Discover culture through short films

While travelling on Qatar Airways, I was delighted to find out that among 100s of international movies they had, there were few local short films. The movies were between 6 and 28 minutes long. They were funded by Qatar Film Institute and directed by Qataris.

The first film was Smicha (fish in gulf dialect). The film focused on 2 characters: Lulwa, a young girl of 7 or 8 and her Alzheimer suffering grandfather. Throughout the film, Lulwa is trying hard to make her grandfather remember his promise of buying her a gold fish. Although the film was less than 20 minutes, the atmosphere was nostalgic and reminded me instantly of my childhood. The film was so generic and easy to relate to. Lulwa represented any GCC child who lived with a loving grandparent, like many of us.

In the second film, Kashta (outdoors camping in gulf dialect) two boys accompany their father in a camping trip. The boys have different characters. One is quiet and wearing a boy scout gear and the other is boisterous in his national attire. The boys quarrel over a hedgehog that the scout had found. Unfortunately, the dad gets shot by accident during the fight. The boys manage to save their father when they collaborate (the scout with his ideas and the other with his skills).

Al-makhbaz (the bakery) is the shortest film of the lot (only 6 minutes long). The director focuses on the oldest bakery they have in Qatar, that produces khubz tanoor (also known as Iranian bread). The focus of the film is solely on the production of bread: from the dough making stage throughout the cutting, baking and finally packing in bags. What made this