In addition to her roles as the writer and director of 'Basma,' Al Banawi takes on the titular character, portraying the 26-year-old daughter of a man who suffers from paranoid delusions.
Saudi Arabian actress Fatima Al-Banawi is set to make her directorial debut with Basma, a feature drama produced by Netflix and scheduled to premiere on the streaming platform in 2024.
Basma unfolds the narrative of a 26-year-old woman, portrayed by Al-Banawi, navigating the challenges of returning to live with her family after completing studies abroad, all while grappling with the pervasive stigma surrounding mental health in the Arab world.
The film, supported by the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, is a collaborative production by prominent Egyptian producer and screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy and Fatima Al-Banawi through their respective production houses, Alf Wad and Film Clinic. Paris-based Daniel Ziskind serves as the film’s associate producer.
“There are 7bn versions of normal on this planet. I hope I managed to deliver one of them,” said Al-Banawi, who not only directed but also wrote and starred in the film.
She added: “After we finished filming Basma, I wondered whether there would be anything better than dreams coming true, and I realized the only thing better than that is to be able to dream.”
