Qatar 2022: the unique animated series that helps tourists cope with the country’s cultural shock
“We have been waiting for this moment for 12 years. We believe it will be the best version of a World Cup “Heydar says on BBC Mundo.
For lack of investment, it won’t be. Qatar 2022 is the most expensive project in history with more than $20 billion invested.
Some people gaze in awe at the city’s opulence. Others criticise the derroche, accusing this frequently portrayed as strict and conservative State of attempting to “lavar its image” in response to criticism of its practises against human rights.
But these topics are unrelated to Heydar, who is not regarded as the “correct person” to discuss the criticism of the event.
This visual artist and director-manager of the Nefaish animation studio in Doha wants visitors visiting Qatar, the first Muslim country in the Middle East to host a football world cup, to encounter a lesser cultural disparity.
As a result, he co-created an original animated series with his coworkers called Kawkabani, which is available on YouTube in Arabic with subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese. Has five chapters.
In the show, the visitors are portrayed by Kawkabani, a small alien who loves football and whose ship appears in the desert two years before the world championship.
And at that point, their cultural encounter with the locals begins.
“A fun way to introduce people to our culture”
The series’ goal is to humorously offer some advice on protocol, customs, and Qatari culture.
“The idea came to us five years ago. We were playing dice with friends and imagined this extraterrestrial winning every World Cup. We believed it would be a good way to portray our culture, recalls Heydar.
After stranding in the desert, the extraterrestrial meets up with three friends who, according to Heydar, symbolise three categories of characters that guests at the World Cup in Qatar might encounter. These three are facing Kawkabani with open arms.
The main characters are a resident of a beduin community in the desert, a member of the hadar tribe who lived close to the sea and specialised in pearl hunting and collection,