8/7/2019 Variety Arabia Film in Qatar Feb 2011

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 FILM IN QATAR

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 As recently as a few years ago a feature film hadnever been made in Qatar, and the country hostedno film funds or production firms. Now, after twoeditions of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival and the

rise of the Doha Film Institute, Qataris are writing, producingand directing award-winning films, Doha-based firms arefinancing major productions and big budget internationalfeatures are choosing to shoot here.

“When like-minded people cometogether and come up with ideas, suddenlythey start to generate work and create asense of ‘we can actually go somewhere,’”two-time Oscar-winning actor KevinSpacey said during an actors’ workshopon the sidelines of the 2nd Doha Tribecafestival last October. “I think things likethis suddenly put a place on the map, andmake the idea of going into the creative

industries a reality.”That idea is definitely stirring in Qatar.

Born and raised in Doha, Ahmed Al-Baker had long been interested in film but hadno way to get his foot in the door. Instead,the 23-year-old studied engineering andtook a job in the energy sector, like somany Khaleejis (Persian Gulf natives)before him.

Then along came the inaugural DohaTribeca Film Festival. “I started thinking tomyself, since film is here people are going to help me if I doanything,” he said. “I quit my job and started working on filmand doors have been opening since that day.” Al-Baker bought a camera and started shooting whatever,

wherever, and working on a sci-fi action script he’d beenworking on in his spare time. By early 2010 he’d garneredfunding for “The Package, Volume 1”, from a new Qatariproduction house and US-based Speed of Life Studios. (He’snot disclosing budget or Qatari backer.)

 With his friend Mohammed Abdul Rahman serving as co-director, Al-Baker shot his film in Qatar last summer. Hescreened a 1-minute teaser during Doha Tribeca and receivedan overwhelmingly positive response. The film is set to hitQatari theaters this spring; Al-Baker hopes to expand acrossthe region.

In a country with half the population under 25, he’s not the only visionary. “A lot of youngQataris are excited about this. Film is comingup in Doha,” said Al-Baker. “It’s getting crazyhere and I love it.”

Mohammed Al-Ibrahim may be at the center of that craziness.

For the inaugural DTFF the organizers helpedeight young locals, including Mr Ibrahim,make 1-minute films as a way to showcaselocal filmmaking talent. For the 2010 event,festival organizer Doha Film Institute helpedthose same filmmakers make 10-minute shorts,setting up a series of workshops with well-

known talents like Scandar Copti, the Oscar-nominated director of Ajami, and Shekhar Kapur.

Those shorts screened during the festival,included Mr Ibrahim’s “Land of Pearls,” inwhich a young boy learns a life lesson froman old pearl diving story. “Every time I see it I see a newfault or mistake,” he said. “It’s a learning experience, not acompetition.”

But Mr Ibrahim did compete for one of two roles in “BlackGold”, a joint production from DFI and veteran Tunisianproducer Tarak Ben Ammar’s Quinta Communications, whichproduced “Outside the Law” and Julian Schnabel’s “Miral”. Thefilm, which began shooting in Tunisia last fall, tells the storyof the search for oil in the Arabian desert, based on Hans R.Ruesch’s “South of the Heart.”It is the third adaption of a Ruesch novel, after 1955’s “TheRacers,” starring Kirk Douglas, and Nicholas Ray’s 1961 Inuitfilm, “Top of the World.” The “Black Gold” shoot is scheduledto move to Mesaieed in south Qatar in January, lookingtowards a Christmas release.

Last October, the producers held a Doha casting call for 

two small roles for the film’s Qatar-shot scenes. During theauditions, casting director Ahmed al-Attar urged Mr. Ibrahim,who was there working for DFI, to read for the part of theaide-de-camp. It was his first film audition, yet he gave thestrongest delivery.

Mr Ibrahim is now set to make his screen debut in a $55million feature film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud andstarring Antonia Banderas, Freida Pinto and Mark Strong. “Idon’t want to sound greedy,” he said, “but I can’t wait to learn

from how Jean-Jacques Annaud dealswith actors.”

DFI deals with actors as well as all  variety of film-related efforts in Qatar:developing local film-making talent withthe 10-minute films; sponsoring jointproductions like “Black Gold”; shooting

 various events around Qatar; and helpinglaunch a scriptwriting training programin conjunction with Mira Nair’s MaishaFilm Lab.

“They are the first country in the Arabworld to have so efficiently launched afilm festival and film institute with a focuson building up its local infrastructure andpartnering on films about the Arab andIslamic worlds as well as those with aninternational appeal,” Tarak Ben Ammar says of Qatar.

DFI also provided funding to Lebanesedirector Mahmoud Kaabour for hisdocumentary feature “Grandma, AThousand Times.” The film won the

audience award for best feature at the 2010 Doha Tribeca. When “Black Gold” shoots its Qatar scenes this month, DFI

crew and film students will shadow the production, to gainexperience on the set of a big budget action adventure.

