EITR

Director   Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller
Country   Canada
Year   2022
Languages   Arabic, English
Genre   Dramedy
Running Time   15 min

Grinding away at the inherited family business, Mohamed works tirelessly making sales of knock-off perfume while living as a knock-off version of his true self. Grappling with the recent loss of his father, his mother's anxious attempts to get him married and the shadow of his hidden Queer identity, Mohamed finds solace and connection in a day spent with a beautiful stranger who lives in self-acceptance and sees Mohamed for who he truly is under the many layers of polo-sport-adjacent cologne.

This film is part of Shorts: Family Tales program.

Director’s Statement

Making this film has played a big part in my journey of accepting my Queer identity. Following Mohamed as he sheds his layers of gender performance has helped me be more honest with myself, what masks I wear and who I truly am underneath. Using the structure and style of the Ramadan Soap Operas of the 90s and early 2000s that I grew up on, I aim to subvert the expectations of the genre and centre Queer Liberation in this nostalgic form. Using comedy to bring levity to the intersectional identity crisis of being a Queer Muslim, I aim to focus on Queer Joy through Mohamed's narrative arc. Obviously, cultural conflicts can exist inside of the experience of embracing Queerness as a SWANA person, but through this project, I wanted to de-centre the struggle and strife narrative and instead find celebration in the Arab Soap Opera's flair for the dramatic and in one man's journey to embrace his fullest self. In EITR we see how Mohamed's culture both conflicts with and embraces his true self in different ways, and through this narrative, we lean away from Queer racialized trauma and towards Queer racialized freedom. This project is deeply important to me as a Queer Muslim and I hope it speaks to others longing to be seen. We need more reflections of our intersectional experiences on screen that end in celebration.

Director’s Bio

Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller (she/her​)

Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller is an award-winning Queer Palestinian-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Her work explores themes of fragmented identity, isolation and connection through a lens of grounded "oh no, should I laugh?" comedy. Fateema’s background in improvisation and clown greatly influences all of her work as she strives to create with integrity, depth and a sense of humour. She is particularly passionate about bringing to life nuanced and humanizing representations of Arabs and Muslims for the screen and strives to build spaces for marginalized voices to thrive both in front of and behind the camera. Fateema's short film EITR was one of 8 worldwide recipients of InsideOut's RE:Focus Fund, she is a Women in the Director's Chair alumni and is currently attending the Canadian Film Center Directors Lab, where she is developing her coming-of-age feature film Waves/ 'Amwaj.