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THE MULBERRY HOUSE

By Sara ISHAQ

SEEN FILMS - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2013

It's Mulberry season in a Sanaa house, and things are about to change.

- Year of production
- 2013
- Genres
- Documentary, First film, Family
- Countries
- YEMEN, EGYPT, SYRIA, UNITED KINGDOM
- Languages
- ARABIC, ENGLISH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 72 mn
- Director(s)
- Sara ISHAQ
- Writer(s)
- Sara ISHAQ
- Producer(s)
- Diana EL JEIROUDI (Pro Action Film), Mostafa YOUSSEF (Seen Films)
- Synopsis
- At the little orchard opposite the Sana’a family home, a lazy cat yawns, unaffected by all that has been happening outside - demonstrations, confrontations, a revolution. Sara’s grandfather passes by, meticulously caring for every tree and bush. This Sana’a home offers refuge from the outside world - the small garden, enclosed by high walls and big metal doors, acts as a barrier to the on goings outside. Behind these walls is the place where Sara and her sister can sit together casually dressed and free from the constraints of social expectations.
  Sara has returned to Yemen after being away for several years. The reason for her return is motivated by personal demands – she is eager to confront her family as to why she left. Sara is half Yemeni, half Scottish, but in recent times her cultural leanings have veered more toward the latter. The social and cultural expectations of her Yemeni family is something she rejected for years, causing a schism between herself and her family. Her family’s failure to understand her position, career and lifestyle has created tension, something she is keen to confront, hence booking a return flight to Yemen. This journey towards resolution, however, comes with unexpected events on both a personal and political level.
  As the whole country undergoes a similar confrontation, with its identity, nationality, and norms, Sara’s confrontations with her father create a different reality for her in Yemen. As she accidentally lands in the heart of an emerging revolution, she redefines her place in Yemeni society, as well as her relationship with her father and grandfather.
  The film is a personal story, which begins as a reunion between estranged family members in a calm domestic setting, and develops into an all-engulfing popular uprising. Rather than focusing on events on the street, this film sheds light on the direct impact the revolution had on the lives of one family, and vice-versa. It focuses on the shifting dynamics between women and men within the context of a modern Yemeni family, challenging preconceived ideas about social customs, reshuffling family hierarchies, and rearranging gender roles as the revolution consequentially seeps into this Yemeni home. The Yemeni uprising became the unanticipated catalyst to challenge relationships, culture and individuals. The revolution offered Sara and members of her family a platform to speak their minds, with the growing approval of her once indignant grandfather. After a gap in filming, whereby Sara makes another film, she returns to her family to witness the aftermath of the Yemeni revolution and the impression it left on them. Over the course of a year, however, pro-revolution sentiments are retracted and the family’s varying positions are reassessed, bringing general opinions full circle.
  Guiding the narrative is how women's roles and participation are increasingly integral to the Yemeni revolution, and how Sara’s previously undermined role and career by her family becomes a catalyst for resolution and a source of respect and pride for the family.
- Partners & financing
- Pro Action Film
  Mudhouse Films
  Awarded Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and the IDFA Bertha Fund.