Watch: Creeps From The Middle East | Episode 5 | Das Blut der Anderen – Sina Khani’s farewell?
By
Ray Jackson
Sina being brainwashed at The Unsafe House
Jaafar El-Hazred (Tarik Sadouma) and his painting of Michel Houellebecq
After the death of his sister, failed painter and struggling filmmaker Sina Khani thought he had his identity figured out. Raised by two devoted mothers who told him he was adopted during the Iranian war, his life is thrown into chaos when he uncovers a staggering secret: he’s the biological son of Philip van den Hurk, an eccentric billionaire art collector and obsessive birdwatcher. As Sina navigates the strange new world of sudden wealth and tangled lineage, he’s drawn into the orbit of a provocative art collective led by the enigmatic Jaafar El-Hazred. But as their influence over him deepens, the line between artistic awakening and manipulation starts to blur.
Sohrab Bayat warning drunk Sina Khani
And this indeed leads us to Episode 5 of Creeps From The Middle East, ‘Das Blut der Anderen’ (The Blood of Others).
On his future with the Creeps, and his reasons for apparently soon-to-be calling his participation to a halt, Sina had the following to say to me on the phone:
“Bullshit. Rumors. I am not leaving Creeps. I’m getting rid of people who have betrayed me or were too lazy to work with. I have had money stolen from me by my old camera boy. Some intellectual property has been taken. My YouTube channel, Gmail, and Instagram account were hacked by my editor, someone I had trusted enough to give my passwords to. Stupid of me, on top of that, I was physically attacked twice by members of my crew. Once by crooked fundraiser Khadija Massaoudi, I like to call her Crooked Khadija, because she claims to be a woke but looks for money to provide fascists, not unlike Hillary — and one of the former editors. This one punched me in the head. From the back. Dutch style. I have it all on video and might release it soon. Let’s see.
Besides, the production process was way too slow for my standards.
I believe in fast, dramatic, and relevant filmmaking. The outcome of the films are boring, because my crew members live boring lives. And to quote Ronja Brainstorm, “Boring lives lead to boring art.” Because of all this, I had to hire more exciting people to work with and more capable ones. Technically, but also creatively. And let me be clear: the project is not dead. It dies when I die. They can steal from me. They can borrow my ideas and not give them back. They sell Sina Khani merch on a website and not pay me for that, either. But they can’t steal Creeps From The Middle East from me. It’s CREEPS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST. Not JUNKIES FROM THE NETHERLANDS. Toilet Junkies, to be precise. They have nothing to do with this title. Tarik Sadouma came up with it. It’s ours. And I’m considering to go revenge mode, unless I get my money back… and my passwords. Easy. But we have bigger fish to fry at the moment, Ray. My mind has been somewhere else the last couple of weeks. Still is. This phone call is opening an old can of Dutch worms.
Shutting up Holland’s most notorious DJ: San Proper
“Oh, but wait, this episode is supposed to be called EUROPAPA — because my Papa turns out to be European in the film, and he has the Euromoney. Plus, it’s a punch in the babyface of Joost Klein. But once again, my old crew didn’t have the balls to go into this battle. So they stole the title from the Simone de Beauvoir novel.
They copied the voiceover text of the trailer from the movie Freaks. They ripped the trailer’s soundtrack from a cover choir doing Radiohead’s Creep.
They took out Stefano Keizers aka Donny Ronny from the trailer. Another great blowjob, faggots. All of this goes against the do-it-yourself philosophy of Creep’s. I’m a decent writer. So why the need to steal text? I make music. Why steal songs from the internet? Artists fight. So why suck Joost Klein’s balls? I like to keep things original. I’m Persian. We don’t steal.”
Joost Klein’s art director Stefano Keizers aka Donny Ronny getting roasted!
Creeps From The Middle East is a black and white, non-monetized, relatively unscripted comedy show created, written, and directed by Sina Khani, Susan Lanting & Steven Bos. Camera by Steven Bos, edited by Susan Lanting, and audio Mix by Laurens Lanting.
Episode 5 stars San Proper, Sina Khani, Philip van den Hurk, Sohrab Bayat, Ruth Spetter, Maria van der Velde, Stefano Keizers as Donny Ronny, and Tarik Sadouma as Jaafar El-Hazred.
