This British-Emarati Singer-Songwriter Just Shot Her First Feature Film “The Letter Writer”
By Febronia Hanna
A young man who works as a professional letter writer for illiterate people falls for one of his customer’s object of affection. ” The Letter Writer” is a movie shot in a weird art form. It uses a classic story-line but is tweaked in an Arab way and has a deeper plot than the original simple one.
The movie set in Dubai’s 1960s was directed by Layla Kaylif. She is a British-Emirati singer-songwriter and this is her first experience with film directing. The most important thing to Layla is that the film has to work emotionally and that it takes people on a journey.
The film was made through winning the IWC Filmmaker Award, which Kaylif won at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2015. The story doesn’t end here, Layla has other great plans for her music career.
“I still have a lot of passion for my music career. I want to do a folk-country record with Sufi-esque themes. So imagine Rumi lyrics in a country song. Does that sound appealing?” she asks with a laugh.
