From the director of Taken, The Ambush is an unrelentingly intense action film based on a true story. When their armored vehicle is attacked by heavy enemy gunfire and becomes trapped in a remote canyon, three United Arab Emirates soldiers desperately await salvation. As troops arrive to offer aid, they too, are ambushed. Their final hope is a daring rescue mission plotted by their courageous commander. The Ambush has become the highest-grossing Emirati and Arabic-language film ever in the UAE after posting a mammoth opening weekend relative to the market. And rightfully so — the film is artfully depicted and thrilling from start to finish, thereby distinguishing itself from the many other war films out there.
We recently caught up with The Ambush's acclaimed director Pierre Morel, who shared about the production process of the film.
Shooting A Foreign-Language War Film
MW: What drew you to the project, going back to square one?
Pierre Morel: It’s twofold. One is, we've seen many movies, American movies made about the Middle East, meaning Iraq and Afghanistan, of course, that involve American forces most of the time because that's where we were. But yet, none have been done about Yemen, I think, and also very few from the Arabic perspective. And I was interested in showing that we have the same values that they apply the same way, but seen from a different angle. And I think that was interesting, also making it in Arabic because I don't speak Arabic, unfortunately. And there was another thing that I think that was interesting, because I haven’t seen many big war movies that are actually in the Arabic language. So those three elements were what drove me and also beyond just the war movie, I think it's a universal story of human beings being stuck. So it's about brotherhood more than about war.
MW: Yes, and that scene at the end when they're carefully bringing the bodybag out of the vehicle. That was such a powerful scene. What was it like shooting such emotionally charged scenes like that one?
Pierre Morel: It was very emotionally charged for the actors. Of course, for us, that was the point. Again, war is a terrible thing, and the losses are always cruel. But also, it was very emotionally charged for the actors, because we only had Emirati actors. And the Emirates is a 10 million-something populated country, but only 1 million is actually in Emirati. It's a huge melting pot of many people. So when a country with that type of population is engaged in the war, somehow every Emirati family had someone that was on the field — and lost someone. And most of the guys with that generation actually did one round or two in Yemen. So they were all very, very personally touched by the story. And yeah, that scene that you mentioned, about bringing back the dead soldier in his bodybag in the end was very, very hard for them.
Set Locations And Inspiration
MW: Those scenes throughout the film where they're inside the armored vehicle trapped are confined and intimate. Was it challenging shooting those claustrophobic scenes?
Pierre Morel: It is challenging. We shot in different environments. And we actually spent most of the shoot, as you can imagine, on that canyon. It was extremely hot. I mean, it's always hot. But actually, what made it interesting — getting those vehicles actually is a nightmare because it's so armored. I mean, the door barely opened. It's extremely hard to access. So we had to build replicas of them to shoot some of the scenes, as you can imagine because otherwise, cameras would not fit. But there was something magical, going into that confined space, and there's no space for no one. It does bring immediately something. It's just like [the film] Fury. It's like when you're in the tank. There's no escape. I think it’s a grueling experience to be stuck in something like this with no chance to get out and just hoping that the shell will hold because it won’t at some point.
MW: You mentioned Fury. Were there any other like war movies in particular that inspired you in making this film?
Pierre Morel: I think what comes to mind right away would probably be, on a very different scale obviously, Black Hawk Down. It's about getting back guys behind enemy lines so yeah, a few of these movies inspired us I guess.
MW: Did you shoot at all in Yemen?
Pierre Morel: No, we did not shoot in Yemen. It's almost impossible to shoot there. The situation in Yemen is not cleared yet. It's a terrible situation, and the Yemeni society is so complicated, the clashing between different factions, different religious factions. But we actually shot in the United Arab Emirates. We didn't shoot in Abu Dhabi, we shot in the eastern part of it, where there were actually no dunes but just mountains in the rocky terrain like that. And it was very, very, very similar. We had military advisors from the Emirati army, and it was exactly the same type of landscape that they had to face.
Taken and Future Projects
MW: I loved your film Taken. Would you like to work with Liam Neeson again?
Pierre Morel: I would love to. We didn't get the chance to, but yeah, sometime soon. I need to find something different. I never did the sequels of my own movies. It feels like walking the same pathways. So I don't think I will do another Taken. I didn't do the other two Taken [films] because of that, because I didn't want to. I didn't know how to reproduce the same emotional connection. But if I find something to do with Liam, then yes. I'll do it right away, of course.
MW: And would you like to share about any other projects you're currently working on, that will be released down the road?
Pierre Morel: Of course. Right now I'm in Croatia shooting. We just started shooting a movie called Canary Black with Kate Beckinsale. And in between The Ambush and this, I was in Colombia with John Cena, where we shot another movie called Freelance, which is in post-production.
The Ambush is available in select theaters as of October 28 and on demand and digital on November 1 from Saban Films.