Saudi Director Mohammed Hammad on His Award-Winning Short Film

Written and directed by Saudi film director and visual artist Mohammed Hammad, 'Yallah, Yallah, Beenah!' is an audacious foray into the realms of experimental cinema. Hammad's vision blends elements of art-house, music, comedy, horror, and documentary in a genre-defying work that challenges traditional storytelling conventions. The result is a mind-bending experience that defies easy categorization, and offers a new Saudi film experience.

‘Yallah, Yallah, Beenah!’ immerses viewers in the world of a film and audio enthusiast from Jeddah - Jameel Ayach, a real-life humble old man with a penchant for the visual arts who has been collecting film memorabilia from over 30 years ago back in the ‘porch’ cinema days. His home has been transformed into a sacred shrine dedicated to the art of cinema, and it's there that he regales a documentary film crew with fantastical tales of his equipment.

As Jameel’s storytelling narrative unfolds, we are transported through a metaphorical wormhole, entering a surreal dimension of parallel storylines where a group of pre-teen kids embarks on a mission of cosmic proportions. Under the influence of a spell cast by a coven of witches, their quest becomes a psychedelic odyssey to save humanity. “Jameel is the anchor of the film. As he tells us his story, we go through these parallel storylines where we see the kids and the witches,” director Mohammed Hammad tells SceneNowSaudi.

Shot over three days in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, ‘Yallah, Yallah Beenah!’ was commissioned by The Saudi Art Council for the annual 21,39 art exhibition under the theme of ‘Amaken’ which called participating artists to create pieces inspired by places - both figurative and literal - they hold dear. “It definitely wasn’t easy, but we had a great team,” Hammad says. “It was a very ambitious project. There were lots of hiccups but we were very aware of the flexibility of our film, things getting messed up was part of the aesthetic, we went with the punches. That was at the very core of ‘Yallah, Yallah, Beenah!’”

For Hammad, the film drew inspiration from his multicultural and ‘fragmented’ upbringing, “The film itself is an ode to the city of Jeddah, I took all of these things that don’t exist anymore and made a sort of visual museum that plays with the ideas of constants and change, bridging the past with the present,” Hammad shares. The film at its core is an amalgamation of his personal interests from anime and 90s hip-hop to childhood memories of buying cassette tapes and wandering the streets of his old Jeddah neighborhood and its ‘Al Diwan’ fast food chain - the jingle of which the title of the film is based on, as well as subtly and creatively touching upon cultural taboos.

“In the most satirical way I can imagine, I touch on slightly taboo subjects like sorcery, exorcisms, immigration and more,” Hammad says. “I wanted to make a BAD film. A really good, BAD film, an homage to 90’s straight-to-VHS movies, something that no matter what production problems happened, I would incorporate it into the film’s aesthetic and become part of its charm, much like old Jeddah’s quirks.”

Filled with all sorts of symbolism, the short film follows memorabilia collector Jameel Ayyach, a covenant of witches battling stereotypes and paying homage to the resilience of women, and the young Faisal who leads his friends on a surreal whimsical mission. Adding subtle references to his frames, Hammad makes nods to social, economic, and humanitarian issues throughout the film.

“Back in the days women would get accused of being witches and being burnt at the stake. The film alludes to that and pokes fun at these ridiculous aspects of history,” Hammad says. “There’s so much symbolism for so many things. There’s a scene where a young boy bleeds black, and while that alludes to him not being ‘pure’ it also reflects Saudi Arabia’s dependence on crude oil, and dependence on one thing generally, and that symbolizes Saudi’s desire to expand.”

'Yallah, Yallah, Beenah!' challenges viewers to relinquish their grasp on the ordinary and surrender to the whimsical and the inexplicable. The short film was showcased at both the '22 edition of the Saudi Art Council’s 21,39 show, under the theme of ‘Amakin’, and the Red Sea International Film Festival '22. Most recently, the film has earned a place as an Official Selection at both the 2023 Arab Film Festival Rotterdam and the Saudi Film Festival.