H I G H F LY E R S
ALI F. MOSTAFA IS DETERMINED TO PUT
UAE CINEMA ON THE INTERNATIONAL MAP.
BY // GEORGINA WILSON-POWELL
“I want
to win an Academy Award may on the surface appear to be a lofty ambition, but his
first feature length movie, City of Life, which premiered at the Dubai International
Film Festival last year, is garnering growing international attention both for
Mostafa and the UAE film-making industry.
IMAGES: LYUBOV GALUSHKO / ITP IMAGES & SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
that little gold statue,” says Ali F. Mostafa, the young
Emirati film director of his future career goals. His desire
City of Life is the UAE’s first ever big
budget feature film and as writer, pro-
ducer and director, Mostafa has many
reasons to be proud. However, when he
initially mooted the idea of the film, the
reception was far from positive. “I was
once told to lock it up in a safe and think
about making it in 10 years,” he recol-
lects. “This wasn’t enough to stop me…
With perseverance we are proud as a
national to have an international feature
under our belt. I’m so proud of what we
have achieved with City of Life.”
The film is a snapshot of mod-
ern Dubai with its multi-cultural com-
munity and the seeming disparate yet
intertwined lives of those in the com-
munity. City of Life follows three dif-
ferent characters, each with their own
unique experience of Dubai: There is
an Emirati man trying to find his place
in life, an Indian taxi driver who bears
more than a passing resemblance to
a Bollywood actor and a Romanian
woman who is a former ballet dancer
now working as a flight attendant.
Describing the initial trigger for
the movie, Mostafa says: “It all started
when I walked into a place called The
Bollywood Cafe with a friend.” He con-
tinues: “It was a place that had some
Indian look-a-likes performing and my
friend found it interesting enough to
do a documentary about them. I liked
the idea a lot but… tried to see how I
could incorporate that with a fictitious
character and turn it into a film. [Having
developed] the Indian look-a-like char-
acter I needed to add a couple more
storylines and nationalities to the mix
if this was going to be my first feature
that I was shooting in my city. So I then
added the Emirati storyline followed by
the western storyline, and after many
drafts I came up with the film City of
Life.”
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Each character offers a different
representation of Dubai – from the low
key, backstreet Indian cafes in the old
part of the city down by the creek, to the
new glitzier skyscrapers that are home
to the western contingent of expats
and beyond to an even more privileged
world. As the storyline of City of Life
evolves the lives of the three main
characters become interconnected and
each of them begins to discover who
they truly are. Although this mode of
storytelling isn’t new to the multiplex,
the fact that no one has employed it
before to recreate life in Dubai is sur-
prising, seeing as the fast-paced city
can be a continual series of transient
meetings and connections – but it takes
a life-long resident to see the city for
who it really is.
“Living in Dubai inspired the story,”
elaborates Mostafa. “We are living in
such a melting pot that this ensemble
type of script was almost inevitable to
make.”
Inspiration for the script may have
been imbued within Dubai, actually
bringing it to the big screen however
was more of a challenge. The movie
took Mostafa three years to make and
each character’s story is played out
in a different language: Hindi, Arabic
and English, all of which needed sub-
titling. The filming process, carried out
with co-production company Filmworks
meanwhile, was determinedly compact,
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shot in just five weeks. It united a
multinational cast of actors includ-
ing Egyptian-American comic Ahmed
Ahmed, Iraqi-Canadian rapper The
Narcicyst, British stars Jason Flemyng
and Natalie Dormer and Romanian
actress Alexandra Maria Lara, among
others.
There was also the small matter
of funding for the project. For this a
number of key sponsors and support-
ers were sought. Dubai Airports, Dubai
Duty Free and Nakheel were among
those to offer backing, whilst the Dubai
Culture and Arts Authority provided its
endorsement too. Mostafa, admits how-
ever that making a film in the UAE isn’t
particularly easy, he has been quoted
as saying that the process is far more
costly, estimating that it took 40 per
cent more funding to ensure production
than it would have in the States. There
are also other challenges to be faced in
the region. “We have censorship here
so you’re always thinking twice before
you go wild with your imagination,
especially when you’re trying to write
a script,” he says. “You face challenges
in anything you do but when it comes
to film-making I guess it would be the
limit to your own creativity.”
