A humble opening ceremony it was I’d say, very much to the point and no bullshit. Since the first day everyone knew that the film “Mesopotamia” was very much the competitor for the best short film in the competition. It’s a Danish production, acted in Iraqi, and directed by Fenar Ahmed, a Danish-Iraqi filmmaker. The film is set in Iraq in 2020, a very pessimistic look at the future of Iraq that was beautifully shot. The film eventually did win the 1st place in the short film competition.
Fenar Ahmed recieving the 1st prize for Mespotamia
I’ll talk about the short film competition, then move to other sections in the festival.
Aside from “Mesopotamia” the competition this year was really strange, unlike the past few years. You couldn’t guess who was going to win or not… which is a good thing actually… most filmmakers knew which films were not going to win, but not the other way around.
In the official competition there was only one Omani film,” Raheel” by Jasim Al-Batashi. I think that Jasim, by watching his last 3 films, didn’t get rid of his theatrical influence in film. You can see that in many aspects of his films, though I think that this one was his best yet. I really can’t stand the over use of the poetic narration, which takes away some of the visual qualities of the whole experience of that short film. It’s enough to make us see it, why tell it again and again and explain it. I think Jasim would make way way better films in the upcoming years.
As for Iraq, aside from “Mesopotamia,” there were 3 films in competition, that between the poor quality and the directness of their messages got lost in the process of their own making. Last year’s Iraqi films were really better.
Saudia Arabia was there, I mean right THERE!! in your face! I’d say that this year the Saudis were in competition as 2 teams, Talashi and other Saudis.
Talashi is a group from Riyadh. Those people shocked the audiences with their wit and frustration. By having 5 films in competition and 2 in the lights section, Talashi blew our minds with their films. We laughed, almost cried, laughed and felt the frustration of those filmmakers and what goes on in their lives there in Saudi. The rebels I’d call them, In “Three Men and a Woman” by Abdelmohsen Al-Dhabba’an, we see 2 screenwriters auditioning an actor to star in their next film, and end up assigning him to also play all the women roles too, because they have no female actresses, we even see him acting as his own wife in bed, while… yes! while making love!
A still from "Three men and a woman"
Anothere Talashi film I’d like to talk about is “According to Local Time” by Mohammed Al-Khalaif, in which we see a hungry guy wanting to eat but everywhere he goes is either for families only or closed for prayer. At the end when the film fades to black the guy talks to the director telling him “Why are you ending now? I want to eat before you end this” and the director replies “We’re closing for Prayer!”
a still from "According to Local Time"
Talashi got a special mention certificate by the jury. An hounour really, which they very much deserve.
Fahad Al-Esta recieving Talashi's certificate, I have no idea what was Hussain Al-Mansour doing at the Festival! *more coming later* ;-)
The dark horse of this competition I’d say was “Sunrise/Sunset” by Mohammed Al-Dhaheri, also from Talashi, which won the 3rd place in the competition. It’s a day in life of a street kid, from home to school to work in the street to getting raped to being cought by the religous police.
Al-Dhaheri reciving his 3rd place prize
To talk about the things that no one wants to talk about was what distinguished most of the Saudi films. Telling true stories and talking about serious problems without being “educational” as other films did, they know how to talk about a certain ordeal without looking like a Khaleeji soap opera. I think that we’ll see more coming from Saudi, their cinema promises a lot and I wish them all the luck and success.
I’ll talk more about the festival in the next post, more about the Bahraini, Emarati and maybe the Kuwaiti films ; – )
For more info about the festival visit the official website, click here