Midnight Sun, a family film which screened at Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) on Friday night, almost didn’t happen.
Its uncertain future was not only due to its plans to break the rules of filmmaking by shooting with animals and children (in the incredibly challenging environment of the Arctic, to boot), but also because original and prolific producer Jake Eberts died in 2012 before he could see it through.
“He had a partnership with Image Nation through National Geographic films, as he was chairmen of it. He died of a rare form of eye cancer and the film almost collapsed,” producer Rob Heydon told tabloid!. “So some other Canadian producers and I got together and revived the film, and we were in production in less than six months.”
Image Nation and Hyde Park, the CEO of which is Ashok Amritraj, invested in the film. Hyde Park is currently selling it around the world. According to Heydon, it will have a wide release in the UAE.
“The film’s about a young boy [in Churchill, Manitoba] who finds a polar bear cub in a garage. Every year, 3,000 polar bears migrate to town because of climate change — the permafrost is melting,” Heydon said.
Climate change
The film touches on the global issue of climate change. With polar bear sightings increasing in Northern Canada, it can be unsafe for children to go outside. In the Inuit hamlet of Arviat, kids will not go trick-or-treating from door-to-door this Halloween, but celebrate indoors within their community hall.
When Midnight Sun was filming, the ice had melted more than ever before, said Heydon, making it unsafe to shoot. They had to fly another 500 miles (805 kilometres) north, further into the Arctic, as a result. “Because we’re filming with a 14-year-old boy and a polar bear cub from China, you have to be safe with these things,” he added.
If the reactions to the movie so far are anything to go by, the result was worth it. Children, teens and parents have responded enthusiastically.
“It’s like Free Willy in the Arctic,” joked Heydon. “It’s really a great family film. And teenagers like it too because it’s really about a teenaged kid getting the courage to go into nature and reunite this polar bear cub with its mother.”
Heydon, who first came to the ADFF in 2008 to pitch a movie idea to Amritraj and other producers, will return to the region to film three other projects. The Collecter is the first on the agenda. It’s a European-Canadian production, and a Laurence Mark production, which Heydon describes as “kind of like Bourne Identity meets Transporter, so it’s an action thriller [featuring] an ex-CIA agent.” It will film in Asia, Europe and the UAE.
“It will be the UAE as the UAE and not as somewhere else. It’s not political at all, it’s more just a fun action film.”
The other two films, The Beggar King and Immortal Rules, which are scheduled to shoot over the next couple of years, will be bigger productions with stars promised.
