From the filming of Adam
The Cannes Film Festival may be a magnet for paparazzi and A-list Hollywood celebrities, but its prime purpose remains to serve as one of the most prestigious platforms to showcase new films and to promote the world’s most promising up-and-coming directors, producers, and screenwriters. This year’s event is particularly important for the Arab world, as it will showcase more films from this region than ever before. A number of made in the Middle East films are being shown at the Short Film Corner, an indication of the strong and newfound creative energy within the region’s growing film industry. These films explore topics such as memory, identity, and loss, and aim to stimulate conversations about life in the Middle East.
A still from Adam
Adam, the story of a man whose reunion with his wife and daughter is disrupted by the war in Syria, is one example of such work. Filmed in Abu Dhabi by Syrian-native Amani Alsaied, it is a story that narrates the essence of loss, both on a personal and a universal level. Through the film, Alsaied highlights the fact that the fear of losing a loved one is a reality for over 100,000 Syrians.
Filming of Filigrane
Loss is also an integral theme in Filigrane, a film by NYU Abu Dhabi professor Gail Segal, which narrates the story of three siblings on a road trip in the Abu Dhabi desert who are dealing with the loss of their father and their conflicting memories of him. Segal, who took home the Best Short Film Award at the St. Tropez International Film Festival, knew that she wanted to set her story in the UAE desert ever since her visit in 2012.
A scene from Lost in Escapade
The costumes for Filigrane were designed by Beso Turazashvili, a Georgian native based in Dubai, who also created a 15-minute-long film, Lost in Escapade. Shot in Al Jazirat Al Hamra in Ras Al Khaimah, a ghost town that has been uninhabited for the past four decades, Turazashvili uses the empty houses to symbolize the vacuum in his protagonists’ lives—a Georgian couple separated after the wife flees to work in the UAE with little explanation.
Drama also seems to be a popular genre among our regional directors; Philip Rashid’s short movie Happy Birthday narrates the unexpected surprise a seven-year old gets on the eve of his birthday. Given that Happy Birthday previously won the Samsung Short Film Contest in Dubai and that the entire work was filmed on a Samsung Note 4, it will be interesting to see if Rashid can repeat his success on an international scale.
Amani Alsaied, director of Adam
Considering that the Middle East’s film industry is still nascent, the filmmakers admitted to facing some practical limitations; Alsaied talked of conducting hundreds of auditions to find certified crew members and experienced actors; as did Segal, who had to search all over the UAE to find a middle-aged Emirati female actress to play the role of the deceased father’s assistant. Their current presence at the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival, however, is a positive sign that cinema in the region is progressing.
–Natalie Theodosi
