Daazo.com’s top users wAssim sookiA interview by Zsuzsanna Deák
“Never give up making films, however hard it may be!”
Meet Wassim Sookia, whose sensitive and touching film Keeper shared the first prize with Jakob Beckman’s A Night to Remember at Daazo.com’s World of Shorts contest last month. wassim
film in mauritius
I am from Mauritius and I’m 37 years old. I’ve been making short films since 1995. ose days, I used two videos to edit the tapes for one master copy! I studied electronics to master cameras and later shied to literature to improve my storytelling and analytic skills. Inspired by metaphysical poets and indie music, I decided to make films when I discovered the works of Kieślowski, Jarmusch, Kaurismäki, Hal Hartley and Kiarostami among others. I work for an advertising agency as a senior copywriter, so I spend my days thinking of ideas for commercials. It has always helped me as I am able to write my own dialogue very quickly and think of unique situations.
ere are quite a few filmmakers here and their number is constantly increasing. ere is the Mauritius Film Development Corporation that has been organising short film competitions, and Ile Courts, a new short film festival helping newcomers to give filmmaking a try. But the National Television does not support short films at all, and there is no real help to encourage us to carry on making films. It was in 2002, aer my short Tanga that I realised that Mauritian cinema was not at all visible throughout the world. Since then, I have set myself a goal: to show Mauritius to the world through my films. My 4 last films have been bought by TV5 Monde.
72 WOSH by Daazo.com