The Bourdened

Original title: al-Murhiq?n
Genre: Drama
Director: Amr Gamal
Country: Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia
Year of production: 2023
Czas: 91 min

Awards and nominations:
2023 Berlin International Film Festival: Amnesty International Film Prize – Amr Gamal
2023 Chicago International Film Festival: Gold Hugo – New Directors Competition
2023 Valencia International Film Festival: Jury Prize – Best Directing, Best Script
2023 Taipei Film Festival: Special Jury Prize
2023 Durban International Film Festival: Best Screenplay
2024 Official submission of Yemen for the Best International Feature Film category of the 96th Academy Awards

The film is based on real events. Isra’a is pregnant again. Her husband Ahmed and she are devastated. Despite all the people around them saying a baby is a blessing, they feel it’s a disaster because they already have three children. Yemen is torn apart by the civil war that’s been going on since 2015. Aden, the city they live in, beautifully located between the mountains and the sea, is in a survival mode: its inhabitants are exhausted trying keep up appearances of a normal life despite constant lack of electricity and water, and presence of government and opposition forces.
Ahmed quit his job in the media so as not to be forced to lie and toady to those in power. He earns miserably as a taxi driver. They can barely make ends meet. They refuse themselves food to be able to send their children to a private school to avoid indoctrination. They want to get an abortion but for everyone, including a doctor they know well, it’s a sin. Will they be able to terminate the pregnancy?
Amr Gamal tells a universal story. People like Isra’a and Ahmed, forced to make decisions dictated by their financial situation, are everywhere. At the same time, it’s a very singular and rooted tale. The portrait of war-torn Yemen and its inhabitants has an imposing scale, and is honest, thrilling, and beautiful.

Author: Paulina Reiter

Director:

Amr Gamal – a Yemeni film and theatrical director, producer, and writer. In 2018 he made his feature directorial debut, “10 Days Before the Wedding”. “The Burdened” is his second film. It was the first Yemeni feature to have been shown at the Berlin Film Festival.

   subtitles in Polish and English