While it seemed for a brief moment that the career of Stephen Dorff might be in for a mid-period ascension thanks to his turn in Sofia Coppola‘s “Somewhere,” that didn’t quite happen. As we documented in our feature 10 Actors Hollywood Tried And Failed To Make Happen, Dorff has pretty much gone back to doing a mix of movies you’ve never heard of, the occasional blockbuster and…well, “Zaytoun.” And after making the requisite festival stops last year, it’s coming to theaters and a new trailer has arrived.
Directed by Eran Riklis, and set against the backdrop of the 1982 Lebanese Civil War, the film finds Dorff playing an Israeli pilot (with dodgy accent and everything), whose plane is shot down. He then makes a deal with 12-year-old Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) –a Palestinian boy living in a Beirut refugee camp—to take him back to his ancestral home in exchange for helping him escape. And thus begins a road trip/adventure/drama, but unfortunately, it’s not all that great. As we we wrote in our review out of London, “sadly despite some great character work, the film’s journey comes across as pedestrian at best.”
But you can see for yourself when this hits screens on September 20th. Watch below. [The Film Stage]