LAIL NAHAR @ Red Sea international film festival - Interview with the director: Abdulaziz Almuzaini

LAIL NAHAR a Red Sea international film festival presentation.

Interview with the director: Abdulaziz Almuzaini by Emmanuel Itier

In this very surprising first film as a director, Abdulaziz Almuzaini explores the journey of opera singer Nahar and his quest to find the perfect wife as well as to find himself in order to give a true meaning to his existence. This is a film full of adrenaline and punches that always keeps you on the edge of your seat. We caught up with Adbulaziz Almuzaini as he was promoting his film at the Red Sea International film festival.

Q: How did it come together, this very unusual jewel of a movie?

Abdulaziz: It’s about accepting the others. It’s also about the cancel culture. It happens all the time, people being canceled because they did something out of the ordinary. People do it for their own amusement and for money. This is the evil of social medias. And this is the movie I wanted to put together.  Initially I wasn’t going to be the director. I became a director 10 days before the start of shooting. So, this was a very challenging task. I had never been on a movie set. I had another director, but I lost faith in him, and I thought he wasn’t going to capture the essence of the movie I was trying to make. So, I stepped in and improvise myself as the director. At least I had created and written the script. Therefore, I knew very well the story and the characters, which was very helpful.

Q: Best thing and worse thing about being a movie director?

Abdulaziz: Well, since I’m the producer and the director I have to be double vigilant and double responsible for the film. I have lots of pressure if this film bombs.

Q: This is the fourth edition of the Red Sea film festival; how did it grow and how did it change?

Abdulaziz: For me it’s very special to be here because this film came from a meeting, I had last year and where I got the financing commitment to make it. For sure the festival has grown tremendously. It’s a great platform for filmmakers like me and to showcase our work.

Q: What is the takeaway from your film, what do you hope people get from watching it?

Abdulaziz: It’s an hour and forty minutes to allow you to disengage from your daily life trouble and pressures. I just hope people will have a great entertaining time watching my film.