National Day Campaign · Saudi Arabia · 2026
47
Years of Burj Al Hamam
3
Eras · 1979 · 2010 · 2026
1
Shoot day
57
Polaroids on the wall
The line the film was written around
بين العز والرز،
أكثر من حرف.
Between pride and rice, there is more than one letter.
In Arabic, pride and rice sit one letter apart. That pun is the whole idea: a restaurant that has fed the Kingdom since 1979 has earned the right to talk about national pride, because for a lot of Saudi families the two have always shared a table. So the film opens on rice, not on a flag.
The Brief
Saudi National Day 96, film one of a year-long run with Burj Al Hamam. The theme is still عزنا بطبعنا, "proud by nature." Last year we answered it with landscape and craft. This year the restaurant's own history had to carry it, inside the official ND96 identity, in 56 seconds, vertical.
The Concept
A chef at his station, getting older across three National Days. A Saudi family at the table, growing across the same years. Every era ends with a photograph pinned to a wall. By 2026 the wall is full, and the polaroids frame the national slogan. Forty-seven years of Burj Al Hamam end up writing it.
The Voice-Over
One film, three National Days
1979
Takhassusi
National Day 49
The first branch. A young chef in a spotlit kitchen. At the table, a young couple and their twelve-year-old son, who spends dinner drawing himself on top of Tuwaiq. The wall is close to bare.
2010
Granada
National Day 80
The chef is greyer and the kitchen is busier. The boy is now a father of 43 with a newborn in green and gold. His parents are grandparents. Tea gets poured. Al Sadu, brass, warmer light.
2026
Jeddah
National Day 96
The chef in white hair, still at the same station. The 1979 boy is 59, at the head of a full table with his children. One place at that table is set and left empty. The wall is full.
How it was made
57
Printed polaroids
The wall only grows
A real board, real prints, pinned on set. It was shot in era order and it only ever gains photographs, so nothing had to be stripped back and rebuilt. In the last frames the photographs frame عزنا بطبعنا in the official ND96 wordmark, then 47, then Burj Al Hamam.
1
Shoot day · Beirut
Three decades before 9pm
One studio day in Dbayeh: three kitchen blocks, the wall, three table blocks. Every era change had thirty to forty-five minutes. Everything was framed vertical from the first shot, not cropped down later.
2
Sets · 3 lives each
Dress it, don't rebuild it
A kitchen and a restaurant corner, each backed by a printed 4 by 3 metre backdrop. Instead of building a period restaurant three times, we built one dark, spotlit world and redressed it for 1979, 2010 and 2026.
4 · 7 · 9
Dishes per era
Time you can taste
The table tells the years before anyone speaks. Four dishes in 1979, seven in 2010, nine in 2026, plated off Burj Al Hamam's own menu. Over-dress 1979 and 2026 has nothing to land against.
14
Performers · One call each
Aged by casting
No prosthetics. The family ages because the right people step into the same roles across the eras, cast on faces, build and hands so one family reads across 47 years.
Visual Style
One world: warm light pooling out of deep green darkness, fog, and a spotlit kitchen that never changes while the man in it does. The family's side of the film warms and fills up era by era. Green runs through all of it.
Editing
Opens cold on rice and boiling water. Each era lands on the chef turning to camera and the flash going off. That photograph is the next polaroid on the wall.
Voice
A Saudi voice, read like someone telling you something he has believed his whole life. No performance, no ad read. The 47 is Burj Al Hamam's own age, said quietly, never announced.
Credits
Creative Director · Jad Khater
Director of Photography · Khalil Ghosn
Assistant Director · Zinia Khalife
Art Director · Tracy Ghanem
Stylist · Roy Azar
Food Stylist · Charbel Harb
Producer · Roody Madi
Last National Day · 2025
Pride By Nature