GOAT LIFE, THE
(director/writer: Blessy; screenwriter: story Goat Days by Benyamin; cinematographer: K.U. Mohanan, Sunil K.S.; editor: A. Sreekar Prasad; music: A.R. Rahman; cast: Prithviral Sukumaran (Najib Muhammed), Jimmy Jean-Louis (Khadiri), K.R. Gokul (Hakim), Talib (Kaheel), Amala Paul (Sainu); Runtime: 141; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Steven Adams, Blessy; KGA Films/Phars Film/Image Makers; 2024-India/USA/Haiti-in Malayalam with English subtitles)
“Najeeb’s story should have been an emotionally more moving one, it instead seems only a strange one.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The director/writer Blessy (“Calcutta News”/”Pranayam”) is from India. He adapts to the screen a non-linear film on the 2008 best-seller survival story Goat Days by the Malayalam writer Benyamin. The overlong drama is based on the real Indian person Najeeb Muhammed (Prithviral Sukumaran), who was duped into being a slave worker on the desert of a Saudi Arabian livestock farm for over three years (from 1993-95) without pay.
Arriving in Saudi Arabia, Najeeb is soon separated from his fellow traveler Hakeem (KR Gokul) at the airport. Kaheel (Talib) introduces himself as his new boss and puts him on a truck that takes him to the remote desert. The kidnapper has the poor vic tending to goats in the Saudi desert, as he loses his humanity.
In flashbacks, Najeeb remembers the wife (Amala Paul) he left behind in his coastal village. We see him express his love for her through a song. It is at such times that he maintains his humanity and the film is most watchable.
Najeeb’s story should have been a more emotionally moving one, it instead seems only a strange one. I never could identify with him, which made it difficult to take in a foreign film that seemed so foreign.
The story is filled with suffering, cruelty and desperation. You would probably have to kidnap me to see it again.
REVIEWED ON 12/19/2024 GRADE: C+
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