SAND STORM

A feminist tale of a young Israeli torn between family tradition and taking control of her destiny. In a small Israeli Bedouin village, Layla, a university student, disrupts tradition when she starts a relationship with a young man who attends the same school. Jalila, her mother, watching her husband get set to wed his second wife, takes a very dim view of this forbidden love and the risk it poses to the family’s reputation. In Sand Storm, her first feature, Israeli director Elite Zexter takes a keen-eyed look at a community stifled by patriarchy, seen here through the clashes of a young woman and her mother.