Studio co-founders Cynthia Madanat Sharaiha and husband Shadi Sharaiha discuss their 3DCG film that’s ‘not a war story’ but instead focuses on a 9-year-old boy’s recovery and hopes for his future after losing his father and living as a refugee with his mother and two sisters.
A boutique Jordanian animation studio is offering kids around the world a brighter future with the country’s first-ever animated feature, Saleem. The film is part an animated feature and part a course on healing from trauma.
“It’s a refugee’s journey towards healing,” explains Cynthia Madanat Sharaiha, co-founder and creative director of Jordanian animation studio Digitales and director of Saleem. “It’s not a war story. It doesn't focus on what happened to Saleem. It focuses on his recovery and his future. Growing up in the Middle East, we've lived through a lot of conflicts. Thankfully, Jordan has been a safe haven for a lot of refugees for decades, but we witnessed those conflicts and wars and tragedies, and we're living them right now. We have a sense of responsibility and a sense of duty to tell stories on behalf of these children.”
Saleem, currently playing in Jordanian theaters with a release scheduled across the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) on Thursday, February 8, follows a nine-year-old boy, Saleem, who, after losing his father and experiencing displacement with his mother and two siblings, struggles with starting life over in a new town. One day, hope arrives when Saleem finds a map that takes him and his new friends, Fares, Zeina, and Abboud, on an adventure to reach a treasure he never knew he needed.
The film, theatrically distributed by Dubai’s FrontRow Filmed Entertainment, was executive produced by Cynthia’s husband and Digitales co-founder Shadi Sharaiha. Majd Matalka served as assistant director, with Jonathan Reaux as director of animation and Nadia Husseini as senior producer.
“We didn’t specify the country or the war in Saleem’s story because this kind of thing happens a lot everywhere,” says Cynthia. “It’s not specific to one place. And it’s the children’s mental health that’s most neglected in these situations. That’s what we wanted to bring attention to, and make sure that children around the world could relate to Saleem, as well as understand and have empathy for other children who are going through this kind of situation.”
Saleem won the Audience Award at the Jordan Children Film Festival, Best Soundtrack Award at Italy’s Cartoons on the Bay, received Honorable Mention for Creativity at the Girona Film Festival in Spain, and has had additional screenings at the Chicago Children’s Film Festival, San Diego International Kids Film Festival, Seoul Indie-AniFest, Red Sea Film Festival, UK’s Chichester Film Festival and Annecy, where it was an official selection for the Contrechamp category.
“We’ve interacted with so many troubled kids and grown-ups who do bad things to young people, and they get away with this because people don't share their stories because of the shame,” shares Shadi, who is also managing director at Digitales. “We are based in a culture of shame. With Saleem, we get to be the voice of the voiceless, of these kids, the most vulnerable people.”
Founded in 2019, Digitales seeks to create impactful animation and digital content that inspires, entertains, and educates adults and children alike. Based in Amman, Jordan, the studio is formed by a team of experienced producers, creative writers, artists, animators, filmmakers, and social media experts. Digitales was born out of the success of Cynthia and Shadi’s first animated short film, which became their YouTube series Our Family Life, which produces new episodes twice a month and addresses contemporary social and parenting issues for Arabic-speaking audiences.
And it was one of Our Family Life’s episodes that inspired the concept for Saleem.
“There was an episode that highlighted the issue of abuse,” explains Cynthia. “Because of the feedback we got when we released this episode, which went viral within a day, we thought, ‘What more can we do? How can we take this to a different level?’ That triggered the need for a film that tackles mental health for children.”
Digitales held a workshop for their team with Dr. Issam Smeir, a psychologist who specializes in child trauma, often working with refugees, displaced children, and victims of abuse. Digitales’ writers, producers, and directors spent a week learning from Dr. Smeir how the mind of a child works and the feelings that arise under stress. After the workshop, the script for Saleem began to take shape, with Smeir staying on as a consultant during production.
Members of Digitales’ production team also had personal thoughts and feelings to contribute to the script. This included Cynthia and Shadi, who wanted to show refugees that, no matter what they’ve been through in the past, they still have a future waiting for them.
