More on Raiy Kulhi

"For many years
Beneath the shade of a tree
On this island where strangers dwell
Far from home
Separated by miles of sea
My flesh and bones have become
Elements of the surrounding
Trees, grass and lakes"

From "Azeeza", one of the poems in the book "Memories" by Ahmed Shareef Nafees

Azeeza died more than 20 years ago at sea, several hours into labour, but was refused burial on her home island of Funadhoo in Shaviyani Atoll. At that time, some people believed that if a person who died at sea were buried on an inhabited island, the island itself would become uninhabited. As a result, Azeeza's final resting place is on the neighbouring, but uninhabited island of Eriyadhoo. Azeeza's husband visited Eriyadhoo regularly and maintained her leafy grave until he died, after which their son to this day carries on the tradition.

Shareef based the above verses on this true story and later wrote a screenplay on which Narco and I based our screenplay of Raiy Kulhi.

The red brackish water on the island plays a crucial part in both Shareef's story and our screenplay.

Hopefully we can raise the funds to go into production later in the year.

Muha recounts Himalayan experience

Muha has poured out his perspectives on the Himalayan experience in two interviews with Narco. That's him atop Kala Pattar, Pumori in the background, in an image grab from the video footage.

I have to say that I found him extremely articulate, intelligent, and reflective, and I have no doubt that the interviews will engage a wider audience, including those that slept while watching the first edit.

Strangely, I feel I know Muha more now, after the interview, than I did during the journey to the Himalaya and beyond.

Narco and I are also hoping that Shaz and Hilath will say a few words, as friends who remained in Male while we were out on the mountains.

In principle they've both agreed but Muha tells me Shaz is having second thoughts.

Meanwhile, I'm pleased to report, Ahmed has agreed to lend one of his songs to the documentary. It's a great, great song which I first heard two years ago when Ahmed sang it to us during one of our projects together.

So, overall I'm really pleased with the way the work is going.

Additional filming for Himalayan documentary

Muha will be subjected to a gruelling interview this afternoon on Hulhumale where, hopefully, we can crack him open on his Himalayan experiences. Yesterday, it took around three hours for Narco and me to go through the questions so God knows how long the interview is going to take. But the success of the documentary will depend on how well we do with the interview, since audiences need a point of reference before they are bombarded with images of the Himalaya and Muha, hopefully, will be the person to perform that function.

We're not taking any friends to Hulhumale because we want Muha to be comfortable when he talks to us without any distraction. So, the picnic part and the training may have to be filmed another time.

We're also planning to film Muha at a computer, going through the Himalayan photos, and discussing particular images.

Meanwhile Ahmed, our music composer, has been given a dvd containing the rough edit, and is ready to discuss the music he intends to make for the video. Again, music has always been as important to me as images, especially during editing.

With all these things we hope the final cut of the documentary will be really good make the people who previously slept through the images really sit up.

On another note, I watched a trailer for the film Water yesterday and the images really wowed me, never seen anything like it in a long time. If anyone wants to check this out, here's the site:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/water/trailera/

I think you'll understand why I want to make a film this year.