New Delhi   

A one-man film industry

Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI: Bassen Al Thawadi is reel-ly the most important man in Bahrain. A one-man film industry for the tiny country, he is credited with having produced its first as well as the second feature film.

"When I was a student of cinema at the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo, I thought I would go back to my country and make films. But six months after I went back I realised that it was not easy. It had to wait seven years to make my first film,'' he says.

Grappling with the problem of size, making movies in Bahrain is not easy. While talent for the screen might be not be tough, the support from behind the scenes from producers was not always easy to come by. Flooded with films from other countries, it is difficult for filmmakers who want to tell their stories to their people to find space.

"Producers often see film in commercial terms. They believe cinema is money. They put conditions on filmmakers and directors would rather not work. But the producers are not also completely wrong. We are such a small country of about 600,000 people, so even if the whole country goes to see the film they will not recover the cost. So it is important for us to go into co-production,'' he says.

Bassen has taken a first step of collaborating with the Bahrain Cinema Company that marks the beginning of the members of the private sector investing in the local film industry.

Picking up the pieces of a cinema movement that was once vibrant with Bahrain being the first country in the region to open up a movie-hall, people like Bassen are now bringing the country back on the world map despite the problems.

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