Dubai crew heads for Cannes Film Festival

Bottle up 17 Dubai guys and gals in a creative environment, ask them to empty their pockets in good faith, throw in a few bits of film equipment and pack them off to Hollywood.

The result? An award-winning short film which has already screened in LA: Next stop the Granddaddy of film festivals, Cannes 2013.

George Max Trummler, 31, is this week packing his bags to prepare for his crew’s debut at the annual event which opened yesterday in the south of France.

The German South African, who has lived in the UAE for more than seven years, directed The Pillow-Case as part of the 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP) — a competition that challenges contestants to make a seven-minute film in two days — and won.

“After working for so many years shooting commercials and short films for other people or products, I realised I needed to start doing my own work,” said Trummler.

“I put all my energy into getting a team together to compete and formed the Guerrilla Film Commission (GFC)– a team of professional film makers banding together to shoot this project and future projects.”

This year 15 films represent the 48HFP at the Cannes Film Festival and are official members of the Short Film Corner. All the films, including The Pillow-Case, will be screened on Wednesday, May 22.

GFC is a crew made up of 17 people living in Dubai, originally from Sri Lanka, South Africa, Germany, UK, Lebanon, Spain, Holland, Iran, Syria, Australia and the UAE.

“The Pillow-Case is our take on the modern relationships happening in the city of Dubai,” said Trummler. “Our male lead character, Hani, is of Arabic heritage and is played by actor Ebrahim Renno Jr , who is married to Lucy, a white expat played by actress Laura Quirke. We don’t see any exterior shots of the city itself, purely because we wanted to shoot a story that takes place in one environment.”

Trummler and the crew leave for Cannes next week to walk the red carpet. “I’m a suit guy, and by suit, I mean Tom Ford,” he said.