Tim Smythe talks about 'City of Life'

admin | July 12, 2010 | Comments (0)

City of Life is currently finishing its run in cinemas in the United Arab Emirates. Over 80,000 people have already gone to see the movie in its native country, four times what the makers had projected. In its opening weeks City of Life was only outdone at the box office by two giant Hollywood Summer blockbusters – Clash of the Titans and Iron Man 2. Not bad for a low-budget home-grown film. City Of Life is a phenomenal success story not just for Emirati filmmaking but filmmaking in the Middle East in general.

In a style similar to Paul Haggis’ Crash, the film follows three very different characters whose lives intersect at the end of the film with a very realistic and impressive car crash. It tries to capture the essence of Dubai, which as a city is a melting pot of polarised cultures and values. Using characters from very different backgrounds, we get a very broad and accurate depiction of Dubai. We follow the lives of a privileged, young local man, an Indian taxi driver who dreams of being a star and we are shown the champagne lifestyle of glamorous high flyers through the eyes of a European airhostess.

Like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, which producer Tim Smythe cited as another influence on the film, City of Life is broken down in to three separate stories save for some minor crossover scenes. I asked Smythe, if this was like shooting three separate movies, and whether this made it easier or harder from a production point of view. ‘What made it difficult was that it is a big film with a small budget. We had 80 actors and 46 locations. We didn’t have a budget that we could keep all the actors at the same time. We had to schedule the European (story) day scenes, European night scenes, going in to the Indian crossover scenes and day scenes and on like this in to the Arab story scenes. It was not the best way to schedule a film, very complex but it was the only way we could do it with the budget.’

So if you’re reading this thinking ‘hey I’ll just head out to Dubai and make some films bankrolled by a rich Sheikh’, think again! Smythe tells me that before he had come on board, Ali F. Mostafa the director had spent two years raising the money for the film. Mostafa raised 30% of the budget by finding sponsors for the film and by approaching prominent companies in Dubai like Dubai Taxi Company, Dubai Airport, Dubai Duty free etc… These companies would put up some of the money in return for product placement in the film. Some independent film purists may find this method of financing ethically challenging. Does this compromise the integrity of a film? For example, the Dubai Shopping Festival is worked in to the plot of City Of Life, and watching the film you would you would be forgiven for thinking that there is only one taxi service in town, which is certainly not the case. For me this is a very minor criticism, it was a means to an end for the makers, and is done as naturally and tastefully as possible.

The makers used their small budget very well and wisely they invested particularly well in their casting. They only had a budget for eight international actors, and they chose them very carefully. For the European storylines they enlisted some very talented and prolific actors. Most notable was the casting of Jason Flemyng, who many people will recognise from his parts in Guy Richie’s movies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and probably his biggest role to date as Brad Pitt’s father in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The film also features performances from two up and coming European stars. Natalie Dormer would be best known for her part in The Tudors and Alexandra Maria Lara has popped up in some high profile features including The Baader Meinhof Complex and Coppola’s Youth Without Youth. These are definitely two names to watch out for.

The casting of Arab parts was another big challenge for the production team. There is not a very big pool of actors in the region. With the exception of the Arab lead, the makers had to look outside of the UAE and import Arab actors from Canada, Britain and Germany, a lot were first time actors. Smythe laughs ‘There was a lot of coaching going on.’ Again wisely they invested in a renowned acting coach whom they brought out from France and ‘it shows on screen, they did a wonderful job.’

Director, Ali F. Mostafa has had a lot of success with his short films and had directed many commercials. However this was his first time directing a feature film. I asked Smythe if directing a film on such scale, ever became overwhelming for him? ‘Well, yeah I had to hold his hand to an extent but he’s a very confident young man, and he was focused on the mission and what he wanted.’ Smythe believes the reason they were so successful was the fact that they prepared for every detail in pre-production. ‘We did script read-throughs with all the lead cast, there was a lot of people working together on it. Ali had a very strong and powerful crew and it shows. That’s why we stayed on schedule and that’s why we achieved everything we wanted.’

What surprised me most about the film was how realistic it is. Living in this region, you are aware that criticism of the country in the media is not very common. However, the film is a warts and all portrayal of Dubai. It tackles very controversial issues especially for a Muslim country, including adultery, sex outside of marriage, racism and alcohol. The film lifts the lid on the glitz and the glamour and flashy exterior of Dubai. I asked Smythe if they felt censored at all while making the film. ‘I’ve been a filmmaker here for quite a bit of time, I know how far you can push things. We would have liked to have pushed it further in some areas, but we had to be respectful and remember we wanted to make a film we were going to release. So it’s not that the film was censored but to a level we had to censor ourselves. We also wanted to be responsible to future filmmakers in the region. We pushed the barrier quite far, so filmmakers can look at our film and say, ‘Well they did it in City Of Life’ and will push it further again.’

When asked what was the most exciting element of the production, Smythe talks proudly of the film’s finale, the car accident scene. ‘I love what we achieved with that. When we tested it in London, some people compared it to some of the James Bond crash scenes, some people even said they thought we did a better job.’ Apart from this Smythe seems to be very excited and surprised by the reaction the film has already received.

So what is in the immediate future for City of Life? ‘Well now it will go to other Middle Eastern countries. We’ve signed an international sales agent – Shoreline, who will be responsible for international distribution. Ali is currently developing two projects. We may be in a very rich part of the world but finding money for any film project is still a very difficult process.’

And what does the future hold for filmmaking in the UAE? It is an exciting time for the arts in general in UAE, and film is no exception The Abu Dhabi Film Fund have recently announced a slate of films to be produced under their Image-nation initiative. Smythe has worked as associated producer on Hollywood films that have been shot here, like The Kingdom with Jamie Foxx and Syriana with George Clooney and speaks hopefully of potential of more films like this shooting here in the near future. If Hollywood producers do get to see City Of Life, they will be looking at an excellent showcase of Dubai for locations and talent.

Paul Webster is an Irish filmmaker and co-founder of fakedogfilms.com