''The Burdened'' () is a 2023

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

based on a true story. It is the second film directed by the Yemeni filmmaker

Amr Gamal Amr Gamal Sayed Ahmed ( arz, عمرو جمال سيد أحمد; born 3 August 1991) is an Egyptian footballer who plays for Egyptian club Pharco FC as a striker. Career Club On 28 May 2013, Gamal made his debut with Al-Ahly senior team in 2012� ...

who co-wrote the script with Mazen Reaat. The film premiered in the Panorama section of the

73rd Berlin International Film Festival The 73rd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale (), took place from 16 to 26 February 2023. It was the first completely in-person Berlinale since the 70th in 2020. The festival has added a new award for best te ...

, winning the Audience Award (second place) and the Amnesty Award. With this participation, it became the first Yemeni film ever to be officially selected for screening at the Berlinale. It received widespread critical acclaim, and then it was screened at a number of international film festivals such as the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, Sydney International Film Festival,

Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 1989 ...

, Shanghai International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival,

Valencia International Film Festival Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area als ...

Taipei International Film Festival Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

, and Durban International Film Festival. The film was selected for Yemen's official submission for the Best International Feature Film at the

96th Academy Awards The 96th Academy Awards is an upcoming ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which will honor the best 2023 in film, films of 2023, and is expected to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Ange ...

Plot

The film tells a true story about a young Yemeni middle-class couple, Ahmed and Israa, and their three children in the city of Aden, Yemen, during the year 2019. The story begins when Israa discovers that she is pregnant with a fourth child, causing shock to the couple who lost their jobs after the Civil war in 2015, which led to a crippling economic crisis in Yemen. Unable to afford the costs of raising an additional child, the couple decides to have an abortion. In a society where abortion is culturally and religiously condemned, the family faces difficulties in accessing medical assistance due to the refusal of many doctors to help them with the abortion, and they avoid traditional methods due to Israa's health condition suffering from anemia. The couple turns to Israa's close friend, Dr. Mona, for help. Mona strongly refuses to help and warns Israa against committing this forbidden act from her perspective. When the couple reaches a dead end with doctors, Ahmed succeeds in obtaining traditional midwifery services capable of performing the abortion at home. Mona discovers this and intervenes to stop the process at the crucial moment. Finally, Mona is persuaded to help, and she decides to perform the operation herself when she realizes that Israa is ready to do whatever it takes. After the operation, Mona suffers from intense regret and ignores Israa's attempts to contact her, while Israa feels fear and sorrow about the tension in her relationship with Mona, but Ahmed convinces her of the importance of continuing life for the sake of their children. The film ends with a new day in Aden, where the family heads to the children's school, and on the parents' faces, there is a mixture of temporary relief and fear of the future.

Cast

*Khaled Hamdan as Ahmed * Abeer Mohammed as Isra'a * Samah Alamrani as Muna * Islam Saleem as Anwar * Roaa Al-Hamshari as Nouran * Omar Elyas as Nawar

Production

In 2021, Director

started shooting his second feature film, The Burdened, which was shot entirely in

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

City with a joint Yemeni and foreign crew. Due to the complex political situation in Yemen, filming continued for 70 days. Filming began on August 24, 2021, and ended on November 10, 2021. During filming, the cast and crew were stuck in a hotel in Aden for five days due to armed confrontations surrounding the hotel. The Burdened is a co-production between Yemen, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia with the participation of artists and technicians from Yemen, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, India, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and the Czech Republic. The pre-production and production of the film were funded by Yemeni businessmen and the Yemeni government. As a result of the great success of the director's first film,

10 Days Before the Wedding 10 Days Before the Wedding is a 2018 Yemeni drama film directed by Amr Gamal. It was selected as the Yemeni entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. Plot Ten days before the wedding talks ab ...

, local businessmen, the government, and the Southern Transitional Council were interested in supporting his new film. Later the film received post-production funding from the

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary) is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become ...

, Malmo Arab Film Festival, and the

Red Sea International Film Festival The Red Sea International Film Festival ( ar, مهرجان البحر الأحمر السينمائي الدولي) is a film festival launched in 2019 and held in Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia. The festival mainly focuses on new storytelling tren ...

Release

On 18 February 2023, The Burdened became the first Yemeni film to be screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, and then it was screened at a number of international film festivals such as Sydney International Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival,

, and Durban International Film Festival. The film was commercially released in theaters in Taiwan on August 11, 2023, and in France, its commercial screenings began on January 31, 2024.

Reception

The Burdened has received widespread critical acclaim from both film critics and audiences. The film won several awards at several international film festivals. Jonathan Romney of Screen International said, "What’s striking is how extremely spare and to the point Gamal’s storytelling style is: there’s zero fat on the bones of this story, giving the film a taut directness". Jay Weissberg of The Film Verdict said, "a rigorously controlled, moving evocation of a family exhausted by the difficulties of keeping it all together".

Awards and nominations

, - ! scope="row 1" , 2023 , Berlin International Film Festival , Amnesty Award , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 2" , 2023 , Berlin International Film Festival , Panorama Audience Award , The Burdened ,
Second Place , , - ! scope="row 3" , 2023 , Valencia International Film Festival , Best Film , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 4" , 2023 , Valencia International Film Festival , Jury Prize (Best Director) , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 5" , 2023 , Valencia International Film Festival , Jury Prize (Best Writing) , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 6" , 2023 , Durban International Film Festival , Best Film , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 7" , 2023 , Durban International Film Festival , Best Writing , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 9" , 2023 , Taipei Film Festival , Best Film
(Grand Prize) , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 10" , 2023 , Taipei Film Festival , Best Film
(Special Jury Prize) , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 13" , 2023 ,

, New Directors Competition , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 12" , 2023 ,

, Best Foreign Language Film , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 14" , 2023 ,

, New Voices Grand Jury Prize , The Burdened , , , - ! scope="row 15" , 2024 , Seattle International Film Festival , New Directors. Competition. , The Burdened , ,

References

External links

*
''The Burdened''
at

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''The Burdened''
at

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