Sarah Mesfer

Sara Mesfer is a Film Director and writer from Saudi Arabia. Her first short film The Girls Who Burned The Night (2019) won Special Mention Awards at Palm Spring and Cairo international film festivals. Her second film, Al Dabah, is part of the Becoming omnibus which features five shorts by Saudi female directors, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.

Tell us about Becoming and Al Dabah
In 2019 I was invited to pitch an idea for an only- Saudi female director omnibus. It was highly competitive, as there were many more women directors than men in Saudi at the time!

Did partaking in a collective project influence your work?
We had six months to create our film – at first everyone worked very individually, as there wasn’t time to interact. We were able to connect more during the editing stage, and I learnt a lot from working alongside the other directors.

Would you have done anything differently?
I’d have read the other scripts to create a common plot or character thread between the films. Having said that, all the films in Becoming are somehow related. For example, my film is about an unplanned pregnancy, while Hind Alfahhad’s The Unforgettable Hand deals with a woman desperately trying to get pregnant. And so forth across the different stories.

What inspired Al Dabah?
I created the idea specifically for Becoming, but already had the theme and characters in mind, and built the story around these. Growing up, I’d hear women talk about unplanned pregnancies, and it created a fear in me, which I explore in Al Dabah. I think everyone, not only women, can relate to the terror of an impending situation they don’t know how to face.

The Girls Who Burned The Night is about two sisters whose mother denies their request to go to a grocery store, leading to a tense night. Are there similarities with Al Dabah?
Both stories centre around female relationships in the family. The Girls Who Burned The Night was particularly inspired by my memories of being 13, and feelings of boredom and rage. I like to explore time and space, by seeing what happens when very different characters, with contrasting feelings, are in an enclosed place, intensified by pressure from an outside force.

It’s clear your characters are central to your work. How important is casting?
I find it the most vital part of filmmaking. The cast are central to my creative process. My last draft of a script has to be written with them. With The Girls Who Burned The Night, I was 21, writing characters who are 13, 14. I needed the actresses’ perspective on being that age.

You mentioned the short timeframe when making Al Dabah. How do you overcome challenges while filming?
With Al Dabah there were some continuity issues, but we had to move forward, and resolve these during editing, which was new to me. I also got the cast involved earlier than usual, to ensure I’d get their input in time.

When I made The Girls Who Burned The Night, in 2018, there was no Saudi film industry as such, with nowhere to find actors. So, we went round schools to invite kids to audition, and found our stars. We also had zero budget, so we had to be agile.

In both cases, I learnt to achieve the desired result with what is available, and not what is originally planned.

You mentioned there was no Saudi film industry in 2018. Yet now it seems to be booming. What’s next for you and the sector as a whole?
It’s a very exciting time for Saudi cinema. I hear about new feature films every day, there’s so much passion and optimism, with new genres being created and ideas everywhere, all backed by institutional support. Personally, I’m developing a third short, and preparing my first feature film – watch this space!

IMDb I Instagram