| Issue 4
AJ Al Thani
A film industry
in bloom
Young director says it is an exciting time
for Qatari film-makers, with many new
screen projects in the pipeline
I
It is surely true that Qatar’s desert has long been
a source of artistic inspiration. Poets, painters and
musicians have dedicated great works to its splendour.
In a digital age, it is no surprise that the desert of Qatar is
now inspiring film-makers.
Qatari film-maker AJ Al Thani calls her short film,
Kashta, “a love letter to Qatar”. She says: “I feel so much
more connected to the desert of Qatar than its urban
landscape. There is so much beauty in our desert that
hasn’t been put in cinemas and I wanted to do that with
my film.”
Kashta was released in 2016. It tells the story of a man
teaching his young sons how to track and hunt in the
desert. Frustration leads to an apparently harmless
struggle between the two brothers, but their carelessness
brings about sudden disaster.
It is a film of contrasts, between calm and calamity,
adolescence and adulthood, knowhow and ignorance.
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| Kashta film still
To make the film, AJ received a grant from Doha
Film Institute (DFI), which was founded in 2010 by
Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin
Khalifa Al Thani to support the growth of the local and
regional film community.
DFI provides funding grants to produce local, regional
and international films. It also organises training and
development programmes, film screenings, annual film
events and other initiatives to nurture filmmaking talent
in Qatar.
AJ was one of DFI’s first beneficiaries. She says: “I
joined one of the first DFI workshops when it began
in 2010.” She remembers it well: “It was a workshop
in collaboration with the 2022 World Cup bid and we
made a one-minute football film,” she recalls.