Abu Dhabi International Book Fair hosted the Saudi cinema director, witnessed Amin, in a virtual session broadcast on the Internet, the day before yesterday, and talked about her works that belong to the school "magic realism", and its sources of inspiration, in addition to her great hopes for the future of Arab cinema.
The session is part of a series of virtual sessions organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, after the postponement of the 30th session of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair until next year, due to the epidemic of "Covid-19", as the series hosted guests who were scheduled to participate in the exhibition, to communicate with viewers safely From their homes.
Shahad began the session with a discussion of her latest film, "Lady of the Sea", who won the "Verona Award" for the most creative film category at the Venice International Festival, last year, and is the first feature film of Shahd Amin.
The session touched on the legendary elements in the movie, largely inspired by ancient Arab heritage.
The director explained that her goal in embodying Arab mythology in her film was to ask the viewers questions and motivate them to reflect on these symbols and the issues expressed by them, instead of presenting these issues through coordinated answers and unilateral statements. Amin also made the decision to produce the film in black and white to represent the rigors of the characters and the harsh conditions of the story.
Shahid Amin touched on her great hopes for the future of Arab cinema, as she saw distinctive Arab cinematic texts, expressing the Arab reality with the richness of its culture, the diversity of its traditions and the abundance of its myths, and saw that the most important factor in achieving a tight cinematic text lies in the author’s confidence in his idea and originality, rather than attempts Tradition of previous cinematic works from other cultures. Shahid Amin is currently busy working on new cinematic texts in the hope that she will find her new project soon, by searching for inspiration in extensive readings in mythology, especially from the female perspective of these stories and heritage tales from different cultures.
It is noteworthy that the writer and director witnessed Amin, who was born and raised in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and holds a bachelor’s degree in visual production and cinematic studies from the University of West London, and also holds a degree in authoring scenarios. Among her short films, "Our Music" and "Leila's Window," her short movie "Ain and Horya" (2013) was shown for the first time at the Dubai International Film Festival, and "Lady of the Sea" is the first feature feature film directed by her.
It is noteworthy that the previous virtual sessions of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, hosted by Swedish behavior expert, Thomas Erickson, and survival training expert, John Hudson, and the British poet of Ethiopian origin, Lim Sesay, and a well-known author in the field of children's cookbooks, Annabelle Carmel, and others .
Today, a virtual session entitled "Islamic Engineering Design" will be held at five in the evening, and it will be broadcast on the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair channel on YouTube.
Amin testified:
• “The most important factor in achieving a tight cinematic text lies in the author’s confidence in his idea and originality.”
• “I took the decision to produce (Lady of the Sea) in black and white, to represent the rigors of the characters and the harsh conditions.
The role of women has changed
The story of "Our Lady of the Sea" revolves around the changing role of women in society, through the narration of fictional events for the girl "Hayat", who escaped from the customs and traditions of her old village, where they sacrificed young girls to a community of nymphs at sea, and the story revolves around the internal conflict that the girl lives , And does it belong to the village or the sea?
• 2013 her short movie, "Ain and Houria", was screened in "Dubai Film Festival".