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A short film fusing a traditional Bahrain folk tale with a similar myth from Mid-West America has taken the coveted Fareed Ramadan Student Film Award at the recently-held Bahrain Film Festival (BFF).
Incarnate, directed by Ali Esbai, tells the story of five youngsters in the US City of Angels – Los Angeles – who meet a dark ‘goat man’ character during a camping trip.
It is the only Bahraini film to win honours during the BFF, beating seven other short films from across the region to claim the accolade.
The film blends together the Bahraini folk tale of Um Homar, the evil donkey lady who eats children playing outside in the afternoon, with the American legend of the Goat Man, a creature with the horns and hoofs of a ram, who hunts teenagers meeting up for romantic trysts.
“The film is about a young Middle Eastern girl, played by Bahraini Ameera Al Kooheji, who is in L.A visiting her cousin, played by Iraqi-American comedian Reem Edan,” 34-year-old Ali explained.
“They are on their way to a camping trip when they have an accident that sparks an unnatural string of events that test her faith, when a musician visits them and is clearly a devil-incarnate, played by American actor Casey Larios.”
The 12-minute-long short film was the final graduation project of Ali’s Master’s degree in Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy (NYFA) campus in Hollywood.
Ali attended the NYFA amidst legendary film studios, like Universal and Disney, after winning the Fulbright Scholarship from the US embassy in 2016.
He worked with about 30 crew members including NYFA alumnus Mayur Patankar, to make his vision come to life.
“The whole film was written to be a challenge,” Ali added. “It was my graduation film so I wrote in a number of filmmaking challenges like driving, night and desert scenes.
“And, on top of that, every day brought a new challenge. First, I lost about half the budget two days before the shoot, which forced me to rewrite certain scenes.
“Next, heat stroke from the desert during the day, animal control problems and extremely cold nights were just some of the natural challenges we faced.
“All in all, the main lesson that I carry with me to this day and apply in every endeavour is to ‘respect the process’.
“The filmmaking process is why I could finish this film in five days. Without it, I might have a few beautiful shots but not a complete story or film. I learned to respect every aspect of it.”
The first screening of Incarnate was at Warner Bros studios in Burbank, LA along with other selected student-thesis films.
Internationally, the film has been selected in The Arab-Danish Film Festival and the International Women’s Film Festival, both in Denmark.
Ali has been involved in Bahrain’s fledgling film-making scene since 2009, first as an actor and then writer. He has acted in a number of music videos by Bahraini recording label Outlaw Productions.
He also wrote a number of comedy sketches, titled Misfitz Comedy, one of which even appeared in a BBC documentary
“I’m a storyteller by nature,” he explained. From music to stand-up, writing, acting and finally filmmaking, my creative journey took many detours, which helped me better understand the art of the film – an art form that assimilates countless others into one unified vision and theme.”
After returning to Bahrain, Ali has been helping other filmmakers get their projects off the ground. He recently helped Danny Sokov and Ahmed Akbar with their projects Dajjal and Salam, respectively.
As GulfWeekly recently reported, Danny and Ahmed released their films during a screening at Alliance Françsaise after scoring top honours during a screenwriting workshop organised by the French Embassy and conducted by Marisa Mayer. “Filmmaking is a marriage of art and science,” Ali concluded.
“The art is the creativity which people are born with and the science, however, is the process. And this is a learned skill that you have to diligently develop. I see directors running away from it because it is also the hardest part especially if they are not trained in it.
“My advice to any aspiring filmmaker is to make your choices and decisions then chart the path. And always respect your crew because you only pilot the ship – they are the ones pulling the oars and taking it there.”
For details, follow @wikkid.productions on Instagram.
