2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

Cement. A rather serious topic has been given a new humorous approach, with a twist at the end. Sarcastically enough, our main character is a dorky, pathetic, loser engineer. The film is led by a deep voice over that would supposedly illustrate a legendary individual but instead it is taking the audience through the real story of our engineer and what kind of person Samy really is. Shot in slow-motion, Ibrahim is showcased simply being himself. The setting is Samy’s kitchen but oddly enough it is able to reveal all aspects of his dreary life and lousy persona. The classical and grandiose music complements the deep voice-over by giving off the ironic vibe to smoothly allow mockery to exist. Finally, the twist. The voice over then reveals that consumers concern themselves too much with the engineer when it is the type of cement that truly matters.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

Bahrain has little local cement resources and mainly relies on imports from UAE and Saudi Arabia. Repeatedly so, Bahrain has shown how vulnerable it is to any interruption in supply, putting developers off and delaying local initiatives and projects. We took advantage of this by marketing our cement directly to the consumer. Since 2009, Bahrain was the only country allowed to import cement from Saudi Arabia. However, on March 2017, Saudi government introduced new tariffs as well as permitted cement exports resulting in an extreme price increase. After the construction sector grew it came to a halt, giving local competition a bigger chance to shine. Falcon Cement being the largest and only integrated cement producer in the kingdom of Bahrain new that the answer is to encourage local production capacity and keep the local consumers happy at the cost of export customers.