Pearls Beyond the Price is the story of a wise elder Qatari pearl trader and wood artisan and two of his car-racing thrill-seeking sons — two Qatari generations coming to grips with the inevitable tide of the 21st century and all that it will wash away in its wake. Though change is inevitable — especially when a country discovers it has the second largest natural gas reserve in the world — what is kept and what is lost ultimately shapes a society’s present...and its future. The Islamic Art Museum currently holds an exhibit on pearl trading — once the mainstay of Qatar only 50 years ago. If Qatar’s recent past is already in its own museum, how are the Pearlman, and his sons, changing with the tide?

A natural pearl begins by a simple grain of sand embedded in an oyster shell. The irritation then forces the bivalve to isolate the intruder in endless layers of nacre and after what seems an eternity, a thing of beauty and great worth emerges. Patient struggle, sacrifice and tradition — these are what have made Abdullah and Qatar who and what they are. It can be argued that Abdullah and the cultural legacy of Qatar are the real pearls beyond the price.

Documentary film by Isabelle Carbonell.