives on livestock and agriculture when water is available, says that the oases are on the verge of death because water is drawn to the hotels
Egypt’s occupation of the Sinai..the sheikh of the tribe whose water was stolen by hotels الفنادق
The director used to support her speakers’ statements about the practice of the Egyptian authorities by television propaganda reports from the Egyptian television to show the authorities’ success in seizing terrorists, weapons and drugs, and highlighting the destruction of dens of Takfiri elements and the burning of the opium crop in agreement with the Bedouins themselves, according to the officer’s testimony, to make records and obtain rewards from the United Nations. A report from Al-Arabiya TV about the Bedouins’ complaints about the lack of water, lack of property and the absence of health care, and this is only a few kilometers from Sharm El-Sheikh.
The director’s camera toured several places in the southern Sinai desert and in St. Catherine, and continued her martyrdom with the sayings of the Bedouins, including a tribal sheikh, whose tribe has lived for several generations in the area and lives on livestock and agriculture when water is available, but the oases are about to die because of the water being drawn to the hotels, so every hotel At least a thousand tourists stay in it, with the water required for baths and swimming pools, all from Sinai wells.