Ahmed's Adventures

I will Survive!

2009-07-14T01:53:00.002+04:00

I started my day with bad news, my best friend Mohammed's mom passed away. It was shocking news that made me in a bad mood at work. I couldn't focus and couldn't finish my reports, and what made it worse is that my manager was not in a good mood for some reason so I went head on head with him the entire day.

I left work to head to Dubai to finish some stuff at the studio and to finish up prepration for a short film that I will be shooting this Thursday, and on the way to Dubai my car broke down! in the middle of the heat!!! I managed to get my car start but the air condition was dead!!! It was already 7pm and all the car shops were closed!

I decided to head back to Abu Dhabi, two hour drive in this humidity without air condition! It was such a challenge. Wait there is more! On the way to Abu Dhabi there was a huge accident that delayed me for four hours!!! In this humidity! I played the radio and there it was, the "I Will Survive"song! I smiled and started singing with that indeed I will survive!

I got home at 1:30am accomplishing nothing for the day, and to end up the day, I found out that I have lost my apartment keys somewhere!!!! I had to wake up the security guy to open the apartment for me!

But I will survive!!! ;)

What would people say?

2009-05-03T05:48:00.003+04:00

In our seciety it is very important to please other people, for the wrong reasons. You might be forced to stop doing what you love (although there is nothing wrong with what you are practicing) but you always have to be worried about, what would people say?

Who are these people? Could be friends, relatives, old folks, neighbors, or simply poeple you don't even know! Why would they do such thing? Because they have nothing else to do in this life but to stick their noses in other's businesses and the jealousy for those who are accomplished and them just sitting their asses off waiting for their fortunes to fell off the sky. Literally!

I remember when I first wrote my screenplay "Undeserved Fate" I was so worried about what people might think, and if this would get me in any trouble. Again, there was nothing wrong with the script but society always gets you to think that way, and there are always those who just love to make others feel down, again out of jealousy and lust. Alhamdullah, my good friend Abdullah was the one who encouraged me not to think and keep writing it and the result was winning best screenplay award at the last Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, October 2008.

Why are these center minded people exist? And aren't they worried what other people might think think or say about them?

All I can say, to hell with them.

2nd Gulf Film Festival

2009-04-10T22:26:00.000+04:00

At the Red Carpet

With actor Dennis Haysbert

Story Telling

2009-03-08T02:01:00.003+04:00

What drives us to tell stories? And why others are so anxious to hear them? In every sort of art out there had a story to tell, from the very beginning of Theater Plays, Music Symphonies, Poetries, Films and even Paintings there was always a story to tell. It could be the inspiration that led to that craft, or a story that has been heard and wanting to pass it along, or simply just an emotion.

A story could be written in one page, or one paragraph, or one sentence, or just one word. A story could be a picture which whoever looks at it could feel its hidden secret, or a portrait that could speak of its creator and the energy and passion he/she gave it to produce it.

Yet again I return to my first question, what drives us to tell stories? Is it reliving time? Is it love? Is it hate? Is it revenge? Or is it just being human?

Obstacles

2008-12-22T02:53:00.004+04:00

Indeed life is full of it, where ever you go sooner or later you should face it. You might think that things are going just fine the way you have planned it for yourself but once it hit you, you crumble. You feel weak, unwilling to retain yourself. You force yourself to smile but the force of negativity is still huanting you.

But like they say, tomorrow is another day.
You wake up, still feeling beat.
You look up, feeling the sun's heat.
Just like they say, today is another day.
You have faced worst before, why not face this as well?
Because if you look at it furthermore, you will see that its just a tiny swell.
Just like they say, today is another day.
Keep your chin rising, the world is still for you to discover.
And don't forget to keep fighting, as loud as you can manage to utter.
Just like they say, today is another day.
You will get where you want I promise, that's what you have been doing so far.
If you think deeply into this, you'll find that you've aleady gone so far.
Just let me hear you say, today I am the same man in another day.

Best Screenplay!

