‘Culture is important for us and I want people to understand ours’, says Lisa’s Emirati director Ahmed Zain

Emirati filmmaker Ahmed Zain’s latest film Lisa features British actress Laura Denmar. The romantic comedy had its premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival last year. Courtesy Diff

Ahmed Zain's new film Lisa will be in theatres across the UAE this week, but even before the comedy drama's release, the Emirati filmmaker believes he has achieved what he set out to accomplish with this project – to show the hospitality of the local population and highlight the natural beauty of the UAE.

The film follows the story of Lisa, a foreign student played by British actress Laura Denmar, who goes to live with an Emirati family on their farm in Al Ain for her documentary project about the lifestyle of Bedouins.

Lisa is welcomed to the home of a mother and her two overweight adult sons. The mother, a strong-willed woman is the sole caretaker who cooks, cleans, tends to the farm and drives her sons around. She teaches Emirati traditions to Lisa, and in return, Lisa takes her sons out sightseeing around Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Forty-five-year-old Zain, who is an engineer with Abu Dhabi Municipality, discovered his passion for filmmaking 13 years ago. His first two feature films – Grandmother's Farm and Grandmother's Farm 2 – were a commercial success, and for Lisa, the director has cast an English-speaking actor for the first time.

Denmar took Arabic lessons for three months to learn dialogues for the film. “The whole story is based on the concept of integration between the western culture and UAE culture,” says 24-year-old actress.

“In real life, that has been my experience and I have come to love this place for it. There is this perception that Emiratis are segregated from the other communities and it is hard to interact with them. I, too, used to be nervous because you want to respect their values. But after doing this film and getting along quite well with the rest of the Emirati cast, I have come to see that they are so warm, open-minded and very accepting of the western culture.”

The 71-minute film has been written, produced and directed by Zain, with the support of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation. “My country has more than 220 nationalities and they all live in harmony and safety,” he says. “It is a comedy drama with a strong message about the generosity of the Emirati people. In the movie we see how Lisa is treated well and given everything by this family on a farm and then how she influences the two boys. One of them falls in love with her and wants to marry her, too. That motivates him to lose weight.”

Zain says he wanted to teach Denmar some Arabic to make the film more relatable.

“Culture is important for us and I want people to understand ours. So it was important that Laura speak in Arabic. She did so well to pick up all the dialogues.”

The movie also stars Emirati television and theatre actors Ayman Khadim, Nasser Al Dhanhani and Ali Al Shehhi.

For Denmar some of her fondest memories during the 15-day shoot were her interaction with the cast when the camera wasn’t rolling.

“There was so much that was lost in translation because they didn’t speak much English and I don’t know much Arabic,” she admits. “So we were joking all the time. I got to know them on a human level and we had lot of fun. We were travelling to different cities and it was nice to see the places from an Emirati perspective and interact.”

Zain, who has a diploma in applied media studies and also a three-month filmmaking course at the New York Film Academy, has made more than 13 short films and has won accolades at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival and Gulf Film Festival. Some of his award-winning films include Foresight, Darkness, Seashells and Heartless.

His first self-funded full-length horror film Grandmother's Farm (Mazraat Yado) had its premiere at Diff in 2013 and then released in cinemas the following year.

It was a hit at the box office and made more than Dh300,000. The success brought support from film festivals and Admaf for his film projects.

Zain released the sequel in 2015, followed by Lisa, which had its premiere at Diff last year. "After making short films for so long, everyone wants to move to making feature film, but that needs the support of the government," says Zain, who sees the Emirati film industry maturing.

“We are competing for attention and people here need to see that we are making movies for them – that is the challenge,” he says.

The filmmaker also says one of the limiting factors in improving the industry is the lack of specialised courses in the field.

“The important thing is a good script and for that young talent needs to be supported with good scriptwriting programmes. There also need to be more courses to train actors.”

• Lisa will be in cinemas on Thursday