By all accounts, Medinah is poised to be epic.
The forthcoming television series – about a group of strangers stuck in a cave in the desert after a rocket launch goes awry, while the corporation that launched the rocket attempts to figure out went wrong – is the world’s first Arabic and English science fiction series, and the largest of its kind to come out of the Middle East.
Adding to Medinah’s epic status is the fact that it was filmed in and around Doha, the capital city of Qatar, where citizens “have so much money and everything is on steroids,” says Jason Bourque, the Vancouver-based filmmaker who directed two episodes in Medinah’s seven-episode first season (the other episodes were directed by Wayne Rose, whose credits include top-rated Vancouver fare like The 100, Smallville, and Battlestar Galactica).
“Qatar has never pulled off anything like this before,” says Bourque of Medinah, which was funded entirely by Qatar’s privately backed Katara Studios. “There’s nothing like this out of the Middle East. That’s why we had 20 countries working on it. It was epic.”
The local director – whose critically acclaimed 2014 feature film Black Fly, a thriller about a pair of brothers, one of whom is a charismatic serial killer, premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival – spent four months of this year filming Medinah in Doha.
Although Bourque has shot on location before – in nearby cities like Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows at the helm of various television movies, and in India for 2017’s Drone – he says shooting in Doha catapulted him out of his creative comfort zone. “I was literally parachuting into a whole different scenario, which isn’t a bad thing, because as we know there are times in our lives where it’s great to really shake it up,” says Bourque.
Shaking it up meant spending days in the deep desert, “where it’s 50-degree heat, and I have a cast of 12 I’ve got to shoot, and we’re trying to do crane shots and steadicam shots and make it nice and stylish” – and then wrapping for the day and spending the next shooting at the world’s largest Nobu restaurant, a “tri-level architectural masterpiece that was built by [co-founder Robert] DeNiro on the water,” says Bourque.
Medinah was created by Ahmed Al Baker. Bourque describes Al Baker as a “young Qatari genius. He’s done TED talks and he’s created this amazing multi-layered world that I think audiences are just going to love.”
It doesn’t hurt that Medinah is reminiscent of similarly epic series – Bourque cites Homeland and Lost – that feature interwoven character arcs, flashbacks, and the unexpected. “It’s a very layered show,” Bourque says. “It’s nice being involved in a project that’s really trying to do something original and is original material. It’s not based on a comic book or based on something with a built-in fanbase.”
And Medinah’s cast reflects the globe-spanning nature of the production. Actors include Tahmoh Penikett and Rick Ravanello (both familiar faces to Vancouver audiences), Hollywood staples Eric Roberts and Natasha Henstridge, Iraqi pop star Rahma Riyad Ahmed and Bollywood actor Hemwant Tiwari.
In July, the first episode of Medinah screened at the juggernaut San Diego Comic-Con to a packed ballroom of 4,000 people. Following the screening, Rolling Stone listed Medinah as one of its 25 Comic-Con highlights. “It was wonderful to see that interest,” marvels Bourque.
Medinah comes on the heels of the release of Drone, Bourque’s sophomore feature film. The politically charged thrillerstars Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) as a military drone contractor and busy Vancouver actor Patrick Sabongui (The Flash, Homeland) as an enigmatic Pakistani businessman. The film enjoyed a theatrical run in the States, and reached the top spot on the American iTunes indie chart and the No. 2 spot on the thriller list when it hit the streaming service on Memorial Day weekend.
It’s a good time to be a Canadian director on the international stage, says Bourque. “It’s pretty tense in some places in the world, but Canada is seen as this oasis of calm and we’re just seen as very nice, reasonable people, and, internationally, they want to work with us,” says Bourque. “As Canadians, now is our time to shine.”
There’s also a kind of international domino effect that can come from directing local features, he says. “All of the work that’s going into doing these low-budget indies born of the B.C. scene, my god, they’ve been amazing calling cards and a wonderful way to open up these doors into the international market.”
Medinah is currently seeking a distribution deal with a streaming service; despite no set release date, production has already begun on a second season. Says Bourque: “They want to have it completed absolutely before they actually sell it. It’s a bit of a different ballgame.”
Follow @JasonBourque1 and @MedinahShow for announcements.
