Thesiger's tale

A brave attempt to document Sir Wilfred Thesiger's journey into the uncharted Arabian deserts and his discovery of the Bedu tribes makes this film a worthy watch.

Emirati director and producer Majid Abdulrazak, who has attempted to capture on cellulloid the travails of one of the 20th century's greatest explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger, refuses to take no for an answer. In his latest film Arabian Sands, an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same title by Sir Wifred, says he has covered all bases.

"I want my film to be viewed by Arabs as well as non-Arabs. One of the setbacks of my previous film Eqaab was that it was watched and understood mostly by the Arabic-speaking populace. So this time around, I have ensured that Arabian Sands has an English narrative and subtitles to enhance its visibility and reach. So there's no excuse for not making it to the theatres," he says in an interview to e+.

Arabian Sands, which features Abdulrazak as Thesiger, presents the history and culture of this region in an entertaining format. "The film will go a long way to demystifying and acquainting people with the lives of the Bedu tribes. Thesiger's accounts of crossing the Empty Quarter of the Arabian desert with the Bedouins in the late 1940s and his trials and triumphs will also be shown ," he says.

Arabian Sands, which took a year to complete, was in many ways a test of endurance for this actor-cum-director.

"Apart from the months of research, the greatest hurdle was to find actors who resembled the Bedu tribemen. I flew down to Sallalah (Oman) thrice and chose actors from theatre groups," he says.

Recreating the terrain of this adventurous tale also proved to be a battle.

"Another difficult part was that it was shot entirely in the deep pockets of the deserts in Al Ain and the hilly terrain of Al Maliha mountains. So even routine stuff like reaching the location, applying make-up and eating food laced with sand was a daily challenge," he says. But his passion for filmmaking over-rode these hurdles, and what we have in our lap is a movie that offers a slice of exotica on the Arabian soil.