

Officially Selected for the Festival Season
February 2026
BAAB

Director:
Nayla Al Khaja
Producer:
Nayla Al Khaja, Jude Stephen Walko, Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki
Writer:
Nayla Al Khaja, Masoud Amralla Al Ali
Selected for the following category(s)
BAAB is a dark fantasy that unfolds through the fractured mind of a woman reeling from the sudden death of her twin sister. Plagued by the eerie hum of tinnitus in her left ear, she is drawn into a surreal world where grief takes on physical form. As she descends through three visceral stages, depression, anger, and bargaining, her reality begins to distort, blurring the line between the living and the dead. Set in an isolated Emirati landscape steeped in myth and memory, BAAB explores the intimate violence of grief and the unspoken bond between twins. What begins as a psychological unraveling soon reveals something more otherworldly, a doorway ("BAAB" in Arabic) that may lead to closure... or something far more sinister.
Director - Nayla Al Khaja