Muscat: The Ministry of Information, represented by the Nizwa magazine, launched the premiere of the documentary film 'A House of Wonders.'
The film, presented in three parts, explores the Omani presence in Zanzibar and East Africa. The unveiling of the film took place at the Royal Opera House Muscat at a ceremony held at the House of Musical Arts. Produced in three languages - Arabic, English and Swahili - these films shed light on the Omani civilisation's contributions in political, commercial, social, and cultural realms.
The Omani influence is evident in the dissemination of Islam, culture, and Arab civilisation throughout East Africa. Each part of these films features a central character entwined in political, social, and cultural events.
Saeed bin Sultan, portrayed by the artists Ahmed al Kalbani and Amina Abdul Rasool in the first part, takes the lead, while the character Tebutib, embodied by Ismael al Jadidi, is the main character in the second part. Mubarak al Hinai plays the lead role in the third part, portrayed by artist Hilal al Hilali. The films were shot at various locations worldwide, including Zanzibar, African and Asian countries, as well as sites in Europe, America, and the Sultanate of Oman.
Friedrich Kluetsch, the director of the presentation, said: "The goal of producing this film was to announce Oman's great history and its connection to East Africa. It is one of the grand stories in the Indian Ocean, and due to the events of 1964, much of it has been lost and forgotten. Therefore, we wanted to revive this event once again, to remember and explore all the documents and elements that prove the close relationship between Oman and East Africa."
Regarding the origin of the project, the director added, "Actually, we started with the film and discovered that there were many things, people, and stories that we couldn't fit into these three episodes that we decided to produce. We wondered how to deal with it? Where can we place all this information we gathered through our research? We then decided to produce a book to include all the things that we couldn't include in the film."
"This film took three years in its primary production stage, in addition to another period spent on research, text development, and review processes. Much time was dedicated to producing and translating the work into three languages, all this process began in 2019."
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