Photo courtesy of Nayla Al Khaja

Category: Visuals
Mixed media
Country: United Arab Emirates

About

As the United Arab Emirates’s first female film producer, Nayla Al Khaja explores issues such as hidden teen dating and pedophilia in the Muslim world.

Nayla graduated from the Dubai Women’s College with a degree in Mass Communication.  She initially started out by having her own travel show on an Arabic Radio Network.  Her show flourished and she earned extremely high ratings. However, Nayla was not satisfied with this and wanted to continue to develop her skills in Film making.  Consequently, she enrolled at Ryerson University and graduated with a Bachelor in Image studies. In 2002, she founded D-Seven Motion Pictures, which is a Dubai based company.

Her first documentary film was titled “Unveiling Dubai” (2004) which was shown at the Dubai International Film Festival.  The media sought after Nayla as she was, essentially, the first woman in the U.A.E. to make a career in film.  Her next project, a movie entitled “Arabana,” developed in 2006. This movie examined the issue of child abuse.  Interestingly enough, the issue of child abuse is somewhat of a taboo in Middle Eastern culture so it was brave of Nayla to dig into this issue in her film.  This movie also had its premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival where it received special acknowledgment for the depth of its composition and substance.

On top of producing and directing these films/documentaries, Nayla has been devoting a lot of time trying to develop a talk show that she hopes will handle touchy cultural issues.

Currently she is working on a film about a couple on their honeymoon and on a documentary about the ruling family of Dubai.