Parched hearts in this desert of man’s making

In “God’s Sandbox,” a provocative film that gathers strength as it goes along, the camera picks out a taxi on a road in the Sinai Desert. When the road ends, its passenger, a woman of perhaps 60, steps out, suitcase in hand, and strides purposefully across sand for some distance until she reaches a beach. She is Liz (Razia Israeli), a successful author determined to retrieve her beautiful runaway daughter, Rachel (Orly Perel), who declares she is fed up with her mother’s books, plus her “wacko rabbis and paranoia.”

Rachel hangs out at a seaside bar run by the charismatic Mustapha (Sami Samir), and it is clear the two are mutually attracted. When Liz insists on staying with her daughter in her tent, tensions begin to ease. Liz discovers that Mustapha, a Bedouin, is a storyteller and insists he tell her a tale.

The film flashes back to when Mustapha was a boy and the beach was popular with Israeli hippie types. Among them is Leila (Meital Dohan), who is both naive and uninhibited. Coming upon a Bedouin encampment, she joins its festivities and begins a sensual dance. The men are entranced but also shocked, with one elder remarking to another, “She gazes at a man as if she wanted to devour him.”

The captivated Najim (Juliano Merr), son of the tribe’s chief, whisks Leila away for three days of passion, then announces he wants to marry her. His father casts him out, declaring Leila impure, and the couple starts to make its way across the desert. Yet one of the elders pursues them, intent on purifying Leila anyway. Thus, in an effectively roundabout way, “God’s Sandbox” protests the barbarism of female circumcision, a deeply rooted tradition that persists in parts of Africa and the Mideast.

It’s good that “God’s Sandbox,” written by its producer Yoav Halevy with Hanita Halevy, has such an intriguing premise and compelling performances, because Doron Eran’s pacing tends toward slackness, and most of the dialogue is in an English that is often impenetrable.

With his third feature, Eran proves a skilled director of actors but still has much to learn about how to shape a picture and sharpen details that will give his work more clarity and meaning.

*

‘God’s Sandbox’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Some sex, nudity, adult themes, strong implied violence

An Indican Pictures release. Director Doron Eran. Producer Yoav Halevy. Screenplay Yoav Halevy, Hanita Halevy; based on the novel “Serus” by Dr. Dorit Zilberman. Cinematographer Claudio Steinberg. Editor Shimon Spector. Music Arik Rudich. Art directors Raya Brukental, Maya Zack. In English, Hebrew and Arabic, with English subtitles.

Exclusively at the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., (310) 274-6869; and the Fallbrook 7, 6731 Fallbrook Ave., West Hills, (818) 340-8710.