4 stories and 4 women, each of them has a story with a different issue, although they are sisters, each of them suffers from the society's view of her, and the problems facing women in the Arab world.

Each story in the movie "Daughters of Abdel Rahman" is suitable as a separate cinematic work, but director Zaid Abu Hamdan, who presents his first experience in his first feature-length work as a director, was able to combine the four stories in his film, which received wide acclaim after its recent presentation. As part of the activities of the first session of the Red Sea Film Festival in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, days after winning the Audience Award, which bears the name of the late film critic "Youssef Sherif Rizkallah" at the 43rd session of the Cairo Film Festival.

Different female models in one case

In the tales of his four heroines, the director chose a complete difference. This difference made the relationship between the four sisters turbulent, as each of them has life details and contradictory temperaments, so it seems as if only blood ties unite them.

The director focused on highlighting the contradiction between them, as Zainab - played by actress Farah Bseiso - is the veiled girl who gave up her dreams in music and marriage as well, and contented herself with working as a tailor in order to take care of her elderly father, bearing the financial burden and deprivation, while the women of the neighborhood consider her They live by "spinsters".

As for Amal (Saba Mubarak), she lives a dry life with a husband who practices physical and moral violence against her, and who oppresses her by wanting to marry off her daughter, who has not completed 15 years, so she finds herself facing whether her daughter will live the same fate.

Even the liberated Samah (Hanan Al-Helou) performs plastic surgeries for her husband, a rich man who does not care about her or the details of her life, so she lives a life of doubt if he has other female relationships, until she discovers shameful secrets in his life, and begins to give up the artificial life that she lives.

The fourth female model is Khitam, played by Maryam Al-Basha, a rebellious girl who decided to live a life that did not conform to the standards of society, which made her family members suffer from the low view of them because of her, especially the father who was boycotted by his brother.

The discrepancy in the four female models between a life of extremism and liberation did not prevent the crises that women suffer from, the society's view of them, and the reality in which they live.

Poster for the movie "Daughters of Abdul Rahman" (social networking sites)

positive direct

The filmmakers used the direct cinematic language to convey the idea, but it is directly positive in line with the idea of ​​the film. The matter did not turn into rhetorical monologues, as the director relied, in his management of the actresses, to present the characters in a quiet path, in addition to paying attention to the details of the characters, which also helped communicate the situation. within the scenes.

The director was also able to employ each heroine in the character that best suits her, when he chose Farah Bseiso in the character of Zainab, Saba Mubarak in the character of Amal, Hanan Al-Helou and Maryam Al-Basha, as each of them was able to give their best to enrich the character.

The four characters are balanced in the script, as one story did not dominate the other, which also confirms the superiority of the montage element in the film.

Comedy in the midst of tragedy

While "Daughters of Abdul Rahman" presents realistic problems to a large extent for women in Arab society, in addition to their exposure to harassment, oppression, neglect and deprivation, but the presence of some comic scenes in the scenario broke that tragic situation that the heroines are exposed to, so he did not exaggerate the tragedy, in addition to his victory for women in The film ends when the four sisters break free from their crises and confront society with strength.

The film "Daughters of Abdul Rahman" received a grant from the Doha Film Institute for the development stage (social networking sites)

balance

The victory of the film for women and its return to the women’s issue cinematically did not make the director prejudice the oriental man, as he succeeded in creating a state of balance as well, as he presented equal models such as the father, a righteous and straight man, even his mistakes that he committed were motivated by love and fear for his daughters, and also a friend The youngest daughter who wants to marry her, and did not look at her badly, and the boy who works in the library and helps the eldest daughter Zainab, as the director did not get swept up in the stream of trials that present perpetrators and victims or angels and demons, as is customary in dealing with such cases.

Doha Foundation support

It took 7 years to prepare for the film "Daughters of Abd al-Rahman", and he received the Doha Film Institute grant for the development stage, and the Jordan Fund to Support Films of the Royal Film Commission in the two stages of development and production. He also received a grant from the CineGouna platform from the El Gouna Film Festival, and reached the final stage. In the promotion platform of the Tribeca Film Festival.

He also participated in the Rawy Screenwriters Lab at the Royal Film Commission of Jordan.