Behind The Scenes With Ali Mostafa

Emirati-British director on his post-apocalyptic thriller The Worthy.

Why did this story resonate with you?

When I was approached to do this script, I had just done a comedy, and for me to do an action thriller was exciting as a filmmaker. One of my goals is to try and do as many genres as I can, just to learn as well as to enable versatility in my career. For the story, the whole aspect of trying to survive against this threat is a very drastic situation for anyone to be in. I found that quite interesting. The concept of what you would do to survive.

This is the first film you didn’t write. Was it hard coming to it as a script, without having your own stamp on the dialogue?

Not at all. In fact I actually preferred it. [Laughs.] It is quite liberating as a filmmaker. You get to try and put your own touch on someone else’s world and make it your own. So that was really exciting for me.

The film was originally written for an American audience. Tell us about how you adapted the script into a distinctly Arabic film?