‘Kingdom of Strangers’ film explores universal themes of isolation, exile

This post was updated Dec. 28 at 12:05 a.m.

Randa Ali is bringing experiences of isolation and identity to the big screen.

The graduate student in directing debuted her short film “Kingdom of Strangers” at the 26th annual Arab Film Festival on Nov. 12. Recounting the traumatic and murky memories of protagonist Ali, an Egyptian self-exiled to Los Angeles, writer and director Ali said the film draws inspiration from the letters written by Egyptian political prisoners in sharing the harsh realities of isolation and a fading sense of identity.

“I feel it is more important to make films thinking of the people who are going through (something) than the people who are not … for the sake of solidarity,” Ali said. “There is someone out there who is going to watch it, and it’s going to speak to them.”

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Ali said her aim to convey the contrasting feelings of enlightenment and oppression, along with her appreciation for classic Egyptian cinema, encouraged the film’s narration style. The method, she said, is employed to enhance the naturalistic sounds of the story’s setting while maintaining a sense of detachment between the characters and their words.

The use of ZEISS Cinema Zoom cameras for their sharp focus to highlight characters’ emotions in contrast to distorted memories, as well as black-and-white imagery, translates the characters’ memory in a very romantic and nostalgic way, Ali said. She added that this is intended to invite viewers to reflect on their own lives and how they can relate to the characters.

While the cinematography helps communicate the emotional sensations of the film, graduate student in producing Sophie Changhui Shi, who worked as the producer of “Kingdom of Strangers,” said this reciprocity also stems from the real experiences and feelings of international students such as Ali and herself. Understanding the trials of displacement from one’s homeland, she said “Kingdom of Strangers” offers a semblance of what international students face in America, especially within the last few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many students unable to return to their homes and families.

“This film represents a shared experience of all people who know the difficulty of returning to where they are from,” Shi said. “We all have a moment where we feel so lost, far away from our homeland. We are in a place where we don’t feel secure and we are haunted by past memories.”

Ali said her collaboration with the actors on set is what truly brought “Kingdom of Strangers” and its meaning to life. Having worked with many of the same crew members on previous projects, Ali said there was a strong sense of unity built among the team that allowed it to work together more cohesively over the course of the film’s five production days. Getting to know her cast members and blending the stories of their own lives into the film connects both the viewers to the characters and the characters to the actors, she said.

According to lead actor Hazem Madbouly, who plays the character Ali, “Kingdom of Strangers” allowed him to learn more about the political pieces at play in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt and Palestine. He said he hopes the film and its representation of these countries will encourage people to deepen their understandings of global injustice and unite its American audience through a built sense of empathy.

“I know how many political prisoners there are in Egypt and there are a lot of things that, even if you haven’t really experienced them, resonate and stay in the back of your mind all the time, and I think this movie brought that out,” Madbouly said.

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While the film focuses on the isolationist experiences of Middle Eastern characters, Ali said “Kingdom of Strangers” serves as a microcosmic expression of the ever-changing world, especially within the context of COVID-19, racial and religious inequality and economic collapse. She said the movie aims to impact viewers from all walks of life, encouraging human unity in times of turmoil and uncertainty.

“It is ultimately a film about loss and struggling to try to relate to the place where you are,” Ali said. “We are living in a world where our cities are continuously changing given the (economy) that are not thinking of us as human at all. I feel like on some level, the story is relatable to anyone who’s lived in a place that doesn’t look like what’s in their memory.”