Award Winning Emirati Filmmaker Launches Latest Film

Nayla Al Khaja officially launches her latest film Malal. Malal is the first film to be filmed by an Emirati outside of the UAE.

Malal (Bored), the latest film by the multi-award winning Emirati filmmaker Nayla Al Khaja, was introduced to the media during the press conference at the Cine Royal in Khalidiyah Mall, Abu Dhabi today.

The highly anticipated Malal, the first film to be produced by an Emirati outside the UAE, featured an exclusive behind the scenes short film that showed the making of the movie, was produced by two talented young Emirati film students who accompanied Nayla and the film crew on set in India.

Talking on the release of her new film, Nayla Al Khaja, “I am very proud of Malal and believe that it marks an important step in the development of the UAE’s film industry. By producing Malal outside of the UAE we have set a benchmark, which i hope will act as a catalyst for other Emirati’s to see the opportunities that exist for film making at home but also abroad.

“Thanks to the funding of twofour54 I was able to take two young aspiring Emirati filmmakers with me on set in India and this experience has shown me what I have known all along – that the UAE has untapped talent pool. These youngsters took everything in their stride and also had time to produce an excellent behind the scenes movie.

I hope to build on the positive momentum generated by Malal’s release and look forward to the challenge of helping the next generation of aspiring UAE filmmakers into future leaders; so they can continue to present the UAE’s unique heritage and culture to the world through film,” said Nayla Al Khaja.

“One of twofour54’s key roles is the development of the media industry talent pool in the UAE,” added Wayne Borg, Chief Operating Officer at twofour54. “We have a number of skills development schemes underway as well as initiatives to provide seed funding and operational support to young Emirati entrepreneurs and media businesses.

“We hope that the experience gained by these young Emiratis will inspire them to follow a career in the film business and ultimately become the future leaders of the UAE’s media industry. We jumped at the opportunity to work with Nayla on this project and have already started looking at establishing a long-term relationship,” he concluded

The two young Emiratis that accompanied Nayla to India were given the opportunity to learn filming techniques and processes directly from Nayla and her highly experienced crew, which included a production manager from the Hollywood blockbuster, Life of Pi.

Abdulrahman Al Madani, one of the interns that accompanied Nyala on set, said: “Watching Nayla and her crew work was an eye-opening experience. We were able to learn things from them first-hand, which we couldn’t have done in any classroom. We look forward to implementing the techniques we’ve learned from them and hopefully follow in Nayla’s footsteps and make films of our own in the future.”

Malal tells the story of an Emirati couple on their honeymoon in Kerala, India, and will make its worldwide debut at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). Nayla is now planning the production on her first ever full-length feature film, which should start filming in December 2011.

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