Spaceships for sci-fi enthusiasts

A Dubai-based duo is bringing apocalypses and alien spaceships to the people, in an attempt to shake up the UAE film scene and cater to a growing science-fiction appetite.

Ali Zaidi and Ghanem Ghubash during an interview at the Khaleej Times office in Dubai on Monday. — KT photo by Kiran Prasad

Dubai-based film-maker and director S.A. Zaidi and Emirati producer Ghanem Ghubash, who studied film at the University of California in San Diego, are the makers of what they claim is the first UAE post-apocalyptic science fiction short film.

The self-funded film, titled The Sons of Two Suns, showed at the Gulf Film Festival 2013, and premiered at Dubai’s Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC) earlier this year. The duo has applied to show the film at Cannes next year.

Zaidi, who has previously worked on music videos, said the pair wanted to do something different to the usual drama, romance and cultural films prevalent in the UAE.

“We want to liven and mix things up.

“We were talking on Skype and (Ghubash) asked me to write a script…and as soon as he landed in Dubai we got going.”

He said they had been impressed with the amount of interest seen in MEFCC, which proved their previous thinking - that there wasn’t much of a fan base here for that sort of thing - wrong.

“Everyone was very intrigued by science fiction. There are a lot of comic and science fiction fans here.

“And if you look at the Hollywood movies out there, science fiction and fantasy movies make more money than any other genre. We just tried it out here and it worked.”

The film’s trailer received 100,000 views on YouTube in two months.

“I didn’t expect that… I was expecting 200, 500 …maybe 1,000. Feature films in this region usually get about 10,000 – 20,000 hits on YouTube.

“It seems sci-fi really works in Dubai.

“And when the movie came up on screen at the Gulf Film Fest, people were shocked to see two suns and an empty Dubai. ‘How the hell did you do that?’ they asked us.”

Special effects was the answer – and about two days worth of deleting cars from the roads around them on the footage to create the empty, eerie effect.

“There are a lot of cars in Dubai. It wasn’t easy.”

Despite maintaining there is a lot of local talent here, it still proved challenging to find the right actors who could pull off the sci-fi genre, he said.

Two days of auditions were held with no success, sending Zaidi off to go out and cast himself.

“There’s a lot of talent in this country but they’re not ready for this type of thing…we got Saga Alyasery, he’s an Iraqi-Canadian raised in the UAE for one of the main roles … he could really pull off the part.”

The making of the film took eight months, and cost $10,000 – 90 per cent of which went on food, he said.

They also used local band Jaxx Monteath for the sound track.

The biggest gap in the UAE was graphic designers capable of working on special effects films, he said.

“I think that’s where we’re going to stand out. We can deliver what a science fiction movie deserves.

“My animator and editor (Dubai-based) Nina Sargsyan can give big budget Hollywood effects, the sort of thing that excites people.”

He said the film industry was growing and diversifying here, with more interest in horror films, a zombie film was being shot here about five months ago, and a thriller that is soon to be filmed.

“I’m hearing about really different things coming out. Hopefully the scene will evolve.”

“The UAE needs science fiction and these genres. It needs to evolve. If you want to show culture, you can show culture in a science fiction film. If you want to show romance, you can do it in a horror movie.

“I think it’s definitely still important to show our (UAE) culture in this film…but it will be in our way.”

It was also important to be independent, to avoid “the loop of endless meetings” around funding, and to move fast, he said.

The pair are now working on a new feature-length film, which will see “alien spaceships over Dubai”. Shooting will begin at the peak of summers in July.

“We’re suicidal. But we just want to get going. We’ve got to do this fast.”

sarah@khaleejtimes.com