It got zero traction.
I was sitting in Starbucks, feeling frustrated and fired it off, he recounts.
No-one replied or retweeted it.
Tawfik AlzaidiGetty Images
The movie I watched wasMad Max 2.
I put this in the movie.
I watched it again and again and again, he explains.
I was like nine, or ten years old.
I thought it was real and that he had just taken the camera and filmed people somewhere.
Beginnings
Alzaidi got his first video camera at 12-years-old and started making short films with family and friends.
Id shoot soccer matches and would then add music.
I didnt realize that what I was doing was filmmaking.
I didnt know that the profession of filmmaking existed until I read it in a magazine, he says.
I had cinema inside me.
When youre in love with something you cant just abandon it and do something else, he says.
Sometimes you cant do exactly what you want to do but you do something similar.
This prepared me for shooting on location, he says.
Its about people who inspire art and people who make art.
Art is the best way to continue being human.
At this time, I didnt have a Norah, he continues.
In Arabic, Norah means light.
In the first scene of the movie, you see her bringing in light.
Theres a saying, dont play with fire.
There are two sources of light: fire and the sun.
The second time, she goes there, its a bit lighter.
At the same time as Norah needs something, so does Nader.
A bigger prize, perhaps, was the praise of Baz Luhrmann who was the jury president.
Both will shoot in Saudi Arabia.
Thurayais about three women in the desert and were already working on the script, he says.
Its time for us to tell our stories to an international audience.
