Murad Abu Eisheh

Cinema is not only about making people dream. It's about changing things and making people think. - Nadine Labaki

Born in Jordan in 1992. Murad earned his bachelor degree in Design and Visual Communications with a focus on filmmaking from the German Jordanian University in 2014 in Jordan, during which he did an exchange year at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt in Germany.
Following his graduation, he immersed himself deeper in his filmmaking journey and directed several short films focusing on human driven stories out of the Arab world. In 2016, Murad started studying directing at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Between 2018 and 2022, Murad wrote and directed four short films, of which most recently "TALA’VISION". That went on to win various awards and honours, most recently its gold medal win at the Student Academy Awards - Oscars, and an official short listing to the 94th Academy awards. Following that Murad became a member of the The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2022. In his movies, Murad is drawn to fictionalize and portray stories out of the Arab world. In order to highlight the injustices and pose critical questions to the standing socio political structures of the East Mediterranean region.
Besides his life in academia and filmmaking, Murad is the founder and coordinator for "Follow The Nile". A nonprofit initiative in East and North Africa, aiming to help writers, directors and producers to find their own individual voices as filmmakers.

Having been born in Amman and having studied in Germany -at the prestigious Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg- Would you say that you have a privileged background in terms of approaching politics in the middle east from a western perspective?

I wouldn’t describe my background as privileged, but maybe more broad and lucky to have different influences due to my studies both in Jordan and Germany. I would like to think of my approach to politics and my films are through a pure Middle Eastern lens with an understanding of the world politics that surrounds us.

Would you like to expand on the expression "The broken generation"? Would you say the expression could also apply to other regions besides the Middle East?

This expression came to mind slowly as I witnessed the political catastrophes and failures occurring in our region year after year. What I refer to as a broken generation is when childhood and dreams are killed during conflicts, When dreams for an entire generation dies, this creates a broken generation that have lost hope in a better future. And when all those children, become broken adults they are purposefully integrated and fed back into war, that is when this broken generation becomes a contributor into this endless cycle of violence. I believe that the only way to salvage our region from the instability it’s going through; is to deal with the causes that generate broken generation after the other. In my film Tala’vision, I try to shed a light on that moment in Tala’s life, when her childhood and her dreams are crushed under the realities of the world she lives in, that insignificant seeming moment where she loses her childhood. I hope this small film shows and explains to its audiences, that the biggest casualties of modern-day conflicts, besides the fatalities are the hundreds of thousands of childhoods, lost and ignored.