JEDDAH: Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen’s debut feature, 2019’s “Scales,” was hugely successful. The dystopian drama picked up prestigious awards at the Venice Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, as well as several regional awards. It was also selected as Saudi Arabia’s official entry for the Oscars in 2020, although it was not ultimately nominated.
So expectations are high for Ameen’s recently completed second film, “Hijra,” which she hopes will be in cinemas next year. Ameen is currently in Paris working on post-production and editing.
Filmmaker Shahad Ameen on the set of ‘Hijra’ with actress Lamar Feddan, who plays Jenna in the film. (Supplied)
“Hijra” (which means ‘migration’) tells an intimate family story: When a teenage girl disappears, her grandmother (played by Khairiya Nazmi) and younger sister, Janna (Lamar Feddan), travel to the north of the Kingdom in search of her.
“It’s less about the chase and more about the poetic journey that they go through,” Ameen tells Arab News. “But it has this epic backdrop, which is Hajj.”
Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah — one of the five pillars of Islam. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed Hajj in Saudi Arabia this year.
“Hijra” has its roots in a story that Ameen began more than a decade ago. “I was working on a story about this missing girl. That’s the only element that survived from that story though,” she explains.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, since international borders were closed, Ameen started exploring the Kingdom.
“It was the first time I’d traveled to the north of Saudi Arabia, and all around, which really got me excited about doing a road movie, because, to be honest, a lot of filmmaking is about choosing the locations and creating an atmosphere for the film,” she says. “And at one point in my travels I thought it would be amazing to make a road film about this family on their way to Hajj and this girl goes missing.”
‘Hijra’ was shot over 55 days across eight cities in the Kingdom — Taif, Jeddah, Medina, Wadi Al-Faraa, AlUla, Tabuk, NEOM, and Duba. (Supplied)
The movie was shot over 55 days across eight cities in the Kingdom — Taif, Jeddah, Medina, Wadi Al-Faraa, AlUla, Tabuk, NEOM, and Duba. Throughout the journey, Ameen’s emotive storytelling focuses on how Saudi Arabia has always been a place where Muslims have come together, and not just for Hajj.
“It was always being brought back to the idea that this land has connected people from all over the world,” she says. “That’s what excites me. I always get angry when Americans are like, ‘Oh, we’re a melting pot and a place of immigration.’ That’s true of us too. I mean, they say they immigrate for freedom, but for a lot of Muslims around the world Saudi Arabia is the place where they can be free.”
The theme of immigration/emigration has great resonance for Ameen personally, since her great grandfather came from Bukhara in Uzbekistan. She grew up in the port city of Jeddah, where, she says, “one sees a lot of Bukharis, Tashkenti, Asians and Africans.”
She continues: “It was really exciting for me to tell the story of this young girl looking for her freedom away from her family, but through her we get to learn about her grandmother’s past.”
Khairiya Nazmi and Lamar Feddan in ‘Hijra.’ (Supplied)
Throughout the road trip in “Hijra,” the 70-year-old grandmother relives her childhood while passing through the routes along which she migrated with her father as a young girl.
“The whole story is about different generations of women and we see it through the eyes of Janna — the youngest granddaughter,” Ameen tells Arab News, adding that, while the film is about a young Saudi girl getting to know her country, she also gets to discover the stories of the women in her family and how they view the ideas of freedom and identity.
“With all the changes happening and us having more freedom than we used to have as Saudi women, I fear that we’re not paying enough tribute to the older generation of Saudi women,” Ameen says. “I think what they have in common is — as cheesy as it sounds — strength and freedom. The grandmother in the story might seem like this traditional, strict, religious woman, but she is strong and free. I would never describe my grandmothers or my mother as weaker than we are. I would actually describe them as much stronger and much freer, but maybe within their own thoughts.”
Director Shahad Ameen and producer Mohamed Al-Daradji in Neom. (Supplied)
But Ameen is also aware of how she has benefited from the social change that has swept through the Kingdom in recent years. Saudi Arabia’s embrace of the film industry is seen in international film festivals across the globe but also locally as the government helps promote local talent. “Hijra,” for example, was supported by Ithra, NEOM, Film AlUla — the Royal Commission for AlUla’s film agency, and the Daw Initiative Saudi Film Commission.
“I was thankful to have Neom and AlUla, without (them) securing such locations would not have been possible,” Ameen says.
“Hijra” is also co-produced by the Red Sea Fund, a funding program under the Red Sea Film Foundation that has so far supported over 250 films from local and regional filmmakers.
“Receiving funds from our own country is amazing,” Ameen says, adding that young Saudi filmmakers “have no excuse” not to make movies. “Just write your script and apply for the funds and hope for the best,” she says.
For Ameen, filmmaking has been her dream since she was 10. She says she grew up wanting to tell Arab stories that she felt were missing from the big screen.
“I think it’s a feeling that we all share as Arab filmmakers,” she says. “It’s that question: Where are our voices? So to be able to showcase our stories and where we come from is beautiful.
“It’s been amazing,” she continues. “We shot a very challenging, interesting and exciting film.”
