An Arab Woman is a Powerful Woman: Abdulla Al Kaabi

Dubai - Emirati filmmaker Abdullah Al Kaabi talks to us about his critically acclaimed film Only Men Go To The Grave, and his hopes for the film industry in the UAE

Cinema is arguably one of the most powerful mediums of expression and experience. Through images, dialogue, music, and performances it's hard for the audience to leave a real film without having some residue of the story change how they feel about a subject.

Films don't only entertain and enlighten but they are also a stepping stone to bring taboo subjects to the table.
Given the potential for influence and change that a film can have on people it's incredibly important, now more than ever, to see real and authentic representations of Arab stories, voices and actors on the big screen. This is imperative not only to show our western neighbors that often or not their representations of us on their media platforms aren't only one dimensional (to say the least) but we need these stories to strengthen the representations that are lacking within Arab cinema made by Arab directors.

It's for this reason that we need to support our independent films, especially the good ones. One such film is Only Men Go To The Grave which is playing in cinemas now. Directed and written by Emirati filmmaker Abdulla Al Kaabi, the film is compelling, engaging, beautifully shot and stylized. It's a synthesis of important ideas about honesty, strength, resilience and ideas of the different kinds of self within us, all woven into a story whose premise is simple, whose telling is well paced and composed revealing information and ideas through arresting scenes and poignant performances.

Only Men Go To The Grave premiered at the 13th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival to a sold out audience and received rave reviews. It also won Abdulla Al Kaabi Best Director in the Muhr Emirati Feature category in the prestigious Muhr Competition.

"Today we just need content that's relatable to viewers," Abdulla Al Kaabi told us, "And if you have a point of view or a perspective of Arabs talking to other fellow Arabs, then that's a new voice. I think that's what people enjoy and what I try to achieve."

Only Men Go To The Grave is set straight after the Iraq-Iran war in 1988. The plot centers around the life of a blind mother who calls her estranged daughters to tell them a secret. Unfortunately, she dies while sharing it. While the daughters try to deal with their mother's sudden death, they must also work together to unveil her secret by looking for clues from visitors to her funeral. Here we see their own lives and their secrets start to unravel, causing them to question their own motives and how well they knew their mother.

We had the pleasure of talking to Abdulla Al Kaabi about the journey of making this film, the importance of representing Arab women and what the UAE needs to grow its film industry.

Why did you want to write this story?
Whenever I'm asked this question I always surprise myself by giving a different answer. The reason why I chose this subject is so broad. I believe it's important as human beings for us to be honest to each other and ourselves. That's why I chose this story about a family who hide themselves from each other. They all live double lives. That's really where it came from. I think that honesty is very important in today's modern society. Especially to yourself.

What kind of feedback were you anticipating when the film came out?
I've been very surprised to be honest with you. It's been hard to make this movie. When I was shooting the movie I wasn't thinking about how it was going to be received. I have been surprised that people have been very supportive and they really loved the movie because many can relate to it.

Why did you make Iraq the setting for the story?
I could have set it in Iraq, in Jordan, in Morocco, in Lebanon - anywhere. Because it's a family story all Arabs can relate to it. I also wanted to celebrate Iraqi culture which is being portrayed as a war zone and a land of conflict and I wanted to show how diverse and beautiful their culture is.

How did you change your mindset from writer to director?
I see a script as a living object. So when I go on set it's not definite that this is what I'm going to shoot, that this is the film that I'm going to make. I treat it like a living object that grows, that develops, that takes shape, that changes, that adapts to the elements that I have. I was changing everything every day. I gave my producers and crew a hard time because everyday they would be panicking about what I would shoot the next day. I really think it's important to feel what you have, from actors and stage and location so you can derive a story from it. So really, the script that I had before the shoot wasn't the script I had when we finished shooting and especially when we finished editing. I was surprised with the end result.

How do you deal with actors on set?
My process really involves going one on one with every actor. I try and get them involved in the story and direction as much as I can, because at the end it's a team project. I guess you can say I'm a liberal filmmaker. It's very important to see how each actor would like to portray their character cause we all have different interpretations of life and cinema is life or how you interpret life.

The women were portrayed very realistically in the film. How did you get into the skin of female characters?
I believe women, especially in the Middle East, are powerful, and they need to be portrayed in such a way. They've been typecast in cinema, even in Arab cinema. They are always the victims, the weak, the dependant. To me an Arab woman is not that. An Arab woman is a powerful woman. She needs to be portrayed that way. This is why I really wanted to make this movie, to portray a strong Arab woman.

Have you been surrounded by influential woman in your life?
I've been surrounded by strong Arab woman all my life. My mother was the first woman to get a driving license in Fujairah. My aunts are fantastic women, my grandmother was an over the top character. I was really surrounded by inspiring women. It's really a celebration of Arab women, this movie. Of course I don't belittle other kinds of approaches to Arab women in other movies but I think it's good to have a balance.
 
How do you think that films can start the discussion on some of these topics that are taboo in our society?
Movies are a completely powerful medium and a beautiful medium of art. It's not really about preaching to people about how they should be. It's all about opening your minds, opening dialogue and I think that's why cinema has been so powerful - it's because it's connected cultures from around the world. That's really the beauty of cinema in my opinion.

At what point did you know that you wanted to be a director?
When I was a kid there was a rental store, a VHS rental store, in Fujairah and my parents got me a membership there. I would rent as many movies as I could in the weekend when I was allowed to go there. As a kid I just wanted to be part of this magic that was cinema. I didn't even know what a director was. I asked my mum one day, who does these things? And she said he's called the director. Then I started telling everyone I wanted to be a director, not even knowing anything about it. Eventually, I worked in Dubai TV. I was always fascinated with this whole production thing. I always had big ideas of how this should be done, how that should be shot. Then I moved to Paris to do my masters in filmmaking.

What does the movie industry need in Dubai in order for it to grow?
We really need producers. Most of us are working as producers ourselves. It's really hard because it's not what we, as filmmakers, are trained or have the ability to do. And I think if we have a good pool of producers here then that's going to elevate the cinema scene a lot. The most important aspect of making a movie is the producer. And also, I do hope we can have a national film institute whose sole purpose is to support local Arab cinema. That's very important because right now we are just working with producers, who are only concerned with making profit. That's fantastic, if you can make profit that's great but in the end it's also art. So in order for us to make movies that can really speak about us, we need  to think about making something more cultural, and in order to do that we need a lot of support and only a government can support that until we have a proper sustainable cinema industry. Most of the countries that make amazing films are really supported by national film institutes because these films are not just purely made for profit.

• Dubai