Emirati filmmaker Amal Al-Agroobi, best known for her non-fiction works The Brain That Sings and Half, is developing her first narrative work.

The short, entitled Under The Hat, revolves around the relationship between a devout muezzin who enlists the help of a rock star when his voice fails him and he can no longer lead the call to prayer at his mosque.

“This will be my first narrative work. I’ve proven I can make documentaries – now I want to test my skill in narrative film-making, to see if I even enjoy it,” said Al-Agroobi.

Her last documentary The Brain That Sings, tackling the attitude towards autism in the UAE, won the People’s Choice Award at DIFF last year.

It also went on to win the Aljazeera Documentary Channel Award at the broadcaster’s documentary film festival earlier this year.

It also screened at the Docutah in the US and the younger-generation focused Giffoni Film Festival in Italy, where it won second prize in the GEx selection as well as an audience award.

Al-Agroobi has turned to crowd-funding to raise the budget for Under The Hat.

“I’ve used crowd-funding four times now and so far I’ve always been successful,” said Al-Agroobi, who has used local platform Aflamnah in the past but is experimenting with Indiegogo this time round.

To see the campaign, click on: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/under-the-hat-short-film