“If you were a preadolescent boy stranded in the desert with a sinister grown-up stranger on whom you depended for your survival, what would you do? That question, posed in the spellbinding Jordanian adventure film ‘Theeb,’ drives a story set in the farthest reaches of the Ottoman Empire in 1916. The man, who is seriously wounded, and the boy play cat and mouse as they help each other stay alive in a do-or-die struggle,” reads a November 2015 review in The New York Times.

“The movie is set in a period known as the Arab Revolt, when Arab nationalists sought independence from the Ottoman Turks. Events are seen through the eyes of Theeb (Jacir Eid), a Bedouin child who has had no contact with the world outside his desert community. During these years, traditional Bedouin culture was disrupted by a railway, nicknamed the Iron Donkey Trail. Connecting Damascus and Medina, it would soon eliminate the need for Bedouin pilgrim guides,” the review continues.

The international films shown at the Southern Maryland Higher Education center have won rave reviews.

Other films scheduled in the series are:

At 6:30 pm Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017 — “Wild Tales” (2014) by director Damian Szifron.

The 2016 fall cinema series showings have included:

“Son of Saul” (2015), from Hungary, a Holocaust film focusing on one man’s quest to find humanity during the horrors of his job in a concentration camp, and “The Intouchables” (2011) by directors Oliver Nakache and Eric Toledano..

Last fall, the series presented such films as “Ida” (2013), a Polish drama film directed by Paweł Pawlikowski; “Micmacs” (2009), a comedy from French writer and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet; “Leviathan” (2014), a drama from Russian writer and director Andrey Zvyagintsev; and “Where Do We Go Now?” (2011) from Lebanese director Nadine Labaki.

SMHEC is at 44219 Airport Road in California, MD 20619; 301-737-2500.

The next SMHEC open house will be 4 to 7 pm April 5, 2017.

To learn more about the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, visit their Leader Member page.