Director & producer Ayman Jamal speaks to mediapersons ahead of the world premiere of Bilal, on the closing night of the third annual Ajyal Youth Film Festival in Doha.

Inspired by the real life story of historical warrior Bilal ibn Rabah, it took the creative
talents from 22 countries to bring his story to the big screen. By Umer Nangiana


Bilal is a bright eyed carefree boy ignited with fanciful imagination and a dream only a seven-year-old can conjure. His ability to speak against injustice is a rare gift. On a day as similar as any, this dream turns into a nightmare when the village he lives in is ransacked, orphaning him and his younger sister, Ghufaira.
Thrown in a world where greed and injustice rule all, Bilal and Ghufaira find themselves bound to the chaotic wills and wants of the most powerful man in the city, Umayya. Dreams of freedom and the warrior he fantasised he would become, are kept deep in Bilal’s yearning heart.
Bilal will soon learn he must choose his own fate, and find the courage to raise his voice. Bilal will challenge everything. Bilal, a 3D animated action-adventure film produced by Barajoun Entertainment Animation, thrilled the audience at the recently-concluded Third Ajyal Film Festival by Doha Film Institute (DFI).
The movie shows the life of Bilal ibn Rabah. It is the first feature-length animated film from the Dubai-based Barajoun, along with being the first Middle Eastern-funded and produced animated film.
“This film is a big deal for the region because it’s never been done before here – a full length animation film produced, shot and made here, it’s the first of its kind,” Ayman Jamal, the director and producer of the film told audiences here during a roundtable discussion before the world premiere of the film at the closing night of the festival.
The filmmakers behind Bilal spoke passionately in about the making of animated feature film, an inspiring story of faith, hope and self-discovery inspired by the real life story of the historical warrior Bilal ibn Rabah.
It involved the creative talents from 22 countries to bring his story to the big screen. To begin the project, a research team, including a number of forensic scientists, worked for almost two years looking back into the past to provide critical information to help structure the characters featured in Bilal and to recreate and bring to life their tribal nature, their physical being, their behaviour and attitudes and their appearance.
Jamal said when casting the voice talent for the main characters they targeted the US because they wanted the actor playing Bilal “to be able to give an English and African accent and to convey the epic sense of the story inspired by real events that happened 1400 years ago.”
Going on to discuss the challenges in creating the full -length animation film, Jamal said the industry here is based on short movies and originally they wanted to work with an animation studio but they found there was no animation or CGI studio in the Mena region.
“So we had to start the studio ourselves to make Bilal and that’s how we established Dubai-based Barajoun Studios,” the director said.
Financed via individual investors from Saudi Arabia, Dubai and with the support of the Doha Film Institute, the film was four years in the making as the historical story uniquely tells the life story of Bilal from the age of six years old to 60 years old.
Jamal explained the style of the characters was very different from other animated movies in that the filmmakers wanted to ensure the characters weren’t too cartoonish or too realistic.
The film’s co-director Khurram H Alavi combined his scriptwriting and directing abilities and his background as a digital sculptor and character artist to create the unique nature of the characters in the film which were created from scratch with conceptual designs as the first step
“We wanted to tell the story chronologically because it was originally told in that way and so creating these characters was an extensive process as you see them develop over a number of years,” said Indian co-director Alavi.
Jacob Latimore, who voices the teenage Bilal in the movie, talked about the unique nature of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival where films in the line-up were voted for by youth jurors. “It’s so unique and important to have a youth platform where we are the judges and vote for the films. It’s important for youth to have a voice in this way because youth are the future – in terms of music, film, everything,” said Latimore.
Icelandic composer Atil Orvarsson said that geography played a big part in creating the music for the film.
“The music needed to get into the characteristics of the region and had to combine the archaelogical, historical nature of the story and make it accessible for an international audience,” said the composer, adding that they used old instruments from the region and combined them with modern electronically synthesised music to create themes for some of the characters and a unique, other worldly sound for the witch doctor.
After Ajyal, Bilal producer and director Jamal said the film will also be screened at Dubai International Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival where they hope to be able to announce some territorial distribution deals.



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