Role & Inspiration Behind Concept

Hello Readers!

For our movie opening project, ‘Rumi’s Protégé’ I have taken on the positions of Writer/Director. I’ve had previous experience of working on screenplays and developing ideas for movies and thus, I felt right at home wearing the hats for these roles. With the help of my teammates, the idea we have come up with falls under the genre of ‘Psychological-Drama’ as it follows the journey, physical and spiritual, of its teenage protagonist.

One of the main inspirations behind ‘Rumi’s Protégé’ is naturally the life, times and behavior of the late 13^th century poet, Mawlana Jalauddin Rumi and his Sema (more popularly referred to as the Sufi dance) – a physically active meditation. Rumi performed his dance for the first time when his spiritual leader died. He lost himself in dance in order to express his grief and loss.

The mystic poet and father of Sufism according to many, he was walking towards a goldsmith, but came away dancing to the melodic sound of a hammer. It was a whirling dance and Rumi grew so dizzy that he entered a trance and became ecstatic. The sound of the gold had left and God had felt. Since then, the Dervishes have whirled. Dervish, Abdulhamit Cakmut had said, “Sema is the ritual of the Islamic Sufi order, based on the philosophy of Rumi, symbolizing the rising of the human soul by releasing ego to become enlightened, and thus, become united with God.”

Sema is also considered self-meditation and religiously powered as the dances were also expected to reach the perfection of their faith, to abolish their passions, to abandon their ego and personal desire. The dancer experiences ecstasy and merges with the divine. In our opening, set in modern-day, our lead character is a young adult navigating his way through the struggles of his day-to-day routine, in the process reverting to Sema to find peace within himself amidst the outside clamor.