By any measure, Abdullah Al Kaabi’s casting of Jean Reno in his first film, The Philosopher, was a coup of epic proportions. By signing on the heavyweight French actor (“It was just about being at the right time and at the right place, with the right script,” he shrugs), the debutant director both grabbed national attention and threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the nascent GCC film industry.
One year after its premiere at the 2010 Dubai International Film Festival, the movie has been to more than 35 film festivals, although making its Dh1-million investment back is, as is expected, difficult. Yet this 25-year-old Emirati is already hard at work on his second film.
This project, whose working title is Banaat Faahma (translated as Daughters of Faahma or Daughters who understand it all), is a family drama shot in Arabic, but aimed at an international audience. The story begins when a rich blind woman dies while telling her daughters a family secret, and the girls spend the following three-day funeral interrogating visitors to piece together the entire story.
While the project is still under development, Al Kaabi is optimistic about finding funding. “I definitely know how to get around raising money [this time] due to the many initiatives happening in the region,” he says. He hopes to see his film premiere on the 2012 festival circuit.
But he says the biggest challenge ahead of the industry is getting enough people into cinemas. “[We need to] prove ourselves. We are getting there though, that is for sure. I would like to use this opportunity to encourage everyone to go and watch a locally produced film in the theatres; without their purchasing power, we cannot exist. Nawaf Al Janahi’s Sea Shadow is in cinemas now, please make an effort to see this beautiful film.”
Fujairah-born Al Kaabi started out as a model and TV presenter, and some might say that acting, rather than direction, should have been the logical career progression. “I would love to act,” he says. While he’s had a couple of offers, he hasn’t found the right film yet. “I don’t want to act for the sake of doing it, I want to learn and do something that can add to my directorial skills, being in the actor’s shoe gives you so much.”
Evidently, it’s making films, not acting in them, that remains his true love. “I come from the most interesting land, Arabia. Time to dig in and explore it and then translate it into a film,” says this EICAR student, going on to explain why the process appeals to him. “I have a secret to tell and I cannot choose a better way.”
Five years from now, he hopes to still be making films, maybe even Oscar-winning ones. And if he wasn’t making movies he says rather intriguingly, he’d have been a private investigator.
