A still from 'And Then They Burn The Sea'
Doha: Qatari film “And Then They Burn The Sea” has been selected for screening at this year’s Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival Shorts Programme — the largest programme to date. The film is among 48 selected for the programme.
Speaking to The Peninsula, the film's director Majid Al Remaihi, said: “I’m very happy to have the film be seen in Dublin. The film still remains such a personal and difficult project that I find myself always honoured and almost surprised that it continues to be selected for newer audiences.
“I hope it continues to resonate with people who may or may not have gone through similar experiences or realities.”
It's the only film from Qatar to make the cut at the festival.
Filmed on an abandoned fishermen village in northern Qatar, ‘And Then They Burn the Sea’ is an ode to the filmmaker’s living mother whose memories abruptly left her during the making of the film. Al Remaihi ruminates on an experience of familial loss of that which cannot be defined but is deeply felt by pairing existing family archives with reenacted dreams.
Weaving a myriad of poetry, folk history, and personal archives, the film mirrors a history of maternal mourning rituals that lament their loved ones who may never be returned by the sea.
The film which is in Arabic language and is 19-minute long, is a recipient of Doha Film Institute’s film funding.
This is not the first time Al Remaihi’s film has been making waves internationally. The film is the first-ever Qatari film to be selected for screening at 75 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.
It also won the Silver Tahit Award at Carthage Film Festival; Best Experimental Short, Message to Man International Film Festival in St. Petersburg; and Special Mention at FrontDoc International Film Festival in Italy. And just recently, it won the Made in Qatar Best Documentary Prize during the 9th Ajyal Film Festival.
