Directing
"The City Is Like A Character In The Film" focuses on the burgeoning relationship between two out-of-towners named Ahmed (Ahmed Khawaja) and Julie (Alex Beechko), both down in the dumps before their accidental meeting in Manhattan. The two begin to open up to one another as the day progresses -- they kick off by commending the various allures of NYC and sitcom TV before diving into more serious topics such as grief, Islamophobia, Trump, and America.
Or a day in the life of Ahmed Khawaja. A tutorial that forgets to be a tutorial.
This film is part autobiography, part fiction, with a healthy dose of self-conscious realism and tongue-in-cheek humor. Nursing a broken heart from his first breakup, Ahmed decides he's going to be homeless-this is his naive, lovesick attempt to get over the girl whose name is the inspiration for the film's title. Being the hopeless romantic that he is, Ahmed wants to document his days living as a change peddler. He does so thinking he will make a film about his adventurers and finally exorcise the memory of Kassandra. In true millennial fashion, Ahmed abandons the first film when the fancy strikes him to make a movie about his breakup instead. This is the film within the film he sets out to make, "Ten Nights Bliss."
The second film carries the initials of both creators, AP & AK: little mysteries carved into a tree, but also something more binding, less prey to whim. You make your mark to signal approval of important revisions in an agreement, and these are detail-oriented filmmakers. These filmmakers are all details.
