Bachir

Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Emirates Palace, November 2nd, 2013



In addition to this, I am also comfortable sharing the following item(s):

[X] The city of residence of the recipient of this letter/phone call
[X] The recorded audio of my 5 minutes of questions
[X] Incidental recorded audio (conversations had, questions asked, enthusiasm expressed outside of the official 5 minutes
[X] The transcribed text of my 5 minutes of questions
[X] Complete and utter faith in the artist




[…]
00:00:00-0
Yannick: Do you know the country Code?

Bachir: I do—I've been living there for 17 years.

Yannick: Okay. I've got like—just in case I printed every country code in the world. // And it turns out//

Bachir: //oh—you're well prepared for this// (laugh)

Yannick: Yeah well there's a bunch of special country codes for Anartica.

Bachir: (whispered) For Antartica?

Amani: (laugh)

Bachir: Did someone call for Antartica?

Amani: Not yet (laugh)

Yannick: I—you know, I think I'm just gonna disappoint myself, because I don't think anyone's gonna call Antartica. (laugh)

Bachir: (laugh)

[…]
00:00:25-7
Yannick: So, first question: who did you call?

Bachir: Uh I called my mom. I .. the first one I thought about when you said "if you want to call someone"—although I literally spoke to her .. 30 minute before. So but I thought it's—someone special, you should always—if someone gives you an opportunity you should call someone close to your heart. So I thought about my mom.

Yannick: m. That's great. Would you mind telling me a little bit about her?
00:00:49-9
Bachir: uh … we'll she's -she's my mom (laugh). Uh, we—she have 5 kids. And she's-she's a housewife, she doesn't do any job. She literally just stays home, take care of .. uh, my brothers, myself as well—although I haven't been living with her for the last 5 years. She's a very—she's an amazing person the best person I ever met in my life. I hope my wife can be like her, exactly—taking care of her kids, husband. ..Uh, she's just an amazing woman.

Yannick: Uh .. this is—so this (incomprehensible) but how did you end up living apart?

Bachir: So I was—I was with her till—let me get back to my background. I'm an Algerian. I lived in Algeria till I was 5 or 6 years old. Then we moved to Qatar; my dad's an engineer that works in a gas company—Qatar gas, have you hear about it? And, so we moved there, we've been there for like 17 years now, 16-17 years now. Since 1997. Uh, so yeah. My dad works most of the time, and my mom just takes care of us. Uh, .. yeah. What was the question again?
00:02:09-1
Yannick: How did you guys end up //living apart//

Bachir: //oh how did I // (laugh) yeah sorry. I lost—there's a lot to talk about. So, I was there until I was 18, and then I moved to England for a couple of years, for 3 years, I went to study for University. Uh, I had some problems there, after a few years, so I decided to come back, to come closer to the family. They live in Qatar so I thought Dubai, the best place for me. It's literally .. 30 minutes, or 45 minutes by plane. It's just like taking a bus or taking a ride. So I thought it's good to be close to the family, and they—it's, we have this—I've been living in Qatar for 17 years, so it's kind of the same culture. Uh, we can just—you feel like home in this country. I was just talking to her and I asked her, "when was the last time we were here?" We came when we were kids, it's like 1999. We came with the family and we had a tour all around the UAE. It was pretty cool.

Yannick: So, and London didn't feel like home?
00:03:06-2
Bachir: I wasn't—I wasn't—where are you—are you from England?

Yannick: No, I-I spoke—studied a semester there, but uh, I'm from the United States.

Bachir: From the Untied states. No I was in—north of London, Newcastle. Had 1 year there for a foundation year, was perfect, got some good grades. Then I moved to, uh, to Portsmouth, which is South. It's too cold up North I thought about it, like, "Let's go down South, maybe a bit warmer." So I went there, yeah. First yeah was alright, second year I had to move out. Personal problems.

Yannick: Okay. No more then. Uh, so you already kind of talked about, you know you had to choose your mom. But uh, who .. did you not choose?

Bachir: Who did I not choose? My dad. My dad. Straight away—or .. my brothers. Uh, especially living abroad, that's the most people you want to stick around the most. So, I've got family, I've got—I have Grandfather, Grandmother—thank god they're still alive—and uh, well—no one else, other than family.

Yannick: Uh, this is kind of moving a little, along, but: what does it feel like to miss someone? Or something? Or a place?
00:04:22-8
Bachir: It feels strange, 'cause usually when you're growing up you're always with the same people who actually—without realizing as a kid—you know that they really care about you. So when you're growing up as a kid, you just .. —depends on your life experience, you think—maybe the—for a certain situation, you wanted a game, a toy or something, they care about you, but they just .. they think in the long run. So when you grow up, like as soon as you get 18, 19, you start to think about like "yeah, they actually really care about me." So, just that's the relation we build with our family.

Yannick: Uh, 30 seconds left. Do you want to tell me anything about yourself? Or add anything?

Bachir: Uh …

Yannick: You-you don't have to stop talking after 5 minutes, it's just after that it's your call.
00:05:10-8
Bachir: No, like you—you gave me a good experience. I've never done this before, honestly (laugh), you just gave me a phone "who-who do you want to talk to?" So I—that's why, when I read the sign I was like, "It's kind of weird, kind of strange .. someone would give you a"—but you told me it's for a good cause, I hope you do good in your project. Thank you, thank you for your experience.

Yannick: Thank you very much.

[…]

00:05:34-5
Bachir: Have a good day!

Yannick: You too!

Amani: You too.

00:05:38-4

END
Question 1 Bachir

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