People in Film: Interview with Tala Hadid

The world premiere of Tala Hadid's lovely ‘The Narrow Frame of Midnight' took place at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, and we sat down with the director and actor Khalid Abdalla for a meandering conversation over coffee to find out some more about how the film was created.

Doha Film Institute - Tala, you're Moroccan-Iraqi and you were born and raised in the UK; the main protagonist in your film is Moroccan-Iraqi, born and raised in the UK… So there's a very clear parallel there. Some of the issues of displacement, abandonment, anxiety - are these issues of your own that you are exploring in the film?

Tala Hadid - Certainly there are various things that happen to Zacaria, the main character, that make him anxious, but I think belonging to different places is not a place of anxiety - rather I think it's a non-space, in that you belong to many different places. I think it's a very good thing; it means that you have a very different way of looking at things. Maybe - maybe - you have a more open way of looking at things, so you might understand things in a different way. You can embrace places and people because you want to, not because you have to.

DFI - There's an element of abandonment for each of the characters. With that sense of coming from a place that in a way you are not actually from, might you feel as though you have abandoned that place somehow?

Khalid Abdalla - I think it's fair to say that there is a sense of mourning. I don't know if abandonment is the right word for me - it suggests being left by someone you'd prefer hadn't left. To some extent that does happen [in the film] - you've got Aicha, the little girl, who's been orphaned; Zacaria, who's been left by his brother and who has left his wife … so you're onto something. But it doesn't feel as though that is what motivates the characters. There's a very strong sense of embracing those multiplicities that the characters have, but not in a way that denies it's difficult. And it's not about pity - it's the beginning of how they begin to see the world.

TH - I think the adult characters are sort of solitary, which is of course something we all are. Once you realise that, perhaps you can begin to build collective bonds and connectivities.

KA - Speaking from a different level in relation to the same question, one thing that was a joy in the idea of this film for me, talking about these multiple identities that I have and Tala has, and that you have, is it's very rare on film that you actually get to [work with that]. You're always hiding one identity, you know?

READ MORE ON www.dohafilminstitute.com/blog/people-in-film-interview-with-tala-hadid