Art & Culture

Mohammed Al-Ibrahim’s ‘Sa3oud Wainah?’ Marks a Turning Point for Qatari Filmmaking

BYMeriem Belhiba

November 27, 2025

A special moment for Qatar’s growing film scene took place at the Doha Film Festival 2025 with the world premiere of Sa3oud Wainah?, a mystery thriller made completely by Qatari talent. Written and directed by Mohammed Al-Ibrahim and produced by Katara Studios, the film represents an important step for the country’s young storytellers. It is one of the first local productions that brings a clearly Qatari setting together with the style, speed, and tension of a contemporary genre film. Its premiere on 23 November showed not only the arrival of a new director, but also the growing confidence of a small industry learning to speak in its own cinematic voice.

Al-Ibrahim said he chose the thriller format because it connects strongly with audiences in Qatar. “We consume a lot of genres here,” he explained to MILLE. “I’ve always had a huge appetite for it.”

The story takes place during one night at a quiet farmhouse outside Doha, where brothers Hamood and Sa3oud try to repeat a childhood magic trick taught by their late father. When Sa3oud suddenly disappears, the simple game becomes a tense search filled with fear, guilt, and the influence of old local stories.

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The script was written by Al-Ibrahim and Jassim Abel, and the film was produced by a team at Katara Studios that includes Mahmoud Hamaky, Luca Bercovici, Hussein Fakhri, and CEO Ahmed Al-Baker. Many of the actors—such as Mishal Al Dosari and Saad Al Naimi—are longtime friends of the director, which helps create natural chemistry on screen. The cast is all male, something Al-Ibrahim said reflects the reality of a group of young men spending a night together in a farmhouse. Behind the scenes, however, women played important roles, including editor Maryam Al-Sahli and VFX artist Maryam Mohammadi, who helped shape the film’s tone and rhythm.

Before turning to cinema, Al-Ibrahim studied criminal justice and imagined working at the Ministry of Interior. But his interest in human behaviour pushed him toward storytelling. He later worked at the Doha Film Institute, helping run film workshops while making his own short films. His earlier work includes Land of Pearls (2010), Bidoon (2013), and the Arhb music video for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The idea for Sa3oud Wainah? came to him in early 2024. He wondered what would happen if a magic trick became real and challenged himself to write a story in one location and one night. When he shared the idea with Katara Studios CEO Al-Baker, he did not expect a fast response. But Al-Baker told him a short summer window was available and encouraged him to make the film immediately. “I thought the timing was crazy,” Al-Ibrahim said. “But I really wanted to do it.” In just a few weeks, the film went through rewrites, casting, and pre-production.

Authenticity was a priority. Many Qatari families own small farmhouses outside the city, used as places to gather, relax, and escape from the busy urban environment. Al-Ibrahim wanted that space—the quiet, the distance, the slightly unsettling feeling of being far from the city—to sit at the heart of the film. He described the northern landscape as peaceful but also mysterious, a quality that supports the emotional tension of the story.

Katara Studios plans to release the film in cinemas across the Gulf next year, with wider Arab distribution to follow. For Al-Ibrahim, reaching local audiences first is essential. “Our first responsibility is to Qatari viewers,” he said. “But of course the region and the Arab world are very important too—we share the same language and culture.” After the regional release, he hopes to introduce the film internationally, believing that many viewers today are curious about films from places that rarely appear on global screens.

Now that Sa3oud Wainah? is complete, Al-Ibrahim is working on two new feature scripts and revisiting a limited series he has been developing for years. Letting go of his debut was emotional but necessary. “As a director, you must release the film to the world,” he said. “You finish one project, and then you start building the next.”

Mohammed Al-Ibrahim’s ‘Sa3oud Wainah?’ Marks a Turning Point for Qatari Filmmaking

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Mohammed Al-Ibrahim’s ‘Sa3oud Wainah?’ Marks a Turning Point for Qatari Filmmaking

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