Independent Kuwaiti filmmaker Meqdad Al-Kout’s Paradoxes (Mufaraqat) is a strangely amusing short film about four individuals who live a seemingly normal existence but suffer from the same urban ailments. As a construct of its director, Paradoxes is unorthodox and postmodern. During its self-aware opening credits we hear the narrator talk to another person (offscreen) and say “Skip the opening credits, I don’t think its necessary.” This reflects both the apathy of filmaker and his subjects, who between the four of them offer a crossfunctional and diverse set of people and whose lives we follow, albiet briefly.

Probably the most interesting of these is Raju, a dissatisfied office worker, whose dreams we are able to see as if they were live broadcasts from his brain. Paradoxes is filmed as a pseudo-documentary with dream sequences and some surreal moments.

WearetheMovies.com interviewed Meqdad Al-Kout about the themes in Paradoxes, how he became a filmmaker, and his expectations and experiences in the Middle East independent filmmaking world. You can catch Paradoxes if you are attending the Dubai film festival (screening details below):

Paradoxes (Mufaraqat)
Dubai International Film Festival 2008 — Gulf Voices programme

Sunday, 14 December 2008 @ 15.00 [Mall of the Emirates]
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 @ 21:45 [Dubai Festival City]

To buy tickets visit www.difftickets.com or call them at +9714-3913378