2008-10-19T22:18:00.001+04:00

I just won best screenplay at the Middle East International Film Festival!!!! Biggest award so far!!! This could be the start of something huge now!!! :)

And this was during the press conference

"The" Shirt!

2008-09-13T21:15:00.007+04:00

I'm sure you have seen me wearing this shirt almost every moment! I just love this shirt, and the history and moments this shirt have witnessed makes it even harder to get rid of it!! Hahaha!

Below are some of the moments:

Meeting my good friend Amjad for the first time after our Jordan Trip in Dubai.

At the Krispy Kreme opening in Abu Dhabi!

Meeting British Author and Translator Denys Johnson-Davies.

Buying my first car!

Working on my short film "Sensibility"

On a road trip across UAE!

Finishing my short film "The Plan"

Ramadan, Now & Then

2008-09-01T13:22:00.002+04:00

It used to be beautiful, I use to wait for this month to arrive so I could fast and sit together with my family and friends having Iftar and then heading out and play games that we only play during Ramadan. The streets are empty and people are friendly.

Now its one of the worst months, I hate this month, not in the sense that I don't want to fast. Its the people's attitudes. Just today I say over 6 really bad car accidents! In less than 4 hours!! What's wrong with people? Honestly! People are grumpier and their morals have dissapeared and the worse thing is that they blame their behavior on fasting, as if it is ok to be rude if you are fasting.

Then don't fast! For God's sake! If you have problems because you can't smoke, then screw the fasting and smoke! If you can't function because you didn't have your morning cup of coffee and you start to give everybody a hard time, then please, by all means, I want you to have a cup of coffee because basically its not worth it!!!!!

Oh and next time, don't even fast and forget about Ramadan!!! If that's how you will behave.

The Plan

2008-08-16T04:39:00.002+04:00

I want

2008-08-13T13:15:00.000+04:00

I want and you want, and God does what he wants.

Society and Television

2008-08-13T09:38:00.002+04:00

"This is reality not a movie!" this phrase is becoming more common now than ever, even in a movie!!! It is very well known in my part of the world that the American population is very effected by the movies they are watching, mostly in crime. but what about my part of the world? The Middle East? movies does not effect society but there is something else that does. It is the stupid romantic television shows that goes on forever without an end.

Not only that it is effecting the younger generation but also the older one, in terms of how to handle their children. It has been very frustrating to see grandmothers who were used to a certain way of life all their lives to change it all of a sudden just because they have been watching a dumb TV show that has no morals or plot.

Now my argument will be, why is this happening? Why now? The answer is very simple. It is because this group of people that want to live a dream they had never seen in their lives and their only escape from reality are those low TV shows thinking that this could be reality for them. But yet again, who is paying the ultimate price? It's those who understand that this is just a show with no string attached into the real world, and let me tell you this, this shows how dumb people could turn to, even the most educated ones.

A massege to the Arab world. Stop living the fake television dream and for once try to live reality even for a little while.

New Short Film

2008-07-25T14:30:00.005+04:00

I just finished shooting my latest short film "The Plan" and now working on the post-production. Should be done the whole thing before September so I can submit it to the Midde East International Film Festival in October here in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

From Left to Right: Me (Director), Khalid Mahmoud (Actor), Abdullah Bastaki (Producer)

Summer!

2008-07-20T14:07:00.002+04:00

There was a warning in the newspaper yesterday morning that it would be so hot that no one should be outdoors. I walked out to my car, and indeed it was hotter than usual. I get into my car and I could not breath! I switched the car on and turned the AC as high as possible! I looked at the temperature in the car and it was 54 degrees!!!!!!!!!!

You can't even go swimming!!! The water is boiling!!!!!!

Customer Service

2008-07-07T14:57:00.002+04:00

the first thing anyone looks at any business is their customer service, and how they treat their customer. Even if it is a govermental work, like registering a car and paying your fine and looking for housing. I have come to agree that UAE is one of the worse places on earth when it comes to customer service. Alot might not agree with me and will fire back at me for saying something like this about my own country, but truth has to be told.

