Since its inception in 2005, Rawi Screenwriters Lab has supported some of the most significant new voices in Middle Eastern cinema.
The Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC) wrapped the 16th edition of Rawi Screenwriters Lab on November 3. The lab resumed after a one-year suspension due to the pandemic.
On November 29, nine aspiring Arab screenwriters, along with their feature-length screenplays, made their way to the Wadi Feynan at the southwestern border of the Dana Biosphere Reserve.
The Lab hosted eight renowned award-winning screenwriters (Creative Advisors), coming from all around the world, to advise selected Arab screenwriters about their feature-length screenplays.
In order to look into the screenplays and refine the plot, the RFC arranged for the Fellows and Advisors to work together for five days, from November 29 until December 3. A visit to the iconic city of Petra was organised, on the following day, after the Lab’s activities came to an end.
The Rawi team ensured an ambience strictly dedicated to screenplay writing at Feynan Ecolodge – built by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) and now owned by EcoHotels.
Speaking about the lab and projects, Mohannad Al Bakri, RFC’s Managing Director, said: “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. Having participants from all over the Arab world and Advisors from around the globe enriches Rawi and gives 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, added: “At Rawi, there is a strong sense of actively valuing 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 among fellows who are coming from different parts of the Arab speaking world, 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 colonised 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).
Fellow Rana Alyaseer stated: “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 ambience.”
RFC’s team has already begun planning for the 17th Rawi Screenwriters Lab, which will open for applications in January 2022.
