An award-winning Bahraini filmmaker is looking to tug at the heartstrings of viewers with his latest work depicting an old man struggling to keep up with the times.
Ahmed Akbar’s new film, A Day, tells the story of an elderly man played by Yehya Abdulrasool, who is no longer familiar with the world he lives in.
“It depicts a day in the man’s life,” Mr Akbar told the GDN.
“The world is rapidly changing around him and he cannot keep up,” the 30-year-old, who resides in Al Dair, added.
“The remaining pieces of his past seem to fade bit by bit, and he gets more broken as each piece vanishes. It’s like he’s trapped in a time-box where he cannot return to the past nor adapt to the present.”
Mr Akbar, who works as a video editor at bMedia Production Company, is a decorated filmmaker who has won awards for Best Cinematography in the Made with Passion Film Festival and Best Script in the Bahrain Films Programme for Window in 2019.
In 2021, his film Salam won several awards including the Jury Prize at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, second prize at the Nasser Bin Hamad Youth International Creativity Awards, and an honourable mention at the Paris Short Film Festival.
“I had a passion for film from a young age and I remember watching movies on MBC2 and Dubai One,” he said.
As his love for cinema grew, he began attending workshops, online courses and reading books and articles on the subject. He went on to get a Bachelor’s degree in 3D Animation at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.
“I took to making movies, after having been inspired by acclaimed directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Michael Haneke,” he said.
Mr Akbar’s films Calendar which hit the screens in 2018 and Salam in 2021 won accolades and pushed him to move forward.
“My mom, Zahra Almubarak, is also a writer and theatre director and she has always inspired me with her persistence,” he added.
His latest film is based on a short story of the same name by Bahraini writer Amin Saleh, which hit a personal note with him.
“The story felt very personal to me because it reminded me of my father, Akbar Kadhem,” he said.
“When something feels personal, I make it into a film. I have changed some details here and there, so it is not exactly like the story, but the essence remains.”
What separates this film from his other works, however, is that this one is almost entirely silent, without any spoken dialogue.
“This was done to present a commentary on our contemporary world, critique it and allow the audience to question and contemplate,” he said.
“It is a visual storytelling experience, a pure cinematic experience. I’m encouraging the audience to put on a different lens and look at our reality from the perspective of someone who feels as though his home is changing around him ... so much that it becomes hard for him to even recognise it.”
The film is being made with the support of the Isa Culture Centre which has awarded him a grant for the script.
It’s being produced by Mr Akbar and Mohammed Fareed from Blusteelfilms.
BMedia’s Slobodan Milivojevic, Blusteelfilms Mohammed Fakhro and French Media’s Hussain Alaradi are executive producers.
Mr Akbar thanked his mom and his wife for inspiring him through the years.
“My mom and my wife, Zainab Ali, have always supported me in every step and I consult them with my ideas and stories,” he said.
A Day is set to be released next year during Ramadan, during the Made with Passion Film Festival 2024, to be held at the Isa Cultural Centre in Juffair.
nader@gdnmedia.bh
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