Before we get too deep in this review, this movie is The Goat and not Goat. Goat is an animated comedy film about a goat that plays basketball. The Goat is a bit more serious and features no sports. There is not a fun-loving game at the center of this tale about how cutthroat people can get when one of the most precious resources is found in the desert. This isn’t about oil. The Goat is about the precious nature of water.
Hadiya (Jessica Hossam) dreams of becoming an engineer like her widowed father Salem (Amr Saad, Hadid). His expertise is responsible for their remote tiny village in the desert tapping into an underground spring. While this is good for sustaining the life of the village, there’s one person who sees this as a get rich scheme. Local wealthy businessman Abu Hashem (Sayed Ragab, Pirates of the Plain) wants to set up an arranged marriage between Hadiya and his son. Her dad rejects the offer. Turns out there’s more than matrimony involved with the proposal. Hashem is involved with a corporation needing the spring for a water bottling plant. Americans Julian Brown (John Savage, The Deer Hunter) and Anna Beckering (Mira Sorvino, Oscar Winn, Best Supporting Actress for Mighty Aphrodite) are under a hard deadline to start pumping and make money. They need Hashem to get water rights to Salem’s spring. Hashem gets extremely persistent with Salem. Life changes abruptly when Hadiya learns her father has left for the city and arranged for her to be married not to the son, but the creepy Hashem. Eventually she escapes from Hashem and heads down the desert road in hopes of finding her father. Her only companion for the long dangerous trek is her pet goat named Sparrow. Things get nasty for the duo as they encounter predators of all kinds in the desert. .
Jassica Hossam is best known for her TikTok videos which explains why she shows off a dance to classmates in the opening scene. Turns out she can do more than creative moves. She does have the skills to pull off such a dramatic lead role. Mira Sorvino and John Savage are believable as the kind of Americans who would show up in a foreign country eager to tape their scarce resources. They have the same attitude as former head of Nestle who once declared water should be privatized and monetized. Now the company claims something else on their website. But you know their attitude. There’s probably a major company in your area that’s takes a large amount of your cities drinking water and bottles it up to sell you at massive markup. Not to mention the millions of gallons of water being taken out of your system for AI Data Centers. You don’t have to go to the desert to feel companies dominating your water supply. The only difference is that you don’t have a goat to keep your company.
Director Ilaria Borrelli (A Girl From The Brothel) gives an unflinching look at Hadiya’s plight. There are extreme moments in the movie. Borrelli has them filmed in ways that they aren’t graphic, yet the emotional punch is still there. The Goat is a harsh film about a young girl being forced to survive so much.
The Video is 2.35:1 letterboxed. The transfer brings out the harsh beauty of the dessert. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0. You’ll hear things clearly when the goat talks. The Arabic parts of the film are subtitled.
Trailer (2:20) lets us know this will be a harsh and magical journey for a young woman and her goat.
Slideshow (1:29) features press photos from the movie.
Cleopatra Entertainment presents The Goat. Directed by Ilaria Borrelli. Screenplay by Ilaria Borrelli. Starring Mira Sorvino, John Savage, Amr Saad, Sayed Ragab, Maya Talem & Jassica Hossam Eldin. Running Time: 91 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: June 23, 2026.
