Before words settle into meaning, there is movement. A gesture, a rhythm, a pause. Culture often announces itself this way first, felt before it is named, understood through repetition and instinct rather than explanation. The Complex MENA animated film begins in that space, where motion carries the message.
The short film was created as a way of introducing Complex MENA without reducing it to a single image or idea. Instead, it unfolds through movement, allowing different fragments of culture to surface, interact, and reshape one another. It reflects how expression travels across the region – layered, responsive, and shaped by proximity.
The animation treats the platform’s pillars as energies in conversation. Music, bodies, style, sport, food, and pop culture share a common visual world, intersecting and influencing each other as they move. This mirrors how culture is lived here, through overlap and shared momentum across scenes, cities, and communities.
Animator Embee began the project from sensation rather than structure. “I didn’t start from the pillars in a literal way. I started from feeling. What felt natural was movement, pressure, things colliding and pulling apart. I wanted it to feel intuitive, even when it gets abstract. The aim was to leave something lingering rather than spelled out.”
That instinct guides the film’s pacing. Elements emerge with familiarity, carrying recognition before definition. As the piece developed, certain presences became more visually present while remaining part of the same world. “Certain elements naturally pushed forward as the film grew, especially sound, bodies, and symbols you recognize before you name them,” Embee explains. “I tried not to separate things too cleanly. Everything shares the same space, the same rules, so each idea has room to breathe without turning the film into sections or statements.”
What holds the film together is a shared rhythm. Each element contributes to a wider atmosphere, reflecting how expression moves across scenes and communities, constantly reshaped through interaction.
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For Embee, the launch of Complex MENA speaks to a broader shift in how stories from the region are told. “What excites me most about Complex launching in the region is the chance to tell stories from here without filtering them through an external lens. There’s so much nuance, humour, and experimentation happening locally, and it deserves to be translated with the same boldness it exists in real life.”
“Animation plays a huge role in that today, it allows culture to be abstracted, remixed, and felt emotionally rather than just documented. It’s a way to speak globally while still staying rooted in something very specific and personal,” Embee shares.