It depends on the mood of the person serving you, if he/she are in a good mood, you will have a wonderful time with them and everything will go as smooth as anticipated perhaps even better. But, for some reason, if they are having a bad day, they will do their best to pass that grumpy feeling to you and make life a living hell. That's only one of so many reasons why customer service in the UAE is a nightmare.

I'll follow my argument with an incident that happened to me just last night, I just bought a new car and I took to get it registered. I handed my papers to the desk man to register my car and since its a new car it didn't have to go through testing. The guy asked me of my occupation and I mentioned to him that I work for a non-profit organization. the man immedeitly closed my file and told me that he has to speak to his superior whether to register my car or not, apparently me working for a non goverment organization has it doubts in the UAE, a country that only speaks about profit and not for non-profit. I watched the man sitting on his desk resuming his work as if I was not there, when I asked him of why won't he go now and talk to his superior he answered casually: "Oh, he is on vacation!"

WTF?! Vacation?! Are you fucken kidding me? When I asked him if there is someone else he might speak to, he said that all have gone on vacations! That meant that I had to wait for that guy to approve my car for registration, it could be one day, one week, one month, one year, depending on when he is coming back. I called one of my friends who work for the police and asked him about this new rule they had for getting officials to approve a car registration if the person is working for non-profit to find out that there is no such rule and the man was just making this up to delay me for the sake of delaying.

My friend came to my aid, and since he over ranks that dumbass, he got him to register my car in less than 5 minutes! After waiting for over 3 hours! What a great customer service!

That leads me to the most important gap in the customer service issue in the UAE. Its always a single person that decides everything, and who controls everything. If he doesn't want something to go on, and he knows that what he is doing is wrong, still its his desicion and no one can argue with him, and unfortunalty we have that a lot here in the UAE.

So this makes me ask all the officials out there in the UAE, should I be rich or famous for you to give me a good customer service?

Sensibility

2008-03-19T11:35:00.007+04:00

Wake up!

2008-03-04T10:13:00.000+04:00

Denys Johnson-Davies

2008-03-04T08:58:00.005+04:00

Yesterday I had the privilege to have lunch with one of the great literary idols of the Arab World, Denys Johnson-Davies. He is an author and a translator Arabic-English, He translated Najeeb Mahfouz's books, the Nobel Prize Winner in 1996.

Learn more about Denys Johnson-Davies Here.

There Will Be Blood

2008-03-02T21:22:00.000+04:00

P.T. Anderson's "There Will be Blood" marks a whole new chapter in the filmmaker's career, and in the world of cinema altogether. This is a towering achievement, one that puts its mark alongside various American classics, such as Giant, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, and Citizen Kane. It's above all a masterpiece, wonderfully directed, superbly acted, and perfectly written.

Daniel Day Lewis delivers a performance worthy of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and other movie titans. His depiction of Daniel Plainview is simply outstanding, a man moved by greed and hatred. His character is already one of the most charismatic villains of all times, one that would make Hannibal Lecter himself get goosebumps. Paul Dano also gives a surprisingly mature performance, showing that he has come a long way since he played the silent teenager in Little Miss Sunshine. Paul Thomas Anderson shows noticeable excellence behind the cameras, giving the world a lot of unforgettable scenes. The shocking finale is a proof of the movie's excellence. Wonderful in all its aspects, "There will be Blood" is the best movie of the year and, quite possibly, of the decade.

(5 Out Of 5 Stars!)

No Country For Old Men

2008-03-01T21:11:00.000+04:00

There's very little "good" in No Country for Old Men beyond the mesmerizing acting and viciously dark screenplay. Instead, the unholy trinity of temptation, cynicism and pure, dark, evil take center stage in this modern western directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.

Based on the 2003 novel by Cormac McCarthy, the movie unfolds in the dusty Texas borderlands as hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the remnants of a desert drug deal gone bad, complete with a case containing two million dollars. Succumbing to temptation, Moss makes off with the money setting in motion a chain of events that leaves a trail of blood spattered carnage across the State as he is pursued by the ruthless, coin tossing hit man Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) among whose killing weapons of choice is a pneumatic air gun.

