It’s hard to believe that Mohammad and Saleh Bakri, father and son in real life, have never acted together before. But, playing a father and son touring Nazareth to fulfil the requirements of ‘wajib’ – which dictates that wedding invitations must be delivered by hand – they given a whole new dimension of credibility to the film, which is in the Official Competition at the London Film Festival.
Wajib, the movie, is a work with an exquisite eye for the details which reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a relationship. The drive through Nazareth’s traffic-clogged streets adds depth to those details – the horn-tooting irritation of drivers in a traffic jam gives way to embarrassment when they realise the cause is a funeral procession – but the real focus is on Shadi, returning from his new life in Italy only for the wajib, and his schoolteacher father, both set in their different ways, their emotions reined in.
A conversation in a car may not sound the most attractive prospect for a film. But in the hands of these two, it is – with due allowance for the tension – a joy ride.
Screening Monday 18:00, Embankment; also Wednesday, 14:15, Embankment
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