Zain Duraie on breaking Arab cinema's silence around mental health with Oscar contender Sink

Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie believes Arab cinema has spent too long returning to familiar subjects. Stories of war, poverty and political upheaval have shaped how the region is represented on screen, while more intimate struggles have received less attention.

With her debut feature, Sink, Duraie wanted to address one of those neglected subjects: mental health and the stigma surrounding it in Arab societies.

“I felt like nobody has spoken about the stigma of mental health, especially in Jordan and the Arab world,” she tells The National. “It's still heavily stigmatised.”

Selected as Jordan's submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards, Sink follows Nadia (Clara Khoury), a mother struggling to accept her teenage son Basil's (Mohammad Nizar) deteriorating mental health.

The story grew from Duraie's personal experiences and observations of families struggling to confront mental illness, particularly when fear or shame prevents them from seeking help. “I see mothers locked behind doors and not reaching out for help,” she says, adding that finding appropriate support can itself be difficult in Jordan.

Duraie was particularly interested in denial and how Nadia gradually became consumed by her son's psychological turmoil.

She also believes international funding structures can favour familiar narratives about hardship and conflict, making more personal subjects difficult to finance. “I felt, you know, I'm going to take this risk because at least I'm making something honest,” she says.

She challenges the assumption that family dramas cannot carry wider social significance. “Who says intimate family dramas can't be political?”

Finding visual language for denial

Show caption: Duraie spent three years working with the lead actor Mohamma…

Duraie graduated from the Toronto Film School before working in production management, casting and other filmmaking roles. She has directed two shorts, Horizon and Give Up the Ghost, with the latter competing at the Venice Film Festival in 2019.

The recognition helped her pursue her first feature, developed through workshops including the Red Sea Lodge in Saudi Arabia.

Sink uses restrained dialogue, deliberate pacing and framing to reflect Nadia's psychological state. The film begins in a narrow 4:3 aspect ratio before expanding to 2:1 at a pivotal moment between mother and son.

Duraie says the transition represents Nadia beginning to recognise the reality of her son's condition. “Because for me this is the moment of catharsis,” she says. “This is the moment of where she sees him.”

Yet the frame never opens completely. Although Nadia begins to emerge from denial, her circumstances continue to deteriorate. The wider image suggests a degree of freedom without offering complete release.

Duraie acknowledges that changing aspect ratios is an established technique, but believes it suits the story's emotional progression. She also enjoys that some viewers only notice the transition much later.

“I think this is part of our job as filmmakers, to be unsafe, to make things that are crazy, that are risky,” she says.

Portraying imperfect mother

Show caption: Duraie deliberately kept Clara Khoury uninformed about the i…

Much of the film's emotional weight rests on Khoury's understated performance. Nadia rarely expresses her anguish openly, with her distress conveyed through silences, gestures and facial expressions.

Duraie recalls Khoury repeatedly questioning Nadia's decisions, particularly her reluctance to confront her son's increasingly alarming behaviour. The director had to establish the character's internal logic while preserving her contradictions.

“I didn't want to write a superhero mother because that is not the truth,” she says. “Mothers make mistakes. Parents are flawed.”

Duraie took contrasting approaches to preparing her leads.

She worked with Nizar for three years, introducing him to books about bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, alongside films intended to inform his performance. Initially, he was not even given the screenplay. Instead, he received information about individual scenes as Duraie continued writing.

With Khoury, she took the opposite approach, asking her not to research the illness so she could remain close to Nadia's uncertainty. Basil's condition is never explicitly diagnosed in the film.

Neither actor auditioned for their roles. Duraie selected them after conversations and encouraged both to contribute during rehearsals, sometimes rewriting scenes collaboratively.

The different approaches helped establish the contrasting perspectives of a son experiencing a mental health crisis and a mother struggling to understand what is happening.

Response from families

Show caption: Sink was selected as Jordan's submission for Best Internatio…

Although mental health provided the starting point, Duraie says she was less interested in delivering a particular lesson than leaving audiences with an emotional impression.

The reactions have been particularly strong among parents, some of whom have reconsidered their relationships with their children after watching it. “Mothers, like they tell me, you know, we went home and we hugged our kids because we felt like maybe we were not doing a very good job,” she says.

People living with serious mental health conditions have also approached her, expressing appreciation for the film's portrayal of Basil. “They told me, thank you for making us look human, for not sort of making us look like monsters.”

These encounters have reinforced Duraie's interest in characters who resist straightforward moral judgements. Although Nadia makes numerous mistakes, the director believes her love and concern for her son remain evident.

Beyond Oscar campaign

Show caption: Zain Duraie uses a changing aspect ratio in Sink to reflect …

Jordan's selection of Sink for the Academy Awards has given Duraie's debut feature another opportunity to reach international audiences.

The team is developing a campaign proposal and approaching sponsors and investors to support its awards efforts. “It is a national prestige, and it is a great step for the film and for me personally,” she says.

Duraie is already developing another film, starting with the backstory of a female character before building the surrounding narrative. The project remains at the concept stage.

Looking towards the next generation of Arab filmmakers, she hopes to see greater originality and less emphasis on securing places at prestigious festivals.

She believes the pressure to achieve international recognition can influence creative decisions, encouraging directors to anticipate what programmers want rather than pursue stories they feel personally connected to. “If we write with the state of mind of festivals, we will never make it,” she says.

Instead, she encourages emerging filmmakers to question their motivations and what distinguishes their perspective. “Why am I making this film? How am I close to this subject? Does it look like me? Is there something in me in that?”