“We are doing a million things but they are all linked andthey all have to grow at the same time,” said Amanda Palmer,DFI’s executive director. “With DFI it feels like the communityhas an organization that belongs to them and if they want to

build a film industry and culture here they can be a part of that.”

But DFI is merely the vanguard of a budding film movement.Doha-based advertising firm Adabisc recently produced theshort film “Flu,” a quirky, 30-minute dark comedy starringKhaled Taja and Rana Shmayes. The film won Best Arab Short

Film at the Jordanian Film Festival in November.In December, a subsidiary of Qatar Holding, the investment

arm of the country’s $85b sovereign wealth fund, led thepurchase of Disney’s Miramax films, along with Hollywoodfinancier Thomas J Barrack Jr and Colony Capital. Little isknown about their plans for the niche studio, which has anextensive and much-honored catalogue of films, such as“Shakespeare in Love” and “Chicago”.

Finally there’s the $200m Alnoor Film Fund, which is part of the media unit of Qatar conglomerate the Al-Hashemi Groupand the largest private film fund in the Arab region. Alnoor recently announced a deal with Turkey’s Calinos Holdingsto produce a $50m feature film and a $25m TV series aboutthe 15th century Ottoman sultan Mehmet II – the largest ever 

collaboration between Arab and Turkish media firms. Alnoor, founded in late 2009, is also in charge of the 900-

pound gorilla of film in Qatar: the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)trilogy. Alnoor is producing three films based on the life of theprogenitor of Islam at a total cost of $150m. The subject hasa built-in audience of more than a billion Muslims aroundthe world.

But the project is no walk in the park. The Prophet’s (PBUH)life story is complicated and disputed. The subject matter issensitive and, for religious reasons, the protagonist cannotbe shown on screen. A film about the origins of Islam hasbeen tried once before, with 1977’s “The Message”, starring

  Anthony Quinn. That production generated considerablecontroversy yet was ultimately well-received. Today however it seems dated and stiff. Alnoor executives want their films to be the definitive screen

 versions of the Prophet’s (PBUH) life, and more entertainingthan preachy. The release of the first in the trilogy, slated for early 2012, is likely to do for tens of millions of moviegoerswhat 2010 did for the region’s entertainment professionals:irrevocably link Qatar and film.

)@46/(5(3(2:/409(1(2<4(9(;+;--Imagine the richest country on the Africa continent in terms

of mineral resources. Then imagine that same country withouta ruling government. Unfortunately for the citizens of TheDemocratic Republicof Congo, this isn’t animaginary scenario butthe state of affairs intheir country which isroughly seven timesthe size of France. Inthe Eastern part of thecountry an estimated5 million people werekilled during ethnicconflict in 1994.

But this is not thebleak story that viewerswill experience inthe independent film“Benda Billili”. Rather it’s the story of triumphand dignity as the world’s first all handicapped band takes tothe international stage. The film covers the journey of Staff-Benda Billili who are a Congo based group of musicians allafflicted by polio and wheelchair bound. The group is led byRicky Lickabu whose indomitable passion to make a record tosell in Europe provides the group and film’s backbone. The restof his band is wheelchair bound in specially designed vehiclesthat look like adult tricycles. That is except for their charismatic

 youngest member, Roger Landu, who can not only walk butpries the most unlikely sounds out of a can wrapped with onestring which serves as his only instrument .

The film wasn’t even first intended as a film, as director Renaud Barret, explains, but rather the result of a “musicalcrush” on the band who he first heard playing when travelingto Congo to take photographs of the conflict near the border.This was clearly a personal journey not only for the band butfor the film maker as well who describes the journey of six

 years as an “irrational, crazy” compulsion during which they

gave up five times.“You only meet these people once in a lifetime,” Barret

asserts, as he had no directing or production experience, butonly the heart to tell the story of Ricky’s audacious dreamsfor him band. Through the course of the film, we see streetkids, thugs, muggers, come into contact with Staff-Benda Billiliincluding a heart wrenching moment when their corrugatedhuts that are their homes catch on fire. But they persevere asonly those who have no other option can, sharing what theyearn and continuing to write tunes that are inspired by whatthey experience on the street in their daily lives.

The audience is as overjoyed as they are when the dream of going to Europe is realized in 2004 as they tour the world andplay to sold out festivals all over Europe and even in Japan.

“We were resolved to follow the band no matter what,”Barret says, explaining that the film was financed with thedonations of their family and friends. “Failure was not anoption. This was a matter of heart and time.”

Perhaps this was the most fitting director and team to haveworking on this film because Barret’s passion is only eclipsedby that of the musicians whose story he brings home to the

 viewers.

FOLLOW THE BAND

Ahmed Al Baker

If 2009 served as an introduction to film in Qatar, 2010 was its coming out party.

Chairman of Al Noor Holding, Ahmed Al Heshemi

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