British Council competition helps Yemenis tackle big issues through film
28 March 2011
A poignant film about a bomb-maker who falls in love with a woman he sees from his basement has won a British Council competition for young film-makers in Yemen.
The Gift Maker by Ziryab Al-Ghabri was chosen as the winner of the Zoooom competition, organised by the British Council in Yemen to give a platform for amateur Yemeni film-makers to raise awareness about the issues affecting their country to audiences around the world.
The competition was launched in October 2010, with UK experts helping to give Yemenis with creative talent and an interest in a career in film-making the opportunity to develop their interest and skills.
The five finalists were Abeer Sallam, Badr Bin Halabi, Hashim Bin Hashim, Sawsan Al-Ariqi and Ziryab Al-Ghabri. They were trained by UK specialist training provider Insight Education in Cairo during December 2010, and started to work on their final films from January 2011. They submitted their short films to the British Council in mid March 2011, and the films were premiered on www.britishcouncil.org.
The subject of all the final films was ‘Yemen’ – and the themes chosen by the finalists included an educated Yemeni woman’s struggle against the culture imposed on her by her husband, and a young boy’s search for a cure for his epilepsy.
The films were judged by a panel of film professionals from both Yemen and the UK. The judges were Yemeni film director and producer, Dr. Fadhl Al-Olofi, British film-maker and lecturer David Alamouti, British film-maker Peter Fraser and UK studio director Sue Pugh.
The winner will now attend a major UK Film Festival later this year. His film will also be screened on Al Aqeeq TV in Yemen.
All the shortlisted films can be viewed at: http://blog.britishcouncil.org/tag/zoooom/
The winning film can be viewed at: http://blog.britishcouncil.org/2011/03/the-gift-maker/
Ziryab Al-Ghabri, the winning director, said: “We have been inspired to make this film by daily events like terrorism and the social discrimination of some parts of Yemeni society. We hope to shoot more films in the future and improve our equipment to create better and more professional films. Our hopes for Yemen include that it becomes a better place to make films, as under the current circumstances shooting and working in films is a very hard task.”
Michael White, Director of the British Council in Yemen said: “Choosing the best film was difficult, because all the film-makers demonstrated considerable talent and inventiveness in making these films. The winning film, The Gift Maker, is an unusual story of love and sacrifice, set in a uniquely Yemeni context. It is a film that clearly demonstrates the talent of its makers, and I wish them well in their future careers.
All of the finalists have shown fresh talent, and together have given Yemen a voice which deserves to be heard. I look forward to seeing more of their films, and I am delighted that the British Council has been able to help them take a significant step at this stage in their careers.”
Dr. Fadhl Al-Olofi, a Yemeni film maker and one of the judges said: “These films resemble a huge step forward in the formation Yemeni cinema, it promises renewed young creative ideas, visions, and creative artistic expression, with emphasis on realising the importance of the effective role of the image - the core of cinema language”
The Zoooom competition is part of the British Council’s work to build relationships for the UK through English, education and the arts in more than 100 countries worldwide. The British Council has been working in Yemen since 1956 – and its other work includes school links between Yemen and the UK through its Connecting Classrooms programme, and the English For The Future project, which is helping to improve the standard of English language teaching.
For more information, contact Mark Moulding in the British Council Press Office on 0207 389 4889 or mark.moulding@britishcouncil.org
Notes to Editors:
The media are welcome to use extracts or stills from the final films, available at http://blog.britishcouncil.org/tag/zoooom/
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build opportunity and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people. We work in the Arts, English, Education and Society, including science and sport - and in the process contribute to the security and prosperity of the UK and the countries where we work. Last year we engaged face to face with 18.4 million people and reached 652 million. We are a non-political organisation which operates at arm’s length from government. Our total turnover in 2009/10 was £705 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £211 million. For every £1 of government grant we receive, we earn £2.50 from other sources. For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org
