“Expats” – The Movie!
New Zealand filmmaker Craig Johnson is set to make a movie— aptly titled Expats— based upon three expatriate families that arrive in Dubai from different parts of the world seeking wealth and a better life.
Intriguingly, Johnson intends to contrast what he calls the new age “Arabian Dream” with that of the antiquated “American Dream”. He claims that since 9/11, the war in Iraq and a shaky economy, migrants are beginning to steer away from the United States, and their sights have shifted from West to East– to the Middle East.
Despite the bursting economic bubble in Dubai and the UAE, Johnson contends that the expansive growth in the region still attracts aspiring expats from around the world. Though that Arabian Dream can be elusive and illusory for many; it can bring people a variety of experiences, whether tragic or profound– and that makes for the crux of a colossal drama.
The inspiration for the film came from a personal experience, which Johnson recounts here:
“An Indian accountant was my colleague in one of the companies I was working in. He was more qualified than me and was far better at his job but he was earning a fraction of what I was earning and couldn’t even afford to have his wife and son over to live with him. This got me thinking about how hard that must be, seeing Westerners around him doing the same sort of work but working less, getting paid far more and living like kings.”
The film is set to be shot in both Dubai and Mumbai, and there’s still room for investors to get involved. By investing, you’ve got the chance to be included in the credits as an executive producer, and you might even get a chance to appear in the film. Potential investors should contact Johnson at [email protected].
1. If the American dream/opportunity has faded, someone should tell the crowds lined up outside all the embassies. An economic downturn does not mean the end of an era.
2. The only people I knew who lived like kings in Dubai were, well, kings. We lived like white-collar professionals, and so did our friends.
3. Racism is bad, blah, blah, blah. Note that it’s only left-wing Westerners who make movies about it. (I presume that he’s left-wing because he mentions white vs. brown inequality, not brown vs. brown.)
That said, I hope that he does make a movie or three about the expat experience in Dubai. I hope that the soundtrack features the music from the Star Wars cantina – heaven knows I got it stuck in my head whenever I was in a six-person meeting with people from six countries, which was almost every day.