AT only 22-years-old, director Damien Hauser just had his first world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
Damien's film, After The Long Rains, showed at the festival that’s currently being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 30 November to 9 December.
In an interview with Daily Sun, Damien shared that the film that was shot in Kenya follows 10-year-old Aisha who dreams of sailing to Europe, but her mother thinks that sailing should be left to men.
“This story was inspired by myself and a young girl I encountered a while back. But not just that, by my mum as well because at the time I was interested in my mum’s story. I only know her as my mum. She had me when she was 25 years old, but I don’t know her past life and I wanted to learn more.
“So, in my quest, I went to visit my grandmother in Kenya. I'm based in Switzerland. And my grandmother told me more about my mum’s past life. It was inspiring. My mum had always had this dream of going to Europe and she did it,” he said.
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Damien said that during his journey, he got inspired to film a movie.
He started making films at the tender age of seven. He said he’s happy to see his work now being recognised worldwide.
“I remember when I was seven, a lot of kids around me had cameras and I asked my dad to give me a camera for Christmas and he did. It was such a bad quality camera, but I loved it. From there onwards I started filming movies with my neighbours.
“Now, I'm at the world premiere of this film. It feels good. I’m very honoured to be here. It’s a huge festival. It’s so funny because we shot the movie in a tiny space, so to be here is a great honour,” he said.