Bearing little in common with pretty much any previous Coen film with the possible exception of Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men is a dark, bleak, ode to the baser elements of the human soul, and a spit in the eye to the noble ones as well.

With a structural trademark hinging upon breaking the conventional norms of predictability, No Country is a movie that will unsettle you at successive turns - in the way deaths are dealt out; by its palpable tension that can almost be cut with a knife, and its periodic deviations from the narrative norm – the latter likely the only Coen brothers "quirk" for which their movies are renown.

Switching back and forth between the game of cat and mouse being played out by Moss and Chigurh and the investigation of unfolding events by cynical aging Texas Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), the Coens weave a web of dangled threads that one can't help but expect will be neatly tied together at story's end, only to tie them up in ways that buck the storytelling norm and manage to be both unsatisfying and true to their nature at the same time.

Unforgettable among this tableau is Bardem's Chigurh. The Spanish actor who has also appeared in Love in the Time of Cholera and Goya's Ghosts evokes the most amazing presence of a ruthless killer with his own twisted adherence to a bizarre code of ethics that nothing short of witnessing his performance can do it justice.

Sadly, however, justice is one of the few items in abundance in this movie. And yet, as unhappy as I am that the Coen's screenplay defiantly refuses to cater to the audience's inherent desire for satisfaction, I grudgingly have to admire them for opting for the unpredictable.

Consider the movie akin to one big coin toss – will it be heads or tales? Call it - you've been calling it your entire life.

(4.5 Out of 5 Stars!)

When the time is Right..

2008-02-25T13:08:00.002+04:00

I'm sure you heard this expression tons and tons before, whenever you feel the need to do something you will always get someone on your way, slowing you down with the excuse that you need to wait when the time is right. My argument is, when would I know that the time is right? And how would I know that this time is the wrong one?

You see, time according to the dictionary is, the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another. Some would argue that since it's a system, there must be a right and wrong moment to it, and some would argue that it won't matter when the time comes because the system is simply just a circle.

That's when I finally concluded my argument, whether it is the right thing or not, but I have come to a decision that whenever an idea pops into my head and I truely believe in it....

It is the right time!

Chill Out!

2008-02-19T10:33:00.000+04:00

The Kite Runner

2008-02-17T10:59:00.002+04:00

Amazing, Astounding, Brilliant, Superb. Those are the four adjectives that prop up in my head when I start describing "The Kite Runner". Khaled Hosseini's book adaptation had already captured many minds, in fact it is rumored that he himself broke down in to tears after watching the premier. I must say before I even start that I had read the book before I saw the advanced screening of "The Kite Runner". So my judgment and views may be slightly biased.

Firstly, let me say it, that even though in my opinion the book was better than the final product of the movie, it is by no means a bad adaptation. I mean for a two hour movie it's got the deserved response. Things do appear a tad fast in the final twenty odd minutes, but apart from that it has succeeded what the book did. It has captured the minds and imagination of millions all across the globe. The magic woven by Khaled Hosseini, to give us a sense of remorse of joy, of sadness, of pain, of loyalty is astute in this adaptation. Especially in the very first scene, when young Hassan says, "If you tell me to eat dirt, I will. but I know you won't ask me to." Such a touching line, is bound to capture the hearts of many. The two young actors were brilliant, absolutely superb. Especially the boy who played the innocent but loyal Hassan, a boy, who refuses to give up a kite he caught because he promised his best friend that he would bring it to him, only to be abused by large bullies who beat him up and use him sexually, and then to be rebuked by his best friend as a coward. The entire act is so touching that it cannot but wet your eyes.

