Emirati director Mustafa Abbas is back in his element. Known for his dark films, often with a lot of violence, Abbas is perhaps best known for his break-out film 2007 film 100 Miles, the crime thriller which won him an award at the Emirates Film Competition that year.
With many shorts to his credit, including the revenge drama The Alley, which was screened at the Cannes film festival in 2007, Abbas is back with another dark observation, Sunset State (Halet Ghoroob) which will premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) on December 8.
The story of two very different men, an American novelist and an Emirati teenager, both driven to desperate measures and whose lives come crashing into each other, Abbas says despite its rather bleak premise, the 20-minute film is ultimately about hope.
tabloid! caught up with the 28-year-old.
The synopsis of Sunset State sounds like it’s a very depressing film…
Not really. The movie is not about death, it’s more about life. We follow two men with troubled pasts and dive into their minds and find out how they’re both losing the will to live. I believe that a lot of people will relate to it because it’s all about emotions — sometimes if it’s not contained, it runs wild. It’s also a study of human nature, about how drastic a situation must be to drive people to such a situation.
How long did it take you to film it?
I wrote the script last year and we filmed for three full days in April this year in Abu Dhabi. Of course pre-production took about a month and post production a few more months.
You started making films more than 10 years ago. How would you say has attitudes towards film production changed in the UAE?
It has changed a lot. Sunset State was produced by TwoFour54’S Creative Lab. We did not have this kind of support in 2007. There must have been just five or six of us trying to seriously make films.
But there is a movement now and a passion for films and more platforms for us to screen our films. An industry is made by films and films are made by filmmakers. I see great things coming in the next five or six years.
And it’s a proud moment for us to see festivals like Diff celebrate 10 years. Some festivals start but cannot continue and Diff has only gone bigger and better. And now with special sections like the Muhr Emirati category, it will go a long way to develop talent in the country.
You’ve done so many shorts. Any plans to make a full-length feature film?
It’s in the works. I have finished writing it and we will see where we go from here. I can’t tell you much now but it goes back to my crime genre.
Sunset State (Halet Ghoroob) premieres on December 8 as part of the Muhr Emirati programming at Vox 9, Mall of the Emirates at 6.15pm. It will be shown again at Vox 5, Mall of the Emirates, on December 10 at 3.15pm. For tickets and a full schedule, go to dubaifilmfest.com.
