Filmmakers can rediscover, reinvent national narrative — British director

AMMAN — After spending the summer of 2014 shooting “Kajaki The True Story” in Jordan, British director Paul Katis said on Thursday he felt “duty-bound” to return to the Kingdom to screen the film and share his experience with local filmmakers.

At the request of the Royal Film Commission General Manager George David, Katis hosted cinematic master classes for local filmmakers this week in Amman and the film premiered in the capital on Wednesday.

“Jordan is a great place to visit anyway,” he added.

“Kajaki The True Story” covers one day in the lives of young British soldiers stationed in Afghanistan in 2006 near the eponymous Helmand dam as they find themselves trapped in an unmarked minefield.

The BAFTA-nominated film was shot near the Kafrein Dam, a 45-minute drive from Amman in the Kingdom’s central region.

Production designer Erik Rehl said the location was crucial to create the film’s world and help the audience enter that world, commending the expertise and dedication of the Jordanian film crew.

Around 50 Jordanians were part of the film’s crew, constituting 70 per cent.

Noting that he originally did not have Jordan as an option for a location shoot, Katis told reporters that the attention and critical acclaim generated by “Kajaki” suggests that “Jordan is now on the map for UK filmmakers”.

The Kingdom, he said, is mostly perceived as a “sun and sand” location similar to Morocco, but argued that there is more to it than that.

With more attention coming its way, filmmakers might now look beyond Jordan’s scenery, he said, but added that it is still a good idea to “trade on what you’ve got to start with”.

“The interesting thing about the Middle East and Jordan specifically is its fantastic history,” Katis said.

“Film is a massive cultural medium ... it can change the world,” the filmmaker added, arguing that storytelling through film can be employed to rediscover and “reinvent the national narrative”.

“The only way to do so is to use your own voice,” Katis said, stressing the need to have “Arabic voices” tell the region’s stories.

Rehl agreed with the director, calling for using the medium to tell “the other side of the story”, since US or UK films tend to present stories from the point of view of American and British protagonists.

“Media can sometimes divide and conquer, but it can also sometimes bring people together,” he said.

Written by Tom Williams and produced by Katis and Andrew de Lotbinière, “Kajaki” stars David Elliot, Mark Stanley, Benjamin O’Mahony, Scott Kyle and Liam Ainsworth.

Gareth Ellis-Unwin of Bedlam (BAFTA and Academy Award winner for “The King’s Speech”) is an executive producer, along with Alexa Jago, Alec Mackenzie, Norman Merry, Phil Hunt and Lee Vandermolen. 

The film is expected to arrive in the region’s theatres in May.