Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Interview: HIJRA [Red Sea International Film Festival 2025 - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia] - Part II

2 days ago

Actors Lamar Faden and Nawaf Al-Dhufairi talk to Fest Track about communication, environment and characterization in regards to their new Saudi drama: “Hijra” playing the Red Sea Competition section of the 2025 Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.

Transcript

00:00This is Tim Wasbrook from Fast Trek on Strict TV.

00:29I'm here in Jeddah for the Red Sea International Film Festival.

00:32I think the relationship between me and her, it's really, and his POV is really complicated

00:40because he is 42 years old, he's not getting married, he didn't have kids, so at the beginning

00:49he don't have any feeling for her.

00:51He just wants the money because he's having a lot of issues that we want to be solved.

00:56And then things are getting changed, he gets love with her, he feels like he's responsible

01:03for her, and she did the opposite on the, if you watch the film, she will never let him

01:10down.

01:11He's trying to go to sell things and to trying to bring him back.

01:16So this comes gradually and in a smooth way.

01:23I feel like our relationship in the beginning was, I see him as like a strange, he's just

01:35wanting money and it's very rude.

01:38I don't know why in it, so, and after that it's changed, I feel no, it's very kind, he needs

01:45the money.

01:46Yeah.

01:47So he's very kind and he stay with us all the trip.

01:51Uh, except man, not like my sister, she leave.

01:52So that's why in, uh, I don't want to leave.

01:53It's very rude.

01:54It's very rude.

01:55I don't know why in it.

01:56So, and after that it's changed, I feel no, it's very kind.

01:58He needs the money.

01:59Yeah.

02:00So he's very kind and he stay with us all the trip.

02:05Uh, except man, not like my sister, she leave.

02:09This wife is our relationship, which was so kind.

02:34Oh, that's right.

02:35Uh, it's right.

02:36It's right.

02:37It's right.

02:38It's right.

02:39It's right.

02:40It's right.

02:41Now I know who's Ahmed.

02:42It's not the same person I know at the beginning.

02:57It's actually, it's very kind, it's friendly, you can say.

03:02Okay.

03:03So this is, uh, scene is so important, uh, important for our relationship.

03:07After this, we know us more.

03:09Yeah.

03:10Uh, and for me, uh, I think, uh, sometimes when I'm, I'm looking at her, uh, I feel like

03:16she's, she feel like I'm her brother to me.

03:19Yeah.

03:20I feel like she's my, my daughter, or I wish that I have a daughter like her.

03:25So, uh, but I couldn't because of, uh, you know, his problem, no money, no, he's struggling

03:32his own.

03:33So, yeah, he, sometimes when he look at her, he, he want, he want to have a family.

03:40Yeah.

03:41But the pain is, he can't.

03:43That, that really cost him a lot of pain.

03:48He can't.

03:50He can't.

03:51He can't.

03:52He can't.

03:53He can't.

03:54He can't.

03:55He can't.

03:57He can't.

03:58He can't.

03:59He can't.

04:00He can't.

04:02He can't.

04:03He can't.

04:04I can't.

04:05He can't.

04:06The environment imbues you.

04:08It becomes part of the performance, uh, whether you're sitting near the snow or on the

04:13side of the road.

04:14All of us, most of the actors from Jeddah, but we are not shooting in Jeddah just only one day.

04:20So we are out of our comfort zone.

04:23So we live with the real people of the real places.

04:27And that gives us some push to do more.

04:34That's why you're not, there's no friend.

04:37There's only the script and desert and, yeah, and you've seen the snow.

04:42You didn't know that we have snow in Saudi Arabia.

04:45You didn't know that we have wood.

04:47We don't have, yeah, only desert.

04:49This is the stereotype.

04:51I think Hijrah will change this.

04:54And the changing from one environment to another, yes, this is, it's really hard for us.

05:02I will tell you something.

05:04It's one of the hardest film we have ever made because.

05:07The locations.

05:08Because of the locations, because the director and the producer, they insist that they want to show every single aspect of our beautiful country.