UAE sci-fi movie Aerials now showing on Netflix

Homegrown alien invasion production up on global entertainment behemoth

For many of us it has become the primary source of amusement. For the company itself, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the #StayHome initiative has caused an unprecedented subscription boom. That's correct, streaming platform Netflix must reach a majority of regional households, delivering hours of media from around the world at the click of a button. However, with such market dominance comes an increasing hunger for content to supply its customers. A recent beneficiary of this revitalised vigour for acquiring ready-to-air well-made local projects is the 2016 UAE science-fiction film Aerials, which dropped on the entertainment behemoth this month. Helmed by Dubai's S.A. Zaidi and Emirati producer Ghanem Ghubash (pictured), Khaleej Times has been following the movie's journey from its inception in 2014, through to its general release four years ago, to May's debut partnership with one of the globe's most recognisable showbiz brands.
"It feels great. It has been on the Netflix most popular list for a few days now," Zaidi said when we asked how it felt to have his work re-released for a potential audience of millions. "We collaborated with the distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment and they gave it to Netflix and Netflix agreed to put the film up there."
Crafted under Zaidi and Ghubash's banner, Fat Brothers Films, Aerials explores how a gargantuan extra-terrestrial invasion takes its toll on a Dubai couple's life. Perhaps more apt now than ever, for much of the picture the duo are forced to stay indoors wondering what could have befallen the world beyond their four walls.   
"It's not an Independence Day (1996), it's not a typical sci-fi film," Zaidi said. "It's more of an experimental indie film, but nonetheless you have spaceships over the Burj Khalifa and Sheikh Zayed Road. You don't really expect to see that in an Emirati movie or Arab film!"
During its initial showing Aerials received critical acclaim for its introduction of the sci-fi genre to a Middle Eastern audience more at ease with horror, comedy or romance. Zaidi explained his enthusiasm for the project was in part to break the regular movie roster tedium with an envelope-pushing spectacle. He also sensed, with the success Marvel movies constantly garner, the appetite existed for a locally-produced out-of-this-world tale. Zaidi hopes this craving remains after the pandemic measures subside, as his upcoming piece follows a similar theme.
"We had actually just got a script approval for our next film, a science-fiction horror," he said. "We were in the process of getting sponsorships together - the whole routine - and this happened. We were beginning to actually start making the film and then the full pandemic slowed it down.
"But we're still in the process and hopefully if the pandemic doesn't slow us down further we will be shooting in the next six to seven months."
The latest epic is yet to be named, though Zaidi has aspirations the picture can enjoy an extended run in cinemas and on Netflix comparable to Aerials.
What does Zaidi watch on Netflix?
"I concentrate on films that are well-written, have a strong narrative and a lot of the time are science-fiction. There is a lot of good stuff."   
david@khaleejtimes.com