Mostafa, however, remains unde-
terred. Along with pursuing his dream
of a golden statue, he is also keen to
help the UAE and the Middle East film
industry establish itself on a global
stage. “I want to be able to make films
without budgets getting in my way. I
want to represent Arab film-making in
a very big way internationally,” he says.
“I am indeed very ambitious and that’s
why I am where I am today.”
This year, Mostafa has been rep-
resenting the UAE at legendary actor
Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival
in the United States at the request of
the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, act-
ing as an ambassador for the future of
Arab film-making. He hopes that films
such as his will broaden the under-
standing of the Middle East, presenting
the UAE through themes that anyone
can understand.
“I and a few others feel that way.
We are making waves and breaking
through and it feels good,” Mostafa
explains when asked whether he sees
himself as an ambassador for film-
making in the UAE.
“LIVING IN DUBAI INSPIRED THE
STORY,” ELABORATES MOSTAFA. “WE
ARE LIVING IN SUCH A MELTING POT
THAT THIS ENSEMBLE TYPE OF SCRIPT
WAS ALMOST INEVITABLE TO MAKE.”
HIS PASSION FOR FILM-
MAKING, HOWEVER, HAS
LONG BEEN WITH HIM. “THIS
IS SOMETHING I HAVE BEEN
DOING SINCE BEFORE I CAN
REMEMBER – IT’S IN MY SKIN,
IT’S WHAT I LIVE FOR.”
Left to right: Stills from City of Life. Ali Mostafa Nowadays, Mostafa’s film career is
and Tim Smythe, the producer of City of
taking him all over the globe and bring-
Life and CEO of Filmworks attend the Dubai
International Film Festival. ing him a great deal of attention and
praise. His passion for film-making,
however, has long been with him. “This
is something I have been doing since
before I can remember – it’s in my skin,
it’s what I live for. Being creative has
always been part of my life; both my
parents are creative people. My father
is an architect and my mother owns a
floral, events and design company,” he
explains.
Mostafa’s creative talent was nur-
tured from a young age and his love of
film was cemented by his time at the
London Film School, emerging with
an MA before returning to the Middle
East to make commercials, attracting
blue chip clients such as Nissan and
Etisalat and forming production house
AFM Films.
“As a child I used to do a lot of stop
motion animation with my toys. I also
made lots of action films as I loved
IMAGES: COURTESY OF CITY OF LIFE & SUPPLIED
doing stunts back then. I also made
a few mock TV ads and experimented
quite a bit with the camera,” he reveals.
“Seeing something evolve from A to B is
an amazing feeling. It’s the same with
making a film. You have pre-production,
production and then post production.”
Before making City of Life, Mostafa
mixed making commercials with short
films, including Under The Sun, which
has toured the film festival circuit to
H I G H F LY E R S
much critical acclaim. The short was
nominated for Best Foreign Film at the
San Fernando Valley International Film
Festival in North Hollywood, California,
USA and won the Best Emirates Film
2006 in the annual Emirates Film
Competition in Abu Dhabi. This short
film clearly demonstrated his talents
as a film-maker and further fuelled his
own love of the film production process
from writing to producing and directing.
Whilst he has always worked as both
director and producer it’s directing that
has his heart. “Directing is definitely
my forte and it’s something that I will
always do,” he explains. “They [produc-
ing and directing] do differ quite a bit.
I do enjoy producing because it’s still
part of my field but it involves a lot more
managerial skills.”
Recently the director and producer
has been involved in making commer-
cials once again. This time for Peace
One Day, an international collaboration
between artists and individuals try-
ing to raise awareness of International
Peace Day, which takes place annually
September 21. This global effort that
highlights the destruction of war is
the brainchild of British documentary
maker Jeremy Gilley and Mostafa was
only to willing to lend his talents to the
cause.
The buzz surrounding City of Life
continues, but Mostafa is not one to rest
on his laurels and he is already back in
the studio working on new projects. He
remains tight-lipped about their exact
content simply saying: “There are some
other projects I am currently working
on… I hope to share them with you
soon.” Whatever these new projects
prove to be, they are certain to raise
Mostafa’s profile further, inching him
closer to the goal of achieving that
acclaimed gold statue, and providing
another boost to the UAE’s growing film
industry.
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