For as long as she can remember, Nayla Al Khaja has been breaking ground, and sometimes, against the odds. When she first picked up a camera two decades ago, there was no real “Emirati film industry” to speak of, no roadmap for a woman trying to tell stories that didn’t fit neatly into expectation. She made short films, produced her own projects, and built her career brick by brick, long before “representation” became a buzzword.
This November, that persistence comes full circle. Her new feature film, BAAB, is set to make history as the first Emirati film directed by a woman to premiere at the Cairo International Film Festival, one of the Arab world’s most established and globally recognised platforms.
“Standing in Cairo with this film means a lot more than just a screening,” she says. “It’s about how Emirati stories are finally being seen, heard, and taken seriously.”
BAAB is not the kind of film that seeks to please. It’s a dark psychological drama about a woman grieving the loss of her twin sister, set against the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah. The story slips between memory and delusion, where silence becomes its own kind of dialogue and the desert feels both haunting and holy. It’s heavy, introspective, and deeply visual, a work that sits somewhere between Arab folklore and psychological realism.
Behind the camera, Al Khaja surrounded herself with an impressive mix of global and regional talent. Two-time Oscar winner A.R. Rahman composed the film’s score, his first for an Arabic-language project—while cinematographer Rogier Stoffers (Quills, Mongol) brought a visual language defined by shadow, silence, and texture. The collaboration gives BAAB its balance of world-class craftsmanship anchored in a story that still feels deeply local, much like Al Khaja herself, rooted in the UAE, but reaching far beyond it.
Backed by the UAE Ministry of Culture’s National Grant for Culture and Creativity and produced by Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki, BAAB was filmed entirely in the UAE with more than 140 crew members, including 20 Emiratis. After its premiere in Cairo, it will be released across the MENA region through VOX Distribution in early 2026.
For Al Khaja, BAAB isn’t about spectacle or scale. It’s about perspective—the emotional kind that takes years to earn. “It’s a story about grief,” she says, “but also about what it means to look inward, to face what we usually avoid. That’s what filmmaking is for me — going where it’s quiet and seeing what’s left.”