The entire movie is well placed save the last bit. The point when Amir learns of his true relationship with Hassan and reads Hassan's first and last not to him, when he breaks down in tears feeling helpless, lonely and remorseful, that appeared a bit rushed and felt that Amir was behind a facade. In the book, Khaled Hosseini had dedicated some 10-12 pages to describe Amir's state of mind in that position. But that his made up for in the penultimate segment of the movie, when Amir stands up for Hassan's boy, his nephew, Sohrab in front of his commanding father-in-law. The ending was well deserved and I am sure will be well appreciated. It felt witnessing the torch pass down from one generation to another.

Coming over to the technical aspects. First of all, the acting. Just one word-Superb. From start to finish, young Hassan and Amir, their father, his friend Rahim Khan. Everyone has been superb, especially young Hassan. Second, the direction was amazing, coupled with some brilliant camera work. The background score was also impressive. Right from the start credit track to the end credit, and I especially loved the one when Amir is in the mosque in Pakistan the western and Islamic fusion, made that extra special.All in all, this is definitely one of the better movies, and it's a welcome break from all those Iran inspired movies that we have floating all over this year.

(5 out of 5 star!)

The Pharaohs are kings again!

2008-02-11T08:46:00.001+04:00

Congratulations Egypt for your Sixth African Championship!

1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008

Cloverfield

2008-02-10T11:31:00.000+04:00

Some people have derisively compared this film to The Blair Witch Project because it was all told from the point of view of someone's shaking camera. Unless you have motion sickness, I don't think that's a bad thing. What matters is who's in front of the camera. While The Blair Witch Project featured annoying people screaming at each other, this movie actually made me care about the characters. In fact if it had continued with the romantic drama tone established during the first half hour, I STILL think it would have been worth watching and that's the biggest compliment I can give it.

Of course people will be watching this movie for the visceral pleasure and Colverfield delivers. Many thrilling visual and sound effects wowed me (there were a few times I yelled out in shock at a sudden scare). Any horror film will also benefit from a sense of entrapment and this movie pulls off the seemingly impossible feat of making New York City seem claustrophobic because there was seemingly nowhere to hide from the monster.

What is the monster? Whatever it is clearly is meant to be an allegory for the carnage 9/11 inflicted on New York, much the same way Godzilla was meant to be an allegory for the damage inflicted on Japan by the atom bomb. There are moments seemingly recreating the documentary footage from 9/11, and they give the film verisimilitude. Touching upon real life horror, plus creating characters that we can relate to and care about, and assaulting our senses with incredible sights and sounds leads to entertainment worth watching many times over. Perhaps the 80 minute run time will bother some people, but on the other hand I think that's better than a film wearing out its welcome. Great job J.J. Abrams and company!

(4 Out of 5 Stars!)

Dan in Real Life

2008-01-23T23:53:00.000+04:00

Director Peter Hedges' best work is "Pieces of April", a very edgy family drama/comedy that I have recommended to many. Although "Dan in Real Life" doesn't possess anywhere near the edginess of that film, it is an entertaining film with some clever moments ... though it is much more mainstream (by design).

Steve Carell stars as Dan, a widower father of three daughters. Just in case you have forgotten, the movie does remind you just how wicked teenage girls can be ... even the good ones. The film centers around the annual family reunion at the parents' (Dianne Weist, John Mahoney) beautiful summer house in Rhode Island. Although the film borrows material from many large family comdrams, there are a handful of moments and lines that prevent it from being a total remix. Odd casting does help.

Dane Cook and Emily Blunt have supporting roles that are both very well done. Personally I find it difficult to ever really like Dane Cook, but he controls his freak pretty well here. Ms. Blunt is a budding star (see "The Devil Wears Prada") and sooner or later, Hollywood will find the right roles to showcase her talents. By far the most outside the box casting occurs with Juliette Binoche in the pivotal role of Marie. Not to give too much away, but she does give new meaning to brotherly love.

Carell is fine and at least isn't falling into the one-trick pony career of Ben Stiller. He does have some range as an actor and hopefully will mix in a few dramas with the slapstick. Wouldn't call this anything close to a classic, but it is a movie families (not the youngsters) can watch together and be entertained ... nothing wrong with that.

(3 Out of 5 Stars!)