Last year at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, I attended TEDxDoha which took place at the Katara Heritage Village during the Festival although not actually part of it. I went because an old friend who was running the show told me about it, and I had never been to any TEDx before that. The show wasn’t great, but as sometimes happens, I sat next to young couple and started talking.
She sounded American and turned out to have been born and lived in New York City where I’m from and had gone to school in Virginia and Texas. Her husband who was from East Asia said he was an artist, and they were living in Amsterdam. She said she was a filmmaker and had come to Doha looking for support to complete her film titled Habibi.
Some of you who have read this far may by now recognize that the young woman was Susan Youssef who did indeed finish her film which was shown in December at the Dubai International Film Festival in the Muhr Arabic Feature Film category.
The film whose full title is HABIBI RASAK KHARBAN is billed as coming from Palestine, USA, Netherlands, UAE won first place as Best Film in the Muhr competition. It was also recognized as best by the International Federation of Film Critics.
Susan’s husband Man Kit Lam was co- executive producer of Habibi and shared with his wife the award for Best Editing. MaisaAbdElhadi who played the female lead won Best Actress.
Habibi takes the classic love story of Majnun and Leila and updates to today’s Palestine in Gaza where the young lovers fight their families and the political situation for the right to be together.
After our meeting in October 2010 in Doha, Susan was able to link up with the Enjaaz Fund for post production that’s connected with the Dubai International Film Festival. Enjaaz made it possible for Habibi to be finished and in time for showing at DIFF.
I’m really happy to know that our chance conversation in Doha introduced me to someone, in fact, two people who knew what they wanted and knew how to go about getting it. Back then we exchanged business cards, and Susan followed up by putting me on the list of people interested in what was happening with Habibi.
From time to time, we would get updates on progress with the film. The updates sometimes included a delicate request for financial help, but they were gracefully done, and I’m sure helped raise some funds.
Susan’s story is for me a perfect example of doing what you have to do to realize your dream, in other words, entrepreneurship. Putting together a film – Susan wrote, directed, edited, and produced Habibi – is a business proposition. Looking for production or post-production funding is like looking for angel investors, someone to take a chance on your idea which really means taking a chance on you. Every entrepreneurial endeavor begins and ends with the character of the entrepreneur.
When I met Susan and Man a year ago, I liked them and wished them well. I also had no way of knowing that they were the real thing, people who had the talent, the fortitude, and the people skills to make their film and realize their dream.
These film festivals Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi are contributing to building an industry in parts of the Middle East that never had one. They’re doing it by supporting local talent and inviting the most promising talent from the rest of the world to show what they can do.
The biggest news story of the Dubai International Film Festival may have been Tom Cruise coming to the Middle East premiere of Mission Impossible 4. That certainly helped boost Dubai’s international reputation, but the more important story is Susan Youssef and other young artists from the region and the world showing what they can do.
By Alma Kadragic
@almakad
