A woman’s whose sister died and who has recently moved back home after her divorce finds tapes with information that will change her life.
Written by Nayla Al Khaja and Masoud Amralla Al Ali with additional material by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables, and directed by Nayla Al Khaja, this thriller with influences of fantasy and plenty of drama (and some horror) is well-written and well-directed, this film is well worth looking for and seeing. The characters are interesting, some of the cultural elements are new to most audiences, and the way the story unfolds make for a film that catches the attention and keeps it throughout.
The cast here is a bit uneven. Lead Shaimaa El Fadul is absolutely fantastic, giving layers upon layers to her character, giving her emotions that come through strongly on screen and bring the audiene into her world. She goes through a gamut of emotions and brings the viewers along. Her performance sells the film, makes the films, and makes it all memorable. She’s the base here, she’s the center of everything, she’s the film embodied in one person. The majority of the supporting cast is good and bring their own flavor to their parts. Unfortunately, playing the lead’s mom is Huda Alghanem whose performance comes off incredibly flat, without emotions most of the time, cold even, and even without any empathy for the other characters or her own. If this was the goal, fantastic, but as it comes off, the performanes had this viewer there was something more in it, something connected, something emotional. She comes off angry and lacking much depth due to the lack of layers, especially next to Shaima El Fadul. Yes, comparing isn’t ideal, but when the two of them are in the same scene, there is no way to pay attention to the mom as the daughter outshines her every single second.
Another high point of the film is how it looks. The cinematography by Rogier Stoffers is beautiful to stunning at any given moment, creating a film that is easy to watch no matter the content or the emotions portrayed on film.The cinematography makes great use of light and darkness, of framing and movement, of time spent on each person and item, giving a masterclass in how to shoot a film like this, how to make art look like art.
As a whole, Baab is an excellent film with a strong lead performance that pulls the viewer in and doesn’t let them go. The cinematography is more than on point, making the story come across not only clearly, but also beautifully. This is a solid thriller-drama-fantasy film that knows what it wants and knows what it has to say and isn’t afraid of getting to both.