Writer/Director/Actor Omar Bakry, Producer/Actor Inji El-Gammal, Producer Jaselle Martino, Editor/Post Production Supervisor Salah Anwar, Actor Roger Hendricks Simon and Co-Producer Ahmed Barbary talks to Fest Track about the journey, ideas, constructs, universality and authenticity in regards to their film "Abdo And Saneya" playing the Arab Spectacular section of the 2024 Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
00:00This is Tim Wasberg, I'm here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the Red
00:29Sea International Film Festival, now relocated into the historic part of the city, Abba La.
00:37The movie's about perspective, the perspective like when you come to New York City or the perspective
00:43when you're in Egypt, but perspective of what happiness means. Could you talk about that theme
00:49overall and representing that like more in motion and how people act with their bodies?
00:56So the question is about the style of acting or?
01:02The style of acting, but also capturing the thematic of that idea of isolation versus joy
01:09versus regret. That's all encompassed in that.
01:13Okay, that's a full question. All right, so yes, the idea of seeking joy is a very strong theme
01:24in the film because if you notice in the flashbacks, they start out happy where they are.
01:32But it's social pressures and the wanting to have children that starts them on their journey.
01:39And I think what's powerful about that is their love for each other is what starts the journey.
01:45Because, you know, Abba could have, because he automatically blamed the woman.
01:52He could have married somebody else. You know, in Islam it says you can marry four,
01:57or he could have divorced her and married somewhere else, but he refused.
02:00He refused and his father got upset with him.
02:02He loves her. Yeah, he does.
02:04It's a love story.
02:05And so, you know, and he knew that his joy was with her.
02:10Yeah.
02:12And it sets them off on this path of horrific obstacles.
02:24Here's a love story.
02:44To be continued...
02:49and then of course there's the combating his manhood because you know in where he was he
03:04was in charge he would go to the field he was the provider she was the the woman at home all
03:11of a sudden in the states things are flipped around yeah and so in many respects it's out
03:17the learning to adapt to new ideas about the place of the woman and and the same love that
03:28makes him not abandon Sine in the beginning is the one that makes her stick by him at the end
03:36so it's it's very much a love story and the joy of the two characters being together that's that's
03:45their priority you know because there are ups and downs there are ups and downs it's a complete
03:52different environment they didn't have to leave they were comfortable no but it's their love for
03:56each other that compels them to go to this new place it has been quite a marathon more so a
04:02marathon really depending on what part of the journey you join I as I'm because you developed
04:10it from the beginning I came on once when there was a I believe a five minute proof of concept
04:16I think it was five minutes or three minutes but it was honestly one up to me one of my favorite
04:23things to watch I was very engaged it was really surprising it made me laugh and I also was just really
04:31inspired by uh both uh director Omar and Inji who played Sanea's journey not just as a couple because
04:40they're a couple in real life but just as filmmakers you know um and essentially you know I I'm not this
04:49delusional in a way where I think a black and white silent film with a director the industry doesn't know yet
04:56um would sell you know would just sell just like that I knew this would take a lot to do so we had
05:05to get really tactical we had to get really creative um because we wanted as much as we wanted the film
05:11to be financed the best way we the most money we can we also wanted the film to be finished because we
05:17felt like it was almost like a moving target you needed a finished film to sell yourself as filmmakers
05:23but you needed money to make the finished film was there a wall that you had to buy
05:28a lot as you know a lot of the locations like you would see in the film like the airport scene that
05:35was shot in JFK and um uh we um the courtroom scene that was uh in one of the New York smaller
05:45district supreme court um the what else there was um we got a school and there was restaurants and
05:54like these were I I got really creative I'm also I think one of my gifts also because as a producer
06:01I can become really annoying so either you will have to be like no or you will be like oh just
06:09take it that's and usually I get that they'll just go and that's how I approach JFK that's how
06:17I approach JFK like honestly I probably sent so many emails I emailed like it started with info I
06:25said no we're best friends
06:55I try to tell the actors and myself when I'm acting yeah that in telling a story to make it
07:04interesting to the ear as well as it was film is is largely thought of as visual okay but to the ear
07:16and to the eye there is also a rhythm in in in how you actually speak it has a beginning a middle and
07:25end as a famous person wants that so so it's it doesn't have just a first act yeah it has three acts
07:33a speech has those three acts or the beginning middle and an end and like a good symphony there's
07:41there's different movements within it so is that a classical construct or is that more of a modern take
07:48you think I think I think I don't even think it's in terms of just classical you could say it's it's classical because it's probably
07:56traditional thinking because a lot of modern work throws that out but I even think when it comes to modern work that
08:05there's still a beginning a middle and end to a project and there has to be movement now when there's dialogue the sound is
08:12is part of that rhythm the dynamics is part of the rhythm and an actor has to be aware that going from a
08:21pianissimo to you know almost like singing yeah rather than I don't know what I'm doing I'll just do whatever I feel
08:28yeah you have to be aware that there is movement dynamically to really tell a story yeah in a silent movie I feel there's something very similar you don't have a sound
08:40but in your expression in telling the story in your body language there is also a rhythm okay and it it can vary and it builds within a scene yeah within and it's all visual then yeah when we worked with Omar as in this film quite honestly we were speaking aloud well so it wasn't that different than really doing a regular film
