Nayla Al Khaja’s sophomore feature Baab is a richly textured psychological fantasy – assured in its craft, striking in its atmosphere and anchored by a pair of formidable central performances. While its final movements stop short of offering full narrative resolution, the film’s emotional and aesthetic ambition marks a significant step forward for one of the UAE’s most distinctive cinematic voices.
The film opens by plunging the viewer directly into its protagonist’s sensory world. Wahida (Shaimaa El Fadul), a mother of two, is struggling to process the death of her twin sister Nasma. She also suffers from tinnitus, a condition Al Khaja renders viscerally through piercing, high-frequency sound design that
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