Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love, their forbidden relationship pitting family against family. It's an old story given a fresh treatment in the new film by Mohamed Chouikh (The Citadel, Youcef). In a desert oasis in which several ethnic groups live and work together, Amin and Myriam, who come from different tribes, are caught in each other's arms. The village plunges into chaos, with demands of banishment and even death for the couple, and the madness escalates toward catastrophe. The tragic inevitability of Chouikh's sad and passionate film carries the force of a timeless story passed from generation to generation. Shown with Flash (Nabel Maleh, Syria, 1997, 3 mins), a snapshot of totalitarian upward mobility.-Tod Booth