The Mulberry House

Yemeni-Scottish Sara Ishaq spent her childhood in Yemen, but when she turned 17, she went to live with her mother in Scotland. Ten years later, in 2011, she traveled back to the home she grew up in and took her camera along. She hopes to repair a fractured relationship with her family and recover her sense of belonging in a country close to her heart.

Outside, people are protesting against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s authoritarian rule, and Ishaq and her family get involved, donating blood and cooking food for the demonstrators on the square. Ishaq makes a contribution of her own by acting as a correspondent, sharing local news with the international press.

In this personal film, the director records events and shifting dynamics in her own home throughout this tumultuous time, during which her father starts seeing his daughter through new eyes. She films their conversations as well as life at home, which is always buzzing with children and guests, and where her father and grandfather rule the roost.