And no, I’m not talking about the bustling Souq Waqif on the eve of Ramadan!
Doha always offers a new perspective and the annual Qumra event, which we’ve been calling an “incubator” is at its center for me. The word incubator has taken on a new meaning since our worldwide pandemic in 2020 and I found myself google-ing its true significance while writing pieces from this year’s edition. I guess it’s still a good word to describe a meeting of world cultures, all coming together for the good of cinema. My MacBook dictionary defines the word as “an enclosed apparatus providing a controlled environment for the care and protection of premature or unusually small babies.” Substitute small babies with films in their development and you’ve got a match!
So, the good stuff included wonderful one-on-one meetings with filmmakers who will have a project featured in one of the major A-list festivals in the next 24 months. Inshallah. Also, a group of insightful masters which included one, Martin Hernández, who made me questions what I’m doing with writing my thoughts, when sound is such a powerful means of communication and so many of us are turning to podcasts when traveling further and further to and from work.
Speaking of commutes, I used to love traveling on Qatar Airways to Doha. They would give you the option to upgrade for a couple hundred dollars or your miles at check-in, the service on board was first class, even in economy and when they asked “is there anything I can do for you?” they meant it. Unfortunately, this time around I was subjected to a frisk search at the gate, in front of everyone seated there and which made my skin crawl. Plus the plane was so packed, but also so badly serviced that I counted the minutes until I would be home again — something I never do. I enjoy the journey as much as the destination but no more on Qatar Airways, where flights have turned into a combination of under trained staff servicing overfilled planes. I felt like livestock, and hope I’m not offending the cows and sheep here.
Highlights of the trip were plentiful though, and most centered around film and food, my two favorite things in life, other than fashion of course.
Daytime meals were always fun, shared with friends, colleagues and filmmakers participating at this year’s Qumra. Damasca in the Souq is always a highlight, with their lively waiters and yummy Syrian delicacies, while Fiko, the Turkish restaurant in Msheireb Downtown Doha, the area where we were also housed and did our meetings, was divine this time around. My secret? I sat next to a friend and colleague from Turkey, who told me how to wrap things in lettuce leaves, sprinkle them with lemon juice and spoke Turkish with the waiters.
The absolute best meal I had in Qatar this year was atop the National Museum of Qatar at Alain Ducasse's Jiwan restaurant where the food is fusion Qatari cuisine filled with yummy delicacies and they even accommodated the vegetarians among us. The museum in itself is a sight to behold, the building fashioned after the iconic “desert rose” — an intricate rose-like formation of crystal clusters of gypsum or baryte, which include abundant sand grains and can be found naturally from the Sahara desert to Oklahoma.
Profiles on the ground floor of the M7 Building is also a yummy spot which we got to try while at Qumra. The service and the food there never disappoint and it is understandably a local favorite. Soup and truffle fries became our comfort foods and what comfort they provided!
While wandering around Doha, we ran into the current ongoing cinema exhibition there organized, unsurprisingly, by the Doha Film Institute. Intaj 2023, the name of the exhibition, has an intro paragraph that explains it best:
“Arab cinema has undergone a unique transformation in recent years, emerging as an influential and globally recognized industry. INTAJ 2023 serves as an opportunity to delve into the rise of the Arab world’s cinema through its past and current journeys. Through this exploration, we aim to shed light on the diverse narratives and the captivating cinematic experiences offered by Arab filmmakers.” Featured among the multimedia offerings were posters of films by Egyptian auteur Youssef Chahine, Syrian maestro Mohammad Malas, but also new disruptors like Tunisian Oscar-hopeful Kaouther Ben Hania and Syrian filmamker Soudade Kaadan. The exhibition is free and really worth a visit.
Ramadan wares for sale at the Souq Waqif in Doha
Perhaps the most thrilling night I spent in Qatar was when my friend and I went for a walk around the Souq. The Holy Month of Ramadan is almost upon us, and Souq Waqif took on a new personality, with local women in different degrees of rush and coverings filling its lanes, making those holiday purchases in much the same way moms and wives do it in the west, for Christmas. It was a special moment, spent in the midst of my sisters from different misters, women with whom I not only share the planet and the same physiology but also a kinship of struggle and hardships. While the world burns at the hands of our male politicians, I believe that if the governing was left to us, all over the planet, things would turn out much much better indeed.
And that for me was the value of Qumra, rediscovering that even dressed in a different manner and talking another language, we are all the same, and that “the Other” has the same red blood and hopes for peace and love running their veins, and within their hearts. And that more often than not, we are the other.
Top image courtesy of the DFI, used with permission.