“One of the most beautiful screenings I did was a private screening in Egypt for adult refugees in their 20s and 30s,” Cynthia shares. “When they saw the movie, which at the end shows Saleem as a healthy adult and having a family and overcoming obstacles to make a life for himself, they started cheering and clapping because they saw that they could make it through this.”
After the private screening, the adult refugees were taught a curriculum that Digitales developed with Dr. Smeir based on the film. The psychosocial support program training is called Amal for Children. “Amal” in Arabic means “Hope.”
The therapy model – a nine-episode series based on the film called The Map, the Compass and the Anchor – takes participants step-by-step on Saleem’s healing journey. The training includes principles and practices from evidence-based therapies such as the children’s version of Narrative Exposure Therapy (KidNET) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). It also draws from family systems and pain management theories. Currently, the program and accompanying resources are in Arabic and English. Dubbing both the series and feature in other languages is in the pipeline.
“The group in Egypt was of adults, but they were all refugees who are now all caretakers of children,” explains Cynthia. “Our hope is that they can apply what they learned in the training to help the children in their care.”
The feature film itself incorporates many therapy concepts, and working with ample consultants like Dr. Smeir, Cynthia and Shadi made sure to research any trauma triggers they needed to leave out of the film.
“We didn’t want to shy away from these topics, but we were still very careful about what sounds and certain colors can trigger trauma,” says Cynthia. “For instance, we use very minimal red in the film.”
Shadi adds, “And there are no policemen in uniform.”
Cynthia continues, “We also don’t have dogs in the film as well, because dogs can be very triggering for refugees who are moving from one place to another on foot, especially for children. Even the choices we made regarding the music and sound effects, we made sure wouldn’t be triggers.”
Initially, the creative couple debated using animals as the main characters to symbolize the concepts and messages they were trying to express to kids. But they were advised that, if they wanted to make an optimal impact on their child audiences, they needed to use realistic-looking kids.
“We wanted to keep it as realistic as possible, even with the fantasy elements,” says Cynthia. “That’s also why we chose to animate in 3D, so we could do more with the facial expressions and body language of the characters.”
However, there are parts of the film that are in 2D, including when a counselor is telling stories to Saleem.
“When you read a storybook to a child, their imagination takes over and they start to live in the story,” Cynthia explains. “We wanted to show everything in the film from Saleem’s perspective, and 2D gave us the opportunity to bring these stories to life in his mind and distinguish them from the real world. The biggest challenge in all this was balancing the entertainment with the therapy aspects. We wanted it all to come across as clear as possible but, at the same time, be entertaining and fun to watch. A lot of that has to do with assembling the right team, and we got to work with more than 100 people from all around the world.”
Some of those people included Disney veterans Tom Bancroft, who served as animation director on Saleem’s 2D-animated scenes, and Rob Corley, who was the character concept artist. Bancroft and Corley have worked together on Mulan, Aladdin, The Lion King, Brother Bear, and Big Idea Production’s VeggieTales, which inspired Digitales’ name.
Bancroft has also more recently worked on Superbook, Animaniacs, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. Kurt Heinecke, who has worked on Angel Studios’ The Wingfeather Saga, also served as composer on the original score for Saleem.
“It was amazing to collaborate with these people,” says Cynthia. “They gave us a really great push, and we learned so much from them. We're this boutique small studio in Jordan. Nobody heard about us before, but they were excited to work on this project.”
When it comes to future Digitales animated features, Cynthia says they have “several ideas cooking,” that will involve collaborations with other animation studios. But, right now, the team’s focus, in addition to producing more frequent episodes for Our Family Life, is getting a US and global release for Saleem.
Cynthia concludes, “When we were at the Red Sea Film Festival, we had a meeting with another major studio in the region, and they were so excited for us, saying, ‘Your success is our success, because now it will be easier for us to get funds to create animated features.’ We have several other film ideas, but we want to wait and see all the feedback for Saleem, study the study the results, and learn from our mistakes so we can create something even better.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
