“When you live with someone with a harsh mental illness, you can really sink with them”: Zain Duraie and Alaa Alasad on Sink at Red Sea International Film Festival 2025

Director Zain Duraie and producer Alaa Alasad presented their film Sink at the Red Sea Film Festival. The film offers an intimate look at Nadia, a mother intensely struggling to prove her son Basil’s “normality” amidst his undiagnosed mental illness and her own unravelling life.

In an interview with The Upcoming, Duraie shared her deeply personal connection to the story. She explained, “It’s like when you live with someone with a harsh mental illness, you [can] really sink with them,” detailing how this perspective shaped her exploration of a maternal bond. Alaa Alasad discussed protecting Duraie’s unique vision and the film’s local financing, emphasising its deeply felt narrative.

Laura Della Corte

Sink does not have a release date yet.