09:10it was just I mean we used lines oh for sure yeah we improvised and and so I didn't I think I don't think the technique was any different than doing a regular film for me and and but yes we an actor I feel always should think in terms you could almost notice it really in some people's lips and some hearts yeah that's what I was doing last night
09:30so
09:37so
09:42so
09:44so
09:46so
09:50so
09:54so
10:14so
10:18to ask you about the embodiment of this character because yes she goes through such joy but you can see the heart you can see the humor you can see them going back and forth and to do that without for the most part sound is a whole different acting exercise you have to think outside yourself
10:47yes
10:48yes
10:49yes
10:50well I said this few times before you but what happened is that the first thing that I did was to train myself on how to walk
10:59yeah
11:00because
11:01Sanaya we imagined her having more of a heavy walk
11:06okay
11:07so that took some time I used to pace in my apartment back and forth for like days and you know and then once I got that everything else came to me
11:16because of the weight she's carrying
11:18because of the way you walk like the way the way she walks I could like feel her and feel the personality somehow
11:25also I watched a lot of YouTube videos to see the woman in the farmland because Sanaya and I come from two different backgrounds completely we're both Egyptians but I come from another background so to see you know the mannerism the hand gestures and of course Omar was always telling me to
11:45to do more because we're always trained to act more naturally
11:52yes more what more like more expression more gestures you know to like instead of being here go here you'd be surprised the kind of things that trip up New York locations like you would think sound is not the it like you would think to be like oh sound we don't have to worry to shut down our planes but that was but JFK was a logistical issue because it was it's an airport and it's security
12:14yeah and we were filming behind security you know so you know and we because we wanted that that space I was wondering it looked like the international terminal yeah this is basically like I think it's that that the window when you come from like the first time yeah like you are in the queue and you're waiting to go to the administration office and then you have to go to board authority and go to the New York yeah it's such a correct so yeah so you know and really honestly so many people that joined this project
12:43I feel like me had the same sort of you have to see what we've done and granted I did come on when there was not much about what was on screen but as the film grew as we shot different stuff and we showed different people also
13:01uh uh Barbarie when he was able to see us at uh fairly close the picture lock you know uh he was like look I wanna like how can we how can we make this happen
13:13yeah
13:15the film went through a lot of stages when when uh when Omar first Omar is the second editor of the film as well by the way so Omar started uh cutting once they did their first shoots in the first series okay and so he would cut when he's editing just to see what's going on how to move in and keep in and keep in and I
13:45I came at the end and at the end there was a couple things happening number one as you saw the film has a lot of uh you know a couple of flashbacks to their original stuff like what how they met like who did their families a lot of these points and so one of the things that happened when when I came on on the edit yeah was to rearrange those in a way that was still interested
14:07that so did they all play linearly like where it played with them no so it did it always been
14:14you know modern day they just came to America and then a couple of flashbacks that but the
14:20the placement of it changed and certain moments you know came out it became shorter certain moments came
14:26after or before certain moments okay and so part of of my work on the film was very focused on should we move this part here should we keep this here
14:35interesting and uh the other part was about my own take as an editor on on almost all the moments and
14:42you know it we didn't Omar likes to keep it simple if something and you weren't editing to music right
14:48so that's another interesting part we always edited with temp music okay certain parts we edited without
14:53music at all in the beginning what were you using do you remember we were using classical like library
14:58sometimes we're using classical music okay because all this is never going to end up in a film anyway so
15:02let's use but it's also always about like does this cue work for this moment are we getting what
15:06we want here right because we need to like a little bit of and that's insanely difficult because
15:11you're you're it's number one is you're you have to believe in the untapped potential of the film
15:17all the time yeah because the music that you watch right now it's marvelous Alexander Azaria did an
15:23incredible job and Jerome like did an incredible job but you see it now yeah yeah oh my god it's amazing
15:30for months and a year and a half or so I had to believe that the music will do more but then I
15:38up on the other side I'm working on every moment to land without that and that's a very hard
15:44combination because it's like at least with for the lack of better word the usual format yeah like
15:50this is as close as it will get there's gonna be a good mix there's gonna be like a good color and
15:56visual effects but yeah doesn't go like insanely far yeah but here it goes very far yeah it changes
16:03everything right the visual it's the the audible experience and the music experience changes every
16:08that that is who does also come on the water he's one of the part of the music that worked on this
16:14with Alexander Azaria he his instruments and his sounds made it very authentic and that was very
16:20important for Omar Engie and Giselle and everyone who worked on the film it's like we're all actually
16:25Egyptian and some of us were born and raised in America and so I was born and raised in America
16:29and in Egypt I'm sorry and so it's it's awful if you're making a different movie and the sounds
16:35or anything else about it yeah and Omar wouldn't allow it too so it was really good that you know
16:41that it was a pathetic sound was there the music and everything else
