DAH alumna’s movie screens in Dubai festival

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Maram Taibah, a Dar Al-Hekma University alumna, wrote and directed the short movie “Munukeer” that was screened for the first time in Dubai International Film Festival in November, 2015. Taibah wanted to make films about the Kingdom because she wanted to show people what life in Saudi Arabia is like. This movie was possible with the help she received from friends and family, the filming team in the US, and DAH that financed it. Taibah has got an invitation for this year's Cannes Film Festival and “Munukeer” will be featured in the short film corner. “Dar Al-Hekma University graduates accomplished women, leaders and entrepreneurs and then keeps a communication line with them to help them create the positive change that they want to see in our society,” said Dr. Suhair Hassan Al-Qurashi, president of the university. Taibah was inspired by her parents’ pictures from the 70s, the heroic looks of men with handlebar moustaches and fragile women in maxi skirts. She set on a cinematic journey to tackle the question of what happens to couples when all love is replaced by the mundane echo of social norms. Munukeer is a short film set in the Saudi Arabia of 1970s. It tells the story of a marriage that, overwhelmed by tradition, lacks intimacy. Dina, a desperate Jeddah housewife, tries to bring passion into her relationship by organizing a romantic trip to Cairo which at the time was considered the center for culture and romance. The dramatic movie takes place in Jeddah, 1974. The honeymoon is over. In fact, it has been over for some five years now. But the lingering nostalgia for that lost romance in Cairo is the only thing that helps Dina survive the day-to-day blankness of her marriage. When the chance to relive those first days appears, Dina is consumed by a passionate dedication to organize and execute a remake of that first getaway, only to find herself on a different, even more emotional journey. “I see a lot of marriages that lack intimacy and I see a lot of women who made decisions that kept them in loveless marriages. I wanted to address this social situation that I think is not talked about very much,” said Taibah. Ali Al-Sharief, Sara Balghonaim and Amna Fatani form the cast of the movie  produced by Michael Callahan. Cinematography was done by Chad Gray and Jacob Coburn was the video editor.