Films buffs who kept tabs on all the winners at last year’s Abu Dhabi Film Festival will no doubt have either seen or heard of Murk Light, an Emirati short film that won two awards at the event. Now, this tale of two luggage boys on a bus set in the UAE in the late 1960s, has been nominated for a gong at the Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place in New York from April 17-28.
The film was made by director Yasir Al Yasiri, an Iraqi who has lived in the UAE since 1999. But more importantly, he made the film with Abu Dhabi’s very own twofour54 Creative Lab, and with some of the UAE’s leading actors, including Mansoor Al Feeli and Huda Al Khatib. It’s also the first Emirati film to be selected for Tribeca.
Murk Light was chosen for the festival from more than 2,800 films and victory in New York would mean the 20-minute flick is eligible for an Oscar next year and would help put Emirati cinema well and truly on the map. ‘I was very excited because it’s a huge thing to be in,’ he says. ‘It’s an honour to be the first Emirati film at the festival. It’s a dream to be in. All the crew and everyone involved is excited.’
If you’ve watched TV in the UAE the past few years, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Yasir Al Yasiri’s work. Incredibly, he’s only 28 years old but has already been working in the media for 12 years. ‘I started working in 2002. Usually I’m more into music videos, TV commercials and TV series but Murk Light was my first film,’ he adds. Al Yasiri directed the 2010 TV series So Hard to Tell.
‘I started very young. I was 16 when I did my first job. I started out as a student studying civil engineering but at the same time I was working as an editor for a company in Dubai. Then I got more interested in the media so switched my course from civil engineering to media. Then I got a job on a music video in 2003 and then I started to get more jobs; I graduated in 2006 but I was already working.’
Al Yasiri came up with the idea for Murk Light while preparing to make a TV series. ‘Making a TV show takes a long time, it takes longer than three months to prepare: writing the episodes, choosing the actors and stuff,’ he says. ‘There’s a programme called INJAZ at the Dubai Film Festival: they finance films, so we submitted the idea for Murk Light but it was rejected.’
The fear of even more rejection didn’t stop Al Yasiri from getting in touch with twofour54. ‘Two months later, we read about Creative Lab and twofour54, submitted the film and then we started working on it. We had a couple of meetings and then started filming. The core of the crew were working with me on my previous project so they were very excited to be working with me on the film. twofour54 funded the whole thing; everyone was very supportive about getting something different on screen.’
Murk Light follows the journey of two bus boys from the desert to the big city and is set just before the oil revolution of 1971, before the forming of the UAE. ‘It’s set from 1968-1969, the oil revolution of the emirates happened in 1971. We wanted to capture the era just before the union of the emirates. We thought this was a more interesting era. It was a different lifestyle. The story we came up with was two friends working on a bus helping with the luggage.’
The bus makes several stops during the short film. ‘Each stop reveals something about the story, which we will find out about at the end,’ he adds. ‘It’s a journey of changing from the simple life to the city life. It’s about the differences they will face when they get to the city. This is the main key of the story.’
Now, he’s dreaming of a win in New York and a potential Oscar. ‘I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it: I’ve dreamt about it. But getting into Tribeca is a huge step, so I have to be realistic about it.’
His success also gives hope to more of the region’s aspiring movie makers. ‘People always ask me, how did you get the chance to make this film? My advice would be if you have a good story, and you believe
in yourself and are determined enough, you will find funding; you will find good people to work with. For every young film maker, the chances are there. I just sent a regular email and got a response. You don’t need connections. You need a good story and talent. Everything else will come after that.’
Head to www.twofour54.com/creativelab/en to see the film’s trailer.
