How did you conceive of the story? How did it evolve?

It’s a long story, but in a nutshell it started in 2005 shortly after my grandfather passed away. Organically I built layers upon layers of the story with each rewrite until 30 drafts later I had found the right balance of story, character, drama, comedy and minimal dialogue. The best realizations came as I found myself taking things out. I learned from the process that less is more.

Q: How was the film received in the Arab world? It includes some serious and extensive social critique on issues of class/poverty, gender and social conformity. How did the Arab public and critics respond to this?

For the most part, the reception was great. A lot of support. There are always those few who gripe that you’re portraying something negative about the Arab world, but those are people who failed to see that the story is universal-with problems you can find anywhere around the world-which is also why the film played well to international audiences. I hope that with time it will continue to be discovered by new audiences in the Middle East. It has yet to play on TV. Distribution is still a big weakness in the Arab world.

Q: Tell us about your personal journey to filmmaking and writing.

I’ll simplify it by saying that if you follow your heart and work hard; you will find that the universe somehow comes to help you. Everything in The Alchemist has been true in my experience. I feel very fortunate. And there is a struggle, but you have to find a balance and enjoy the journey. My love for filmmaking is not because I want to be rich. Making movies is a poor man’s journey for independent filmmakers. You have to do it because you truly love creating and capturing behavior. Some people call it telling stories. I prefer to call it capturing behavior. That’s the best part of making movies. How people interact.

Q: Images of Arabs and the Arab world in Hollywood are often one-dimensional, stereotypical and pejorative. Captain Abu Raed is totally different in the way in which it so intimately, vividly and respectfully renders Jordan and Amman in their depth, diversity and complexity. Can you describe your relationship with Arab culture generally and Jordanian culture more specifically?

I’m a mutt in that I have Jordanian, Palestinian and Lebanese blood in my mix yet I left Jordan at an early age when I was 13 and have since become very Americanized in my mentality and need for individuality. But at the same time I am constantly hungry for the European experience, either because I’m nostalgic to my childhood where I traveled with my parents to Europe, or because I’m haunted from a previous life where I was in either France or Germany. So at the end of the day, I sincerely see myself as a mixed bag of different parts of the world and I try to stay open to new experiences to widen my horizons. I am Arab-American and my roots started in Jordan, but I grew up in Ohio, yet my home is in Los Angeles-where my dogs live.

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