02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Kuwaiti cinema needs to earn the viewer's trust, says director Mohammad Almujaibel
In 1972, Kuwait became the first country in the Gulf region to produce a feature film. The Cruel Sea by Khalid Al Siddiq was a drama about the dangers of pearl diving and the toll it took on families in Kuwait. The film was the country's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards but did not make the shortlist of nominees. Despite having started the region's cinematic journey, Kuwait has since lagged behind others in film production, instead focusing more on television series, where it has dominated for years. Mohammad Almujaibel, a filmmaker from Kuwait, is determined to change that and help grow the country's film industry. His crime thriller Session Adjourned was screened at the Saudi Film Festival in Dhahran in April. The film stars a number of familiar faces, including Khaled Al Buraiki, Jassem Al Nabha, Hind Al Balushi, Abdullah Al Turkmany and Ali Al Shashtari – all established names in Kuwaiti television. It also features fresh faces, including Malak Abu Zaid, Mustafa Mahmoud, Mohammed Al Harbi – talents Almujaibel was intent on showcasing. 'The stars people want to see in movies aren't necessarily the same ones they know from TV,' he tells The National. 'Even from a marketing perspective, audiences love seeing new faces on the big screen.' A huge pool of acting talent exists in Kuwait, he adds, but they just have to be given a chance to appear in films. 'Our role is to seek them out. We believe in moving away from the traditional model of choosing a star based on their name, fan base or number of followers. In the end, it's the substance that matters.' Session Adjourned follows a lawyer who becomes embroiled in taking down a gang of weapons smugglers. After his son is killed, the lawyer takes his own life. But soon afterwards, the people who threatened him are mysteriously killed one by one, with the killer leaving a scorpion pendant at each scene. An established film industry does not exist in Kuwait yet, but Almujaibel hopes to see it achieved. 'We are trying to be part of the mechanism that gets it started. The biggest challenge now is how to build an audience that follows Kuwaiti films,' he says. 'How do you set the right foundations so you can say, one day, that the next generation will grow up following and supporting Kuwaiti cinema?' Kuwaiti films have created stereotypes about content from the country, Almujaibel says. It pained him some viewers of Session Adjourned at the festival approached him to say they expected a Kuwaiti film to be full of jokes and witty comments and were surprised at how serious it was. 'There's now a certain reputation, one that neither I nor my hardworking colleagues are responsible for,' he says. 'Some people try to make us carry that burden, but unfortunately, a few films created a general negative image or a bad reputation. 'On my own, I won't be able to do it, but I believe in the principle: 'It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.'' Kuwaiti filmmakers, including himself, need to win the trust of the viewer, so that after watching multiple films, they can follow a director or a writer from the country and have faith that their work will be good quality. 'That's the only solution. You take the initiative and you start. Yes, Kuwaiti cinema has a bad reputation now, OK, then you step up and offer something better.' In Session Adjourned, the story takes many turns and surprises audiences with its reveals. Almujaibel says he was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's films and wanted to keep the viewer guessing and on edge. He also says that the filmmakers created multiple endings to the film, to see which worked. He says it was risky to keep the story vague until the very end, but that he wanted the audience to feel rewarded at the finish. 'It's built around steering the viewer toward a certain expectation and then surprising them with a completely different outcome. Every time you think the story is over, there's more to it,' he says. 'The main goal was enjoyment, because the most basic requirement of cinema is entertainment.'
