00:00This is Tim Wasper from FastTrack on SERP TV.
00:29I'm here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival.
00:34You know, it was great the other night at the premiere to see the community in Jeddah come out.
00:40Young people, you know, the industry people, that must be a great vindication,
00:45especially since this movie is about loving Jeddah, the heart of Jeddah.
00:51Can you go talk about that?
00:52Honestly, I think it's safe to talk about, on behalf of both of us,
00:55we did not expect that at all.
01:00We knew that we're up to something good and quirky and sweet,
01:03but like I didn't expect the reactions.
01:06I've never experienced this before.
01:08The amount of love and enthusiasm we got from everyone, I was in shock.
01:17Even prior to it, even prior to people actually approaching us and congratulating us for the movie,
01:22during the showing of the movie itself, the amount of people clapping,
01:27booing at the camera, booing at the cast.
01:29Yeah, the villain, people standing and clapping, people feeling sorrow when people were approaching us by the end,
01:36people were in tears, people sat all the way through the ending credits.
01:40And that was just insane to me.
01:42I think, I'm so glad, like I honestly, I'm still speechless,
01:46I'm still processing all that that happened, but yeah, it was amazing, honestly.
01:50Honestly, a lot of people say like, isn't it so hard to write and act?
02:04And I'm like, no, it's hard to probably direct and act.
02:07That's why I'm postponing directing, but writing, yeah, one day, like in the far future.
02:13But like writing is a, it's a process separate from the set.
02:18And I don't get like filmmakers who rush to the set to start production without a solid script.
02:26That's why the script was very finished before, way before.
02:31And I always say like, especially in like the first five to ten projects I'll make,
02:38they'll always be writing about things I deeply know.
02:41Whether, like that's why I like, like in contemporary, modern, nowadays,
02:47female characters, neurodivergence, it's like OCD, like things I personally struggle with.
02:55So I feel it's, it was so raw and it's so real and that's why people loved it.
03:01And I don't know if that answers your questions,
03:04but I feel maybe like later on in the future I'd write about like a period piece or something.
03:11As Sarah said, it's always a matter of being raw and authentic
03:23and telling something that you actually, we actually want to see.
03:26This is like, we consume so much of the European and international content.
03:30And when the government started, wanted to invest in cinema here and wanted to produce more things
03:36and with the lifting of the cinema ban, I think what we wanted to do is we wanted to tell something
03:41that looks like us and something that feels like us.
03:44Where these are places we know, these are conversations that we know,
03:49these are the collectiveness of our own romantic experiences in the city.
03:54This is how we date and it's not, it doesn't, I feel like that's why people across the ages in the audience
03:59because we had young people in between, but we also had parents whom were in the, in the audience.
04:04And I feel like everyone sort of related to it because they sort of saw themselves in it.
04:08And I think that's, that's the power of cinema.
04:11I think you can always be original, but you can also be authentic.
04:14And when you're authentic and raw, even the craziest concept eventually will reach people
04:19because they can see the truthness behind all the craziness of the plot itself, right?
04:23Yeah, because the plot itself could be international, it could be set anywhere,
04:26but making Jidda a character in the film is what makes it very authentic and ours.
04:33But the concept is very specific, it's in a black comedy.
04:45Yeah.
04:46Because it's so out of, it's how you react to him and he reacts to you.
04:50100%.
04:51You know, but that can only sometimes be found in the moment and letting the moment breathe.
04:55Because the words can only go so far, even though they're your words.
04:58And you talk about finding like you sitting in the room after the sisters like push everything away.
05:04Yeah.
05:04That's a very heartfelt moment.
05:06And yet, when he's trying to break up with you over that out, it's a completely different thing where you're just saying, no, just kidding.
05:13Yeah, I mean, there's like, there's a deep sense of abandonment that that I had experienced, whether, whether by faith because her mom and dad died and she's convinced it's a curse or whether by living people like her aunts.
05:30So she, like, love isn't a safe space for her.
05:35So when she experienced that throughout without like spoiler alerts, but when she experienced a hint of love, that's to her, it's the extreme danger.
05:46That's why she, she would that.
05:48So, and, and one of the best like comments I got from everyone that everyone was saying, we cried a lot and we laughed a lot.
05:56And to me, that essence of dark comedy, it is called dark comedy.
06:01And, and, uh, I like taking like problems and make fun of it.
06:06So I feel like that film was exactly a proof of how we can laugh about life.
06:18Bye.
06:33Bye.
06:44Bye.
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