The Mulberry House
Sara grew up in Yemen to a Yemeni father and a Scottish mother. As a teenager, she became increasingly suffocated by the constraints of her surroundings, and at age 17, finally decided to move to Scotland, where her mother now resides. Her father, however, would only approve under the condition that she would not forsake her Yemeni roots – a promise she made, but could not keep.
Ten years later, 2011, Sara returns to Yemen as a different person, geared up to face the home of her past and reconnect with her long-severed roots. But against all personal expectations, she returns to find her family and country teetering on the brink of a revolution.
Sara Ishaq is an award-winning Yemeni-Scottish documentary filmmaker. Her debut short documentary film Karama Has No Walls was nominated for OSCARS, BAFTA New Talent Award, and screened internationally, winning several awards including Aljazeera Film Festival Award for Short Doc. SARA holds an MFA in film directing at the Edinburgh College of Art. She spent some time in the past few years volunteering in the occupied Palestinian territories and radio-reporting from Yemen, while documenting her experiences through video blogs, and has been involved in several BBC productions set in the Middle East. Saras’s most recent doc The Mulberry House shot in Yemen during the revolution in 2011 and later in 2012 was an official selection of IDFA 2013 and at Al Muher Alarabi Competition Dubai International Film Festival 2013.
Film translated by: Hadi Bakkour
Syria/Egypt/UK/USA/Yemen/ 2013, 65’
Director: Sara Ishaq
