When City of Life first hit UAE cinemas, it made a whopping Dh500,000 in its first weekend. Pretty respectable for the first Emirati-made feature film. But big things were to be expected from this 30-year-old London Film School graduate.
He first made waves with his directorial debut Under the Sun, a student film that was nominated for Best Foreign Film at various international festivals and was named Best Emirates Film 2006 at The Emirates Film Competition held in Abu Dhabi. In 2010, on the back of City of Life, Mostafa was named 2010 Young Filmmaker of the Year by Digital Studio magazine and was signed as brand ambassador for clothing label Alfred Dunhill.
His latest endeavour is Classified, a mini-series made for the internet. He says when he first saw the script he thought it was a “cool and unique concept.” The series follows the tribulations of three friends with the Range Rover Evoque featuring in a number of scenes. Though the series was commissioned by Land Rover, Mostafa insists that “the series involved the need for transport and I had complete freedom to feature the vehicle or not in the scenes.”
His next project takes the shape of a character-based movie called A to B and taps into the comedy genre. Mostafa says, “I have wanted to do a road movie and tap into the comedy genre for quite a while. A road movie is different from other comedy movies because it’s pure escapism. While other movies take you on a journey of the mind and soul, a road movie deals with something you want to do, it’s just a question of thinking of what you want to do and then getting into a car and doing it.”
On the eve of Dubai’s 40th National Day, Mostafa says, “Looking at how far Dubai has come, it is on a level which makes you overwhelmingly proud. When you look at other countries, some have more money than Dubai, but the people are not satisfied. It really makes you love the leaders. They really spread the wealth. Also when you see the visionary leaders, it makes people — not just nationals but even expatriates living in Dubai — want to achieve something for themselves, something big. This is because the leaders set such a fine example.”
When asked where he sees himself in ten years, Mostafa sees himself as we all see him, “Inshallah, with blockbuster movies and holding an Oscar for at least one of them.”
