At the risk of stating the obvious, here’s a fact: it’s not easy to make a commercial Emirati film. Indeed, the industry is still in its infancy, so much so that Ali Mustafa, the Emirati director behind City of Life, wouldn’t call it an industry at all.
“It’s a movement,” Mustafa said on Friday afternoon. He was part of a panel discussion on the creation of his latest feature film, From A to B, which had its world premiere the night before at the opening of Abu Dhabi Film Festival and received mostly positive reviews.
For him, the struggle and pressure is to get to a place where he can viably create the movie he wants to create. That means one major hurdle: financing. For a $2 million (Dh7.3 million) budget film, money is the make-it-or-break-it factor.
Initially, Mustafa struggled to secure an unfaltering partnership with a financially-supportive entity, going through a trial-and-error phase. However, Noura Al Kaabi, the CEO of twofour54, an Abu Dhabi media company, was committed to the film from the get-go.
“This is not something that twofour54 would normally do,” said Paul Baker, executive director of Intaj with the company. twofour54 tends to focus primarily on short films, rather than projects of this scale.
By the time Mustafa, alongside Egyptian producer Mohammad Hefzy and Lebanese producer Paul Baboudjian, showed them the script — which took three years, on-and-off, to write — the company was willing to provide 50 per cent of the financing.
“Our primary focus and drive is local, indigenous productions,” said Baker.
With 50 per cent of financing to go, Image Nation, another Abu Dhabi content creator, was Mustafa’s saviour. Image Nation committed itself to the project at the beginning of this year, making the film one of the first 100 per cent Abu Dhabi productions.
Brand placements, Mustafa added, such as Nescafe (a world first; the brand has never supported a film before), Coca Cola, and of course, Range Rover, which is seen on the car that the three leads drive around, were a significant help.
Did this stifle his creativity? “Absolutely not,” said Mustafa. “We’re surrounded by brands.” What was more stifling, said Ben Ross, a part of the production team with Image Nation, was to block out brands they didn’t have the right to.
As for struggles with the content of the film, Mustafa said that controversial topics — for instance, the character Yousuf smuggling alcohol into Saudi Arabia — were done for purely entertainment purposes. And though it took them about 150 auditions to find Shadi Al Fons, the Egyptian actor who plays lead character Ramy, they were more than happy with the final result.
“I guess [what I learned] is to go with you gut,” said Mustafa. “I made quite a few mistakes in City of Life in the editing room that I regret. I always said that in my next film, I’d go with my gut.”
From A to B is set to premiere in cinemas across the UAE, and the Middle East, on January 1. Ross shared that they are in talks with a distributor in Los Angeles.
For his part, Mustafa hopes his feature will resonate with an international audience.
“Films are supposed to travel,” he said.
From A to B will release across the UAE on January 1.
