The Royal Film Commission – Jordan Organizes the
16th Edition of Rawi Screenwriters Lab
Amman, 5 December 2021
After a one-year suspension of
the Rawi Screenwriters Lab due to the global health situation, the
Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC) resumed the 16th round of the
Lab, which wrapped up yesterday. Nine aspiring Arab screenplay
writers (Rawi Fellows) along with their outstanding feature-length
screenplays, had made their way to the serene and inspiring
atmosphere of the Wadi Feynan, in the southwestern edge of the Dana
Biosphere Reserve on November 29th. This year, eight renowned
award-winning screenwriters (Creative Advisors), coming from all
around the world, have been hosted by the Lab to advise its selected
Arab screenwriters and share their expertise with full eagerness.
In order to look into the
screenplays and refine the plot in the most convincing way, the RFC
arranged for the Fellows and Advisors to work together intensively
for five days, from November 29th until December 3rd. A visit to the
iconic city of Petra was organized, on the following day, after the
Lab’s activities came to an end.
The Rawi team tailored a serene
location with a motivating ambiance strictly devoted to screenplay
writing at Feynan Ecolodge – built by the Royal Society for the
Conservation of Nature (RSCN) and owned now by the EcoHotels. Since
its inception in 2005, Rawi Screenwriters Lab has supported some of
the most significant new voices in Middle Eastern cinema.
Mohannad Al Bakri, the RFC’s
Managing Director, commented on this year’s Lab and projects saying:
“This 16th round of Rawi is a special one in the sense of having the
Lab return to Feynan; a very distinguished spot for the Fellows to
have the solitude and privacy they need to work with their Advisors
on their screenplays. The combination of participants from all over
the Arab region and Advisors coming from around the globe is
enriching Rawi and giving rise to magnificent stories.”
The Creative Advisors for this
year included: Abu Bakr Shawky (Egypt), Ana Urushadze (Georgia),
Bernd Lichtenberg (Germany), Georges Hachem (Lebanon), Margaret
Glover (United Kingdom), Sharon Doyle (United States), Wayne Powers
(United States) and Wessam Soliman (Egypt).
Margaret Glover, Rawi’s
Creative Advisor and Consultant, and who is a script editor, writer
and producer, shared her impressions about the Lab saying: “At Rawi,
there is a strong sense of actively valuing the diversity, equality,
equity, and inclusivity within the Arab world. It is probably, in
terms of a linguistic cultural group, the most diverse in the world
and so the interaction just among fellows who are coming from
different parts of the Arab speaking world across the Middle East,
and that in it itself is a very important conversation that I truly
hope will enrich the film culture and aid the development of a film
language that is specific to the region; not colonized or following
foreign approaches, declaring its independence as a cinema which can
communicate with its own audiences, its own diaspora, and also those
of us who are not part of that culture. My sense is that if there’s
one thing that distinguishes the RFC is that is their goal.”
Selected projects and fellows
for this year’s edition of Rawi are: “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”
by Amr Abed (Egypt), “Road 250” by Haya Alghanim (Kuwait), “Shameem”
by Karim Rahbani (Lebanon), “Son of the Alien” by Assaf Al
Rousan (Jordan), “The 100 Hours Trip” by Hadeel Lawi
(Jordan), “To Him We Return” by Ahmad and Rana Alyaseer
(Jordan), “The Return of the Jerboas” by Jihane Amira
Khelfallah (Algeria) and “The Wind Above the Clouds” by Farah
Abou Kharroub (Lebanon).
About her participation in the
Lab, Fellow Rana Alyaseer said: “Rawi is a rich experience that I
will never forget, from which I gained new expertise, whether from
the sessions with the Advisors, or the discussions with the Fellows.
The workshop also offered us the opportunity to get acquainted with
professional writers whose films we watched in their presence and
discussed with them, and that is a very special opportunity. The
location of the workshop being at the Feynan Ecolodge had a positive
impact on the experience, as the nature of the place gave us privacy
and comfort to dwell in the screenplay as well as getting inspired
by its ambiance.”
The RFC’s team has already
begun planning for the 17th Rawi Screenwriters Lab as the Call for
Applications for the upcoming round will be open in January 2022.
A brief about the participating projects and
fellows of Rawi 2021 . |