There was a queue of people waiting for standby tickets for the Emirati student Short Narrative competition. Luckily us filmmakers who had a movie screening, had a few reserved tickets so we were able to get ourselves and our actors in!
Thank goodness our movie is a two-man team production so the few tickets given to us meant we didn't have to wait and squeeze in seconds before the screening started.
There were 16 movies screening, Mahyas directed by Lamya Al Mualla is our movie, a silent, black-and-white comedy. We were happy to see it got the attention of the audience, who found it funny and we got positive comments about it.
The other 15 movies seemed to us to have a pattern: all 16 movies were either narrated or silent, yet even though they all had those similar features, each film had its own different character that made it different to the others. The movies I enjoyed and felt really showed emotion and passion where Auto pilot directed by Najiha Hana Zaimuddin and The Settler directed by Maram Ashour.
Another film that left most of the Gulf and Arab audience in shock and speechless for addressing a sensitive and strong topic was 3aib whose director is "anonymous" most likely because the subject of the story defied both Arab tradition and religion, but most likely will push the door for taboo topics a little more open.
