Short & Sweet

He is Jordan’s most promising filmmaker and is gathering the awards to prove it. Fadi Haddad’s 18-minute tragic-comic piece High Heels, about the personal revelations unearthed at a funeral, recently won the Short Film Competition at the Franco-Arab Film Festival, and he is beginning to see signs that there might just be an industry in the making here after all. All it needs, he says, is for the likes of us to pay more attention. Consider us told, Fadi.

NOX: It seems like filmmakers are almost crowding the streets of Jebel Amman these days…!
Fadi Haddad: That is definitely a good thing! This is a startup industry with a lot of enthusiasm surrounding it, so we can set the rules for it, and the audience will be the judge on which projects deserve the attention and the recognition.

NOX: Judging by High Heels, you seem to be something of an experimental filmmaker. Are you afraid you may be alienating some viewers?
FH: Well, my biggest objective is to pass my ideas across to people. It might be an obligation to raise people’s artistic taste, but we can’t alienate them, so my recent works have adopted easier themes. They fall into the comedy/drama genre – but with a wicked sense of humour.

NOX: How did you get some renowned names – like Lara Sawalha – to star and appear in your shorts?
FH: We are still working in a very small field, so when people in the filmmaking family see that you are improving, they won’t hesitate to support you. It is worth noting though that one prominent Jordanian actress agreed to play the role of the mother in High Heels, and then bailed out the night of the shooting... So I ended up having to convince my mother to play the role! She did quite well, actually.

NOX: Do you think the RFC has helped this growing trend?
FH: Of course. I began my filmmaking career in their workshops and they are definitely building a film culture on every level – whether by professional training, their film library, the screenings, or the exchange professors from USC.

NOX: Any plans for a feature film?
FH: That’s definitely what I aspire to, but a feature film needs maturity. I am improving and developing as a filmmaker, and I am approaching my own distinctive style. I want to make a film that carries my clear mark, where people can say “that’s Fadi’s film” without looking at the credits.

High Heels
An 18-minute Jordanian short film written and directed by Fadi Haddad
Starring
Mouna Moussa
Lara Sawalha
Phaedra Dahdaleh
Feryal Haddad
With special appearance by
Amer al-Khuffash