Heritage
Muharraq — Historical Film, Early 1900s
Historical Reconstruction · Digital Environments & Animation
- Client
- Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities
- Project
- Muharraq — Historical Film
- Period depicted
- Early 1900s
- Presented
- Isa the Great exhibition, Bahrain National Museum, 20 October 2026
- Year
- 2026
- Industry
- Government & Public Sector
- Services
- Historical research · Digital environments · Animation
- Director
- Khalid Al Muharraqi
About the project
In the early 1900s, Muharraq was the heart of Bahrain's pearling economy. It was an island town joined to nothing, its shore lined with boats, fish traps and coral-stone houses. This was the Muharraq of Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa, the ruler the exhibition honours.
The island's geometry was taken from the 1901–1902 Admiralty survey of Bahrain harbour. Archival photographs of the period and study of Muharraq's traditional architecture then set the details: the shallows and sandbanks, the coral-stone houses along the shore, the pearling boats and the working life of the waterfront. The film keeps to its period, with no causeway, no made roads and no modern buildings.
Muharraqi Studios created the film for the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, for the Isa the Great exhibition at Bahrain National Museum. The film and its imagery were directed by Khalid Al Muharraqi. It follows the studio's film of Al Zubarah in the 1780s, carrying the same sea into a later era.
Outcome
Presented at the opening of the Isa the Great exhibition at Bahrain National Museum on 20 October 2026, opened by His Excellency Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, on behalf of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
