Since the "Gulf Cinema" term appeared, I tend to restrict this type of cinema to the movies presented by the GCC countries consisting of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman who share a high level of ideology and social similarity in the developing conditions. The Iraqi cinema, however, can be independently discussed being the oldest and most productive cinema, and is considered by some historians as the fourth film industry in the Arab World. The first film screenings in Iraq date back to the beginnings of the 20th century, whilst the first steps of Iraqi film industry date back to the 40s of the past century. As such, the Iraqi cinema is the most capable to cope with the film development, and to compete in the various film festivals, particularly the films of the Iraqi immigrants which are present in the most famous film festivals around the world. Therefore, when speaking about the current Gulf cinema, that sees a great development on both the quantity and quality levels with respect to the feature narrative film industry, film history can hardly mention some rare experiments, the most important of which is the Kuwaiti film "Bas Ya Bahar" (aka Cruel Sea) by Khalid Al Siddiq in the seventies of the last century.

However, at the same time, we do not yet have what may really establish the "Gulf Cinema" term, as we rarely see decent film experiments. Most of the recent Gulf productions are either commercial movies such as Rotana's “Keef El Hal” (aka How Is It Going?) and “Manahi”, or films of individual improvisation like the Emirati "Iqab", the Saudi "Sabah Al-Lail", and the Kuwaiti movies "Montasaf Al-Lail", "Shabab Cool" and "Tarab Fashion". There are also some young experiments resulting from the film festivals of the UAE. On the other hand, the artistic films can be narrowed down to a limited number of works such as the Bahraini film "Hekaya Bahrainia" (aka A Bahraini Tale) by Bassam Al-Thawadi, or "Dhilal Alsamt" (aka Shadows of Silence) by Saudi director Abdullah Al-Muheisen.

Recently, we had a rendezvous with a new film that may represent at the same time another awakening of the Gulf cinema, and may be the most important addition so far on the artistic level of such films. This film is Al-Dayra (aka The Circle), the feature film debut by young Emirati director Nawaf Al-Janahi.

Those who knew and followed up Al-Janahi since his first steps as a director can not expect less then what they saw through this wonderful film, which seems to be at the same time the first fruit of the young Emirati film movement that began in the recent years under the leadership of the prestigious filmmaker Masoud Amralla, the director of Dubai International Film Festival and the Gulf Film Festival. Since the beginning of Al-Janahi with directing his first short films five years ago that include Obsession, On a Road, Souls, and lastly his best short film Mirrors of Silence which has participated in many short film festivals, he achieved a lot before launching his first feature film in collaboration with MBC Group. Through this film he tried to achieve the most difficult formula combining the artistic aspect where most often lies the interest of critics and reviewers, and the popular aspect which draws the public attention. With the artistic aspect, he achieved to a great extent a great success when he received a lot of appreciation and recognition when the film was screened in the Lights Section at the second edition of the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai last April. He also attained successfully the goal of the popular aspect as the tickets sold out more than 5 hours before the beginning of the screening of the film in the commercial theater that the festival used to screen the film.

Al-Janahi achieved this success because he depended in his screenplay on a story full of excitement and anticipation. However, he was very quiet in dealing with that story leaving a larger space to go deeper into the characters, to understand how they relate and affect one another, leaving an opportunity for analysis and effect. It is that type of films that you would like after watching it to discuss it with others, emphasizing the important scenes, or even disagreeing on their purports. As far as I know, Al-Janahi took good amount of time writing the screenplay, while Masoud Amr Allah was responsible for the dramatic treatment. This gives us the impression that those who were behind making this film had a great sense of responsibility that exceeds the appreciation of the audience and film critics. A sense of responsibility that was more concerned with establishing the artistic dimension of the Gulf films and to inaugurate a series of this production line that will ultimately reflect on the Gulf cinema level as a whole.

The film tells the story of Ibrahim (a role wonderfully played by the Saudi actor Abdel Mohsen Al Nimir), a young journalist suffering from a fatal disease while undergoing a severe anxiety in his life which is reflected in the family tranquility with respect of Ibrahim's problem with his partner in business. Ibrahim believes that his partner is running an illegal business and that he has taken his share in this partnership. He tries to takes back his money in order to guarantee the fate of his wife who does not know about his sickness. Then, destiny prepared it in a way that Ibrahim witnesses a robbery in a house of one of his neighbors committed by the professional criminal Shihab (Emirati actor Ali Al-Jabri in an exceptional role) who finds himself obliged to commit such crimes to pay back his debts to his boss before quitting his job in order to take care of his sister. Dramatically, the journalist Ibrahim confronts the criminal Shihab during the robbery, and they go through a philosophical dialogue which draws the attention to the human controversies, the relativity of ethics and the meaning of right and wrong. This scene provoked the great acting abilities of both actors to give the maximum level of reality and harmony drawn by the director. Finally, Ibrahim and Shihab agree on the exchange of interests, and the events move on to a different direction.

In addition to the ability of the director (who participated as an actor as well) to direct the actors in a good manner, the beautiful employment of lighting and camera angles played an important role in forming the scenes and their main theme which is based on a quiet rhythm, anxiety, and depression that are reflected in the main characters of the film as well.

I think that Nawaf Al-Janahi is a part of a young filmmakers group who made the UAE exceed the other Gulf countries. He participated in this movement in such a way that would inspire the rest of young filmmakers in the Gulf to present their own experiments in the feature films after years of working on short films, to ultimately reach what many people said about the Gulf cinema that it is expecting a bright future which shall rank it among the famous cinemas in the Arab world, based on the ideas and ambitions of those young people.