Private Project

The Shave

A coming-of-age story where the inability to age due to a medical condition puts Mohammed in an ongoing struggle to prove his manhood in the face of masculine stereotypes.

  • Fajer Alalami
    Director
  • Fajer Alalami
    Writer
  • Fajer Alalami
    Producer
  • Waleed Al Madani
    Editor
  • Volodymyr Usyk
    DOP
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    على شفا شفرة
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 30, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United Arab Emirates
  • Country of Filming:
    United Arab Emirates
  • Language:
    Arabic
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Fajer Alalami

Filmmaking has always been to Fajer Alalami, a Jordanian emerging director, her first love and lifelong passion. Fajer grew up in the UAE and graduated with a degree in Mass Communication. Having some commercial promotional work, short films, and video clips under her belt, Fajer envisages the prestigious Arab Film Studio program as a springboard for her professional world of filmmaking.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

A man. What did you just picture? I’ve always been fascinated by the fact of how a simple word or symbol can trigger a picture, a judgment or even a whole story in our brains. That’s what lead me to dive into Mohammed’s story, and made me want to show it to the world. Mohammed’s medical condition that prevents his physical growth is a great chance to force us to overlook physicality and focus on requisitioning what manhood really means with the absence of stereotypical man’s figure. Mohammed’s story is a great way to contrast what manhood is really about, and how he experiences it without having physical masculinity as a distracting factor. One of the things I felt strongly about in the making of this film is the fact that Mohammed’s story isn’t just meant to speak about the topic of manhood, but it is also about all people that struggle to live up to whatever labels society has forced them to fall under.