Majid Abdul Razak has a passion for making films. Not content with creating, producing and acting in the first ever UAE feature-length film Eqaab (an Arabic version of The Count of Monte Cristo), he has once again expressed his passion for the big screen.
Arabian Sands is the second movie to be released in the UAE through his company M.A. Film Productions and was filmed in the Southern Arabian Desert and the Empty Quarter, using actors from the UAE and Oman.
The production is based on the book of the same name, by English explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who travelled across the Empty Quarter and Southern Arabian deserts with the bedouin nomadic people for five years during the 1940s. They named Thesiger "Mubarak Bin London".
"We have a story of this great explorer, who I admire for his braveness, his character, his endurance," Abdul Razak says.
"He had the choice to live a lavish lifestyle in London with all the facilities, but he chose to live in isolation."
Having met the explorer in person on several occasions, Abdul Razak felt a connection with him — so much so that he decided to play the lead part himself.
"I admired Thesiger more after being in the desert, because I know what it's like to travel with camels — you don't know if you're going to get to your next well or not. The next well is 100 miles away and it's a tiny dot in a huge desert. If you miss it, you die. Not only was he a great explorer, but he was a great writer as well, so I thought, what better than to make a film based on him."
Abdul Razak explains that the film looks at part of the book by Thesiger, due to its length, but expresses that he has "taken the essence" of the story, the "important parts" of Thesiger's writings.
'Like an Angel'
Wilfred Thesiger visited the UAE regularly, for conference events and book signings, until his death in 2003 at the age of 93. Abdul Razak met the explorer for the last time around 10 to 12 years ago, when he awoke to find him standing in his bedroom "like an angel".
Abdul Razak's wife and mother-in-law had attended a Thesiger book-signing and invited him to come and meet the filmmaker.
"He was a typical Englishman in his coat and suit, and the way he spoke was very English: I couldn't see the Bedu in him when I met him. He was a great man," Abdul Razak said.
Although he met the explorer several times, he says that the idea of making the film didn't come to him until much later. "At that time I just had great admiration for the man and I'd read the book, so I knew how great it was. Then when I made the first film, I knew what was required, because film is something that you can never really know," he says.
He decided to take on the role both for financial reasons and because of his admiration for the explorer.
"I've read the book so many times," he says, "so I know the character is there in me. I thought I could perform the way that Wilfred was, you know, because acting is something where you really get to go into the character."
The only dissimilarity, he continues, is that "I'm a bit fatter… the only thing I couldn't do myself was the size. He'd been living in the desert and he was like a stick: very, very, very thin and I'm not, unfortunately."
With his first feature-length film Eqaab, Abdul Razak had a narrow audience, with a total of 25,000 people attending screening while it showed in the region.
However, Arabian Sands is more accessible, he says, "because the language and culture is not a barrier."
He likens the film to Lawrence of Arabia, which is an English film with some Arabic dialogue. However, he says, "this is a very simple story of nomads and their camels. I took time to make a film which has more scope — it can reasonably attract anyone."
Being in English with some Arabic dialogue, it has been designed to attract an audience of all nationalities in the UAE.
However, Abdul Razak continues, "the problem is the audience these days is different. They probably don't admire the desert and camels like I do, and endurance and all those formidable dangers. Youngsters these days want something different — they want dance and comedy and social things, which is not in the film. It's still a fantasy and a fascinating story, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that people come and see it for the sake of the film industry, which here is just in its beginnings."
Two hands
As well as taking the lead role, Abdul Razak wrote the screenplay and is both the producer and director of the film. This, he says, is a film that has been made "totally by my own two hands".
The cultural artistic industry in Dubai, he says, needs to be encouraged as "film is still something that's not very popular over here. Dubai is a success because it's commercially feasible. If you make a building, it sells; and it sells for double the price. And just like any other business, filmmaking can't be just a passion, you can't keep making films from your own pocket."
Abdul Razak financed his first film Eqaab with his own money, and has done the same for Arabian Sands.
"This is something that no one helps you with," he says of the filmmaking industry.
"People won't help you, they won't give anything; I don't know, maybe I'm just unlucky, because whatever I wanted I was not successful. Everywhere was a closed door, if you wanted help there was none," he says.
Despite having made the film almost single-handedly, Abdul Razak is enthusiastic about taking it to film festivals, and has already applied for Cannes, Venice, Rome and Munich.
"We hope to show the world that we in the UAE can make films. With films, your audience are your supporters and suppliers; and if they don't come, you're not going to succeed," he says.
Future-facing
At the moment, Abdul Razak isn't considering going into filmmaking full-time. This isn't because of the lack of stories, he says, but because of the finance needed.
"I have heard many stories — there are many and I already have scripts, so that's not a problem. But I'm not going to do it on my own again. Filmmaking is not something you can play around with as a hobby, or because you have a passion. I did it once, I did it twice, but next time it should be properly studied and it should make commercial sense. I should get support," he says.
