"3eib" Film

The film 3eib narrates the story of Arab women that express their unconditional freedom and escape from societal standards, that traps them in a strictly defined image of themselves. We tell a story of acceptance, emancipation and self love that plays in a world of inequality, judge and shame.

‍“For me its important that I do not just villainize the Arab society. I believe that every community has their issues that must be exposed...”

‍The concept for this film takes from its name ‘3eib’ which means “shame” in Arabic. I know how it feels to be shamed from wearing revealing clothing and to socialise with men in “inappropriate” ways. These manners are often considered taboo by my society. But I don’t believe that woman being empowered and having basic human rights should be considered taboo.

Instead of putting women in boundaries, we should celebrate and embrace our women for all their beauty. With this project I want to spread a message that it’s okay to embrace your body and to be less modest than other women, and that it's beautiful to be confident with our sexuality, and that woman’s bodies aren’t dirty nor are the acts of self pleasure, rather they are completely normal and not an sinful act if done by a women. Women should not be shunned by society, women should be celebrated.

‍As I've gotten older and I've gone through my teenage years, I've been told this is “3eib” and that is “3eib” and this is “3eib” several times from different people. And as I'm older now, I'm starting to realise, it’s not “3eib” to be sexually active, it’s not “3eib" to want to be more outgoing than other people, it’s not shameful to be a womn, to be loud and sexy and confidence and to be in my space, to do what I want to do. You know, it shouldn’t be shameful - It’s not shameful.

‍“We decided to shoot in the desert because the desert is a huge symbol of Arabian culture. You can find a lot of cultural details come from here...”

‍Only the womn as such, who proves strength, is in focus. She is in a desert-like environment surrounded by traditional Arab people. We show the unreachable beauty and strength of the womn. The surrounded people look at the womwith judgmental looks. Insult her. Yell at the woman. Point their finger at her. Emotions like shame, anger, anxiety and sadness are narrated.

We tell the story with an experimental approach. The visuals are intended to be disturbing to the viewer, the fashion in foreground. We also work with more metaphorical elements like chaining the woman or onlookers, losing hands and running away. I want to avoid any depth of field, as the setting is clear and easy to subdivide, and the foreground and background can be easily separated from each other. The woman is only shown with long focal lengths in order to create the illusion of being unattainable, god-like. When people are screaming, the camera can get closer. Detail shots of the collection. I want to show the vastness of the environment. We work withnatural light. Zoom in on faces. I love long shots of faces. Slow cuts, interspersed with rapid shots. I like the film aesthetic and filming in 4:3 opens up completely new framing options. We shoot on film. Since, due to financial and logistical circumstances, it will not be possible to shoot on film, we will probably emulate the style.

‍There will be a narrator voicing “3eib”. To frame the created world we use a mix of traditional Arabic music and a loud to very loud drone (Dark, sinister textures with creepy fx & additional sparse pulsations). Here we tell the parting of two extremes. One side is the beauty of the culture, as to the other expresses the dark side of the beauty. Onlookers should insult the women, as the music tenses in the background.