Rotten Tomatoes

Movies / TV

    Celebrity

      No Results Found

       View All       Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

      The Sheik and I

      2012 1 hr. 44 min. Documentary Comedy List
      67% 6 Reviews Tomatometer 71% 50+ Ratings Audience Score An American filmmaker is hired to make a film for a Middle East Biennial celebration and his movie is banned for blasphemy. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Jun 06 Buy Now

      Where to Watch

      The Sheik and I

      Fandango at Home Apple TV

      Rent The Sheik and I on Fandango at Home, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Apple TV.

      Audience Reviews

      View All (1) audience reviews
      Audience Member I thoroughly enjoyed this film even though it was apparent that most of the audience (about a dozen people at an Australian independent film festival) I viewed it with did not. This documentary explores everything from film-making itself through freedom of speech and artistic endeavor, parental concern (the director Caveh Zahedi travels to the emirate of Sharjah with his wife and two year old son whom he integrates into fictional scenes within the film and there are some lovely touches as he documents this process), religion, cultural difference between the UAE and the West, Western ignorance, and so on. While he plays with Western stereotypes of Arabs in order to be deliberately subversive, it becomes obvious in the process of meeting the subjects of this film that these are, for the most part, erroneous and the players in the film are as Zahedi points out "cool people". Instead he focuses more on the road-blocks he starts to encounter while attempting to make and subsequently screen the film from the very people who had the film commissioned. The film dragged on just a little towards the end but largely because of the ongoing evolution of the project from short film commissioned for the Sharjah Biennial (supposedly without constraints) to a more complex documentary feature and above all the film remains entertaining. The director necessarily goes on to explain the outcome of the film, as it was originally commissioned with the associated political and legal entanglements, and all the involved parties right through to it's reception at South by Southwest in March 2012 edited into the closing credits. This has been compared to the satirical works of Sasha Baron Cohen and, while like Cohen's films, it uses satire to explode stereotypes, it always does so sincerely. Zahedi never claims to be anything that he is not, nor does he deliberately go out of his way to ridicule his subjects. Indeed, with one individual in particular, initial xenophobia and suspicion appear to give way to enduring empathy. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      More Like This

      View All Best Movies to Stream at Home
      Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

      Photos

      View All The Sheik and I photos

      The Sheik and I

      The Sheik and I (2012) The Sheik and I (2012) The Sheik and I (2012) The Sheik and I (2012) View more photos

      Critics Reviews

      View All (6) Critics Reviews
      Jeannette Catsoulis New York Times [A] layered, intermittently fascinating documentary ... Rated: 3/5 Dec 6, 2012 Full Review Sherilyn Connelly Village Voice [A] lively, challenging documentary ... Dec 4, 2012 Full Review Chuck Bowen Slant Magazine The film is ultimately more concerned with Caveh Zahedi's attempts to pursue a variety of dull passing fancies than with any larger agenda. Rated: 1/4 Dec 4, 2012 Full Review Allen Almachar The MacGuffin It's one thing to put a piece of yourself into your work; it's another thing when you become the work. Rated: C+ Jul 28, 2020 Full Review Christopher Campbell Movies.com If the whole thing is a well-constructed machine that's eating itself the entire time, it's still so full of truth that I'm not surprised so many viewers had problems with it. Rated: 4.5/5 Mar 14, 2012 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis An American filmmaker is hired to make a film for a Middle East Biennial celebration and his movie is banned for blasphemy.
      Director
      Caveh Zahedi
      Production Co
      Reinventing the Wheel
      Genre
      Documentary, Comedy
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jun 6, 2013
      Most Popular at Home Now