Zara Naber

Zara Naber is a Jordanian photographer and film-maker. Her ambitions in making films was born in 2016 in a theater in Paris, in which she played the role of Layla Attar, an Iraqi painter living through the horrors of the US-led war following the Gulf War. To rehearse her role, she too began to paint trees and women which eventually led to her fascination with figures, and their relationship with Earth. It was here that her idea began to multiply. She began to stage and photograph bodies. The reciprocal meditative flow between the subject and herself became an instrument to her physical and creative liberation. This process of self-liberation that was first inspired by her creative journey later became its greatest muse. Ultimately manifesting itself

through the voices of different fictional characters under various tales. Athaar is Zara Naber’s first film, the script was written by her, along with her friend Tamara Hilmi. Her next piece is currently being written in Arabic, which will be produced as a feature film.

Athaar (2021)
Athaar, which means “ruins” in Arabic, is a story about the identities people create, adopt, and reject as they question the traditional constructs of freedom. “The Western world has claimed the notion of freedom as its own,” says director Zara Naber. “Freedom is not seen as belonging to Arabs. It’s American, European, Western. Eli El Sultan is the incredibly sculpted dancer at the heart of this performance film. As a Parisian of Middle Eastern heritage, he regales the viewer with an elevated rendition of his popular belly dance cabaret performance. Sultan’s slow and undulating movements are a physical expression of his sexual liberation and queer identity, ameliorated by clothing and a dance style traditionally performed by women.

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