Interview (Part 5): Vanar Jaddou

My interview with the 2020 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Vanar Jaddou wrote the original screenplay “Goodbye, Iraq” which won a 2020 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Vanar about his creative background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to him.

Today in Part 5 of a 6 part series to run each day through Saturday, Vanar reveals what he felt when he found out he had won a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.

Scott: I don’t want to give away the ending, because it’s quite dramatic. The ending ending. Did you have that ending in mind from the get‑go or was that something that evolved through the process of writing?

Vanar: That definitely evolved. It was something I was going back and forth on. I had a couple different endings. I don’t know how you feel, but to me, the ending of the film is probably the most important thing. You could do everything well for an hour and fifty minutes. If the last ten minutes are not great, that’s what people are going to remember by your film.

I was going back and forth with the ending. I had multiple ideas for it. I wrote multiple versions for it. That’s the one that I settled on that I thought would be the most fitting in terms of character, in terms of arc, in terms of plot.

Scott: Let me throw out something to you to see whether this connects with you. It may have been something you consciously thought of or may have been one of those wonderful subconscious things that emerges there. There’s several themes.

Freedom is a big theme that runs through, but there’s a theme of God and faith, this rather tragic character, Abe. Mahzen’s rather cynical at this point throughout pretty much the story, but Abe is a believer, I guess you could say. He says something to Mahzen. “He will reveal himself to you in time, Mahzen, when you’re ready.” He’s talking about God. We’re talking about faith.

If Mahzen learns that his daughter is capable of doing stuff that he couldn’t perceive that she could do perhaps, then in the end, the conversation they have, that’s in a way him adopting a sense of faith that he’s believed that she will be OK. Is that a fair assessment? Does that ever occur to you at all or no?

Vanar: That’s exactly right. I’m happy you picked up on that.

Scott: There you go. One screenwriter to the next.

[laughter]

Scott: What a journey for you. Your family and telling the story, and the journey of the characters in the story, conceiving and writing it, and submitting it to the Nicholl. You win the Nicholl, you have people reading the material. What are you feeling now after having taken this journey with “Goodbye, Iraq?”

Vanar: The first thing I felt when I was given the news was validated, I would say. The first thing I did was…I like to listen to music scores when I write from films. I love this score from Gravity. I think it’s Steven Price. First thing I did was go outside and just plug my headphones in and listen to that, because it felt like I was…

All writers are in a very dark place until they get some recognition, until their work is read or produced or what have you. I felt like I was in that dark place for a long time. Listening to that score, the wordless music can say more about how I felt than probably I can ever articulate. It did feel like rising from the darkness to a brighter future. Initially, that’s what I felt.

Now, most of it has washed away. I look at everything in terms of athletics. You had a great performance or you won a championship, OK. Now, it’s a new year. Now, you have to move on. You have to prove yourself again.

I still put myself in an underdog role because I still feel like I haven’t ascended to the level that I want to. While I’ve won this award, none of my films have been produced yet. There are still other challenges that I’m looking forward to. I feel like those types of challenges, I tend to embrace them as opportunities.

Even selling this will be one. People are scared to touch movies like this because they haven’t seen them before. A lot of people in the film industry think similarly, they follow trends, but there are also bold artists and producers who are intuitive enough to see how successful something can be. See all the selling points that other people don’t. My challenge as a writer isn’t just to write, it’s to try and change the way the industry thinks about certain films, and break down how profitable such films can be for them because there are factors they are not considering. I would never write something niche that I didn’t feel could be a big international success, both commercially and on a type of critical level of course. It’s just not my style.

So what I’m feeling now, I want to get this made. This is an English movie with some Aramaic, which is what I speak, it’s one of the oldest languages in the world, and some Arabic. The lead two characters speak English only. Chaldeans can have a European look as well. My siblings, they are all light features and rarely pass for Middle Eastern. But I have more traditional features. Just to show how diverse the cast can be. This is a global movie. Not everything in the world needs to be based on IP or a news article that only 0.001% of viewers have ever read. So many millions of people can connect to this story on so many different levels, it’s not a Middle Eastern story, and destroying that perception is part of my mission.

Scott: What are you writing now? Can you tell us the genre or area of interest?

Vanar: Yeah. I’m writing an action sci‑fi thriller that centers around dreams and deals with some things that we don’t normally discuss in movies.

Scott: Big science fiction. Sounds Nolan‑esque in a way.

Vanar: Definitely. Like I said, something with a big blockbuster appeal. Something that could be watched by anybody anywhere. It has that visual element. It has the conceptual element. It’s grounded. Then it gets into some deeper taboo issues that we don’t always talk about.

Scott: That leads into some craft questions, if you don’t mind. The first one would be how do you come up with story ideas?

Vanar: Good question. When you’re writing a script, as you know, the inspiration is predicated on so many things. The process is never entirely the same. It depends on the genre. For me, usually, it starts on a conceptual level.

If you think of the elevator pitch or logline or what have you, if that doesn’t grab people right away, then no matter how good the writing is, no matter how good the story or characters are, it’s not going to excite people. I try to start on a logline elevator pitch type of level, building the concept, something that’s original, something that’s never been done before. Nicholl is an exception mind you, because I don’t think they care about concept too much, they’re looking for real organic stories and they’re looking for the next generation of great writers.

After that, I get into character. Sometimes you hear writers say, “Just let the character guide you. The character will take you places that maybe you didn’t envision.” Yes, sometimes. But sometimes you need something that’s more structured. There needs to be one central conflict that’s the engine that’s pushing everything forward the whole time. I rarely let my characters just free‑roam around and see what happens — only when I have writer’s block.

I need to put them in particular situations that are going to reveal the most about their character in the shortest amount of time. That’s my general process, I would say. I know everybody is different. I know some people, for example, they’ll just write a vomit draft to start, and then they just plow through it. For me, I like to start on page one every time. I’ll write, let’s say, 10 pages. Then, the next day, I’ll like to start on page one. I go back to those scenes, and I start revising right away.

Once I have a good draft done, I go through it and fix the big stuff first. Character and plot and structure stuff. I don’t like when writers disregard plot. You’re not just writing a story, you’re writing a movie. Then we get into smaller stuff. “Oh, this scene is only a 7 out of 10, 8 out of 10. How can I make this a 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10?” Sometimes it’s just adding small little things. A connection between two strangers that will pay off. Whatever it is.

A lot of times, it’s going through the script after an adding moments like that that really elevate the drama, elevate the characters and the relationships, and create those higher stakes, any chance you can get to make the stakes higher, to get the audience take care more about what’s happening is something that you need to do.

On December 3, 2020 the Nicholl ceremony included a table read featuring excerpts from each of the five winning scripts. The actors: Stephanie Beatriz (“Brooklyn Nine- Nine”), Michael Peña (“End of Watch”), Lou Diamond Phillips, (“The 33”), and Taylor Russell (“Waves”). The ceremony was hosted by Aldis Hodge (“Hidden Figures”) and directed by 2011 Nicholl fellows Burlee and Abel Vang. Here is a video of the table reads:

Tomorrow in Part 6, Vanar answers some craft questions and provides advice on writing a Nicholl worthy script.

Vanar is repped by Bellevue and APA.

Instagram: @vanarjaddou

For Part 1, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with Black List writers, go here.