1990 / Director · Producer
The Barrier
الحاجز
01Bassam Al Thawadi / Filmmaker
A life
in cinema.
Cinema✦Television✦Theatre✦Image & memory
From the archive / 2015
Honoured
at home.
The Order of Competence, First Class
In 2015, Bassam Al Thawadi received the Order of Competence, First Class, from His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. This moment and its documents are preserved in his personal archive.
Explore the honours archive2015
From Bahrain.
A moment in a life in cinema.
02Selected cinema
Every story.
A world of its own.
The Barrier. Visitor. A Bahraini Tale. Three landmarks in Bassam Al Thawadi’s work, and in the story of Bahraini cinema.
The filmography
03The person behind the films
An eye for stories.
A heart in Bahrain.
The journey began with short films on 8 mm between 1974 and 1978. From studying cinema in Cairo to directing The Barrier in 1990, his work spans film, television, theatre and festivals.
Explore his story1990The Barrier / Bahrain’s first feature film
04The personal archive
Beyond
the screen.
Photographs, documents and conversations. The traces of a creative life, collected in one place.
01 / Collection
Cinema & television
Films, television, theatre and the making of each work.
02 / Collection
Photographs & memories
People, places and moments from the personal archive.
03 / Collection
Press & conversations
Interviews, coverage and a record of a creative life.
04 / Collection
Documents & ideas
Studies, writing, books and personal papers.
The blog / Ideas for conversation
From the work to the story.
Three proposed introductions on beginnings, filmmaking and memory, to be developed after review and conversation with Bassam.
From 8 mm films to The Barrier
From short experiments on 8 mm to Bahrain’s first feature film.
Read the introductionBetween directing and producing
Two roles in filmmaking, and a conversation about vision, collaboration and decisions.
Read the introduction
Preserving cinema’s memory
A photograph or an old document opens a conversation about filmmaking history.
Read the introduction05Journal & news
From the
cinema journal.
Portraits from a creative life
Beyond the frame.
Closer to the story.
Portraits and moments from public appearances, alongside a record of films, honours and festival participation.
A book / A life in cinema
السينما كما عرفتها
Bassam Al Thawadi reflects on his relationship with cinema in a book bringing together biography, photographs, posters and archival documents, alongside writing and artistic experiments.
Bassam Mohammed Al Thawadi · First edition, 2021