The Curve (2015)

THE CURVE  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Rifqi Assaf
    Ashraf Barhoum, Fatina Laila, 
    Mazen Moudam, Ashraf Telfah
A road movie about three strangers who end up traveling across Jordan together in a VW bus. All three are exiles from Palestine or Lebanon, and one of them, the driver, appears to be suffering from severe PTSD. The camera effectively puts you in the van with them, and by the time the picture's over, you won't just feel like you've gotten to know them, you'll be glad you did. It took Assaf six years to get the story to the screen, and he made a conscious decision not to change it, even though some things, like a refugee returning safely to Syria, were no longer in play on the ground. The movie's a bit of a reality warp, anyway, but in a region where the political dynamic is fluid and millions are displaced, you can see where reality might take a detour, too, now and then. Stay with it to the end, and see what you think.