Cinema is not only about making people dream. It's about changing things and making people think. - Nadine Labaki
Murad Abu Eisheh
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.
How would you say the lack of television might impact a child such as Tala growing up in a war environment as the one you depicted in your film?
Televisions and especially in war zones are one of few window for people and specifically children to the outside world. When Isis band televisions and satellites, it was done with the awareness that in such a ban, they would slowly gain control over the minds and the narrative of the younger generation. I cannot even imagine a world that I would grow up in without access to TV, for me personally it shaped my life and understanding of the world outside my country of birth, Jordan. For most of those children in war zones, the chances are that they will never be able to travel to a different country, and there is very little access to the internet. As a result, I believe that it’s more than important to fight for the right of every child, especially children in war zones, to have access to information. In this act, we start the planting of the seed of understanding of the diversity of our world.
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.
