The Hidden Room
329 domestic helpers were asked about their favourite place in the homes they worked and lived in. Out of all the rooms they spoke about, one remained hidden: their own room.
The film, featuring 4 domestic helpers, addresses an inequality sensitively. It delves into a societal subtext and tension point delicately, that’s around expat domestic workers who are employed in many homes around the world, often working for years for the same families, living away from their own families and their own living spaces remain very small; typically 7 feet x 10 feet, sometimes even smaller. These rooms are often furnished with second-hand or third-hand furniture, mismatched, worn out or dingy.
‘The Hidden Room’ is a film that encourages people to make their spaces ones that make them feel at home, in our homes, through better decor and uplifting environmental designs.
The film, framed intentionally in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, creates the boxed-up feeling that domestic helpers feel in their constrained and restrictive living space.
The camera movement is slow and lingers. Visually, the lenses used were chosen to feel older, with specially created LUTs and rehoused vintage optics recreating an analog film look.
For the colours and lights, the film was not shot in clean white light. The shots are always filtered with a hint of blue, grey or dim yellow. Frequent moments in blue lighting cue us into inner sadness and loneliness, balanced with frequent moments of dim yellow lighting that help tap into the darker side of yellow, hinting at depression and loneliness.
Please do share the film to help us make the cause more known and supported, so we can make their space within homes, feel like home.
CREDITS
Directed by: Tahaab Rais
Cinematography: Aeyaz
Produced by: Home Box, Publicis Groupe & Bassel Kakish, and Liwa Content.Driven
Executive Producer: Sagar Rege
Agency Producer: Shereen Mostafa
Concept & Screenplay: Tahaab Rais
Creative Direction: Kalpesh Patankar
Written by: Paurav Shah
Edited by: Neda Zag, Cold Cutz
Coloured by: Karim Mira, LZRD
Art by: Charbel Zgheib
Soundtrack: ‘Art of Silence’ by Uniq featuring Onio
1st AD: Remy Haddad
Sound Design: Tahaab Rais
Producer: Shane Vessaoukar
Focus Puller: Srinivas Kusuma
Gaffer: Walid Hamideh
Post-Production: Shoaib Ischtiyak, Nikhil Soman, Talal Dakkak
Equipments : Action FIlmz Dubai