Last of the Bedouins: Behind My Documentary
Bedouins of the Wind is a 28-minute indie documentary film shot on location in the village of Dhaid in the UAE, an intimate portrait of the mysterious world of Bedouin culture, through camel racing, falconry and the unseen life rooted in the desert. The protagonist Abdulaziz Al Tunaiji trains his camels for the nation’s most anticipated race, while two generations ponder whether they will be the last of the Bedouins.
Two months into conceiving, scripting, shooting, editing and publishing a first glimpse of my documentary, I wondered how I even got this far.
It struck me then: from having this burning idea of a subject for the first time, to speaking to a dear friend who actually lived the story I wanted on film, to spending conscious time out in the desert town of Dhaid, and capturing rare glimpses of Bedouin life — had all taken less than 7 days to start happening. To say this was overwhelming would be an understatement, but it felt natural all the same.
An origin story
The New Middle East
The UAE is exactly fifty years old. Since the mid-2000s, Dubai in particular has risen in pop culture as a movie set, seemingly designed almost entirely for that perfect Instagram reel. The Burj Khalifa or Museum of the Future are staple badges of honor on social feeds globally. While this drive to bring global tourists to a New Middle East was always a part of the plan, what translated over time into iconography of this new world became shiny symbols of the obvious, not the real.
The usual headline by fly-by-night tourists and expats alike is always the same: Dubai is beautiful, but there is nothing real, no culture.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Stills from the documentary Bedouins of the Wind © Danish Farhan 2024
Documenting the Bedouins
I have spent over forty years in the Emirates, a land I call home. Where my parents have built a life, and where my children were born. Long-timers like myself don’t often question or acknowledge the layers of the UAE that we have experienced over decades. The hidden stories not always visible to the twenty million tourists that fly by our city each year, spending just enough time for that glitzy TikTok video.
We don’t often realize what is normal to us. And how fortunate we were to have been invited into guarded communities of the people of this land. The Bedouins, a lot of whom I call my dearest friends — have lived their lives in some kind of magical balance with the break-neck speed of modern Dubai life. And beyond all that, some of the most genuine people I have ever known.
A culture disappearing
What struck me when this idea of a documentary came to be, was how quickly this culture, rich with camel rearing, racing, falconry, families living simple lives on farm oases, hours away from cities like Dubai or Sharjah — was slowly disappearing. Each generation expecting to be the last to hold on to a life built almost entirely around the desert.
While the genesis story of how I came to make films is another post, the aha-moment of why this incredible hidden culture of a people was the perfect first feature film was almost anti-climactic. Uncovering and sharing what I have come to learn about this way of life seemed like a genuinely captivating story, only known to most of us from period film epics. But the germ of this idea felt like it wasn’t something I just fell into. It was probably percolating in my head for a long time.
THE DOCUMENTARY
Ditching the tourism video
All things considered, I felt like I was on the perfect crossroads of being an outsider (an expat, not a Bedouin, a filmmaker) and as close to an insider as it gets (raised here, Bedouin friends I call family, a filmmaker). I figured I knew just enough to be curious, but also grossly uninformed about the delicate nuances of what makes Bedouins from another time thrive in modern day Middle East.
I could throw away the overly-styled tourism videos, and let go of the sensational documentary-style of foreign filmmakers obsessed with recreating Lawrence of Arabia. Instead I could embrace Cinema Verite, which translates to “truthful cinema” — a style of filmmaking characterized by realism, most often associated with documentaries, avoiding any artificial embellishments. But fuse it with my own artistic voice. As an insider.
SCENES & TEASERS
The first teaser above and short scene from the film below should give a glimpse of the everyday reality of the Bedouin world, normal for them, extraordinary to an outsider.
More teasers and scenes on www.filmsbydf.com
