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When Craig Johnson moved to Dubai five years ago, he was the manager of a courier company. Today he is about to direct his first feature film. Madeleine Collins found out how.

"So what happened?" I pose my question to Craig Johnson in the sumptuous surrounds of the Grosvenor Hotel lobby, the same spot I was due to interview him in four weeks ago.

Back then, we were set to meet to discuss his film Expats, which gained widespread publicity in August when he did a public casting call in UAE newspapers. Until he sent me an email to cancel.

He'd just found out the film script hadn't been approved by the Abu Dhabi National Media Council, and the project was as good as shelved. Then last week, I got another email. "After some fighting, I got my approval," it read.

So here we are, and fortunately, it turns out the answer to my question isn't quite as dramatic as I'd anticipated. "It was all a storm in a teacup" says Johnson, with a sigh of relief.

There were no such dramas as taboo subjects or censorship issues - probably because Johnson says he was "very careful at the beginning not to offend or disrespect where I am". Apparently, it all came down to a few lines in the script and the changes required were simple. I'm a little skeptical considering an earlier phone conversation we had, but I go with his explanation.

Touted as the first English speaking feature film to be made in the UAE, Expats tells the story of three married couples who uproot their lives in their native countries - England, India and Australia - and move to Dubai. "People used to chase the American Dream now they're chasing the Arabian Dream," says Johnson. "Some succeed and some fail and this is their story."

The story, it turns out, is also Johnson's own. Now 36, he moved to Dubai five years ago after a six month stint in Saudi Arabia, where he relocated to from his native New Zealand. Back then he was the manager of the Riad branch of DHL Courier Company. Today he is a film director. Only in Dubai?

His original plan for Expats had been ambitious, to say the least. The casting call said the film would be made in September and be ready in time to be premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in December.

Having worked in a Hollywood film company for three years, when I read this I was confused. Script to screen in three months is near impossible. I wondered about the quality of the film.

"Yeah, too ambitious," concedes Johnson, with a smile. The original announcement could be explained by Johnson's lack of experience in the film industry. He's never studied directing yet is directing Expats, and he's never studied screenwriting, although he has sold a previous script to Hollywood.

Experience, or not, it's all a learning game in the creative world. And this is a man who makes things happen.

Johnson had his main cast set for Expats when he originally got the thumbs down from the NMC. He also had investors in place - an unfortunate case of ‘that was then and this is now'.

"Time has marched on since I first announced filming in August", he says. The change in the economic climate forced some original investors to pull out but he says he has enough to keep it going, although he'd "like more".

Back to Saudi Arabia - an experience he says was like living in a "very glamorous jail" - and Johnson's wife Laura was preparing to move over with their baby daughter Charlotte when he called to tell her he'd made a dreadful mistake.

"We left New Zealand to get ahead. We couldn't afford for my wife to stay at home and look after our daughter there. Like all expats, we came to the Middle East to make money."

Coincidentally, this was around the time of the revolt in Saudi Arabia, and as a result, Johnson was moved to Dubai.

Once there, he realised DHL wasn't his future. "I've been in sales all my life - I've sold everything - ball bearings, booze, advertising, electric fences, and I quickly realised I had to get into selling property."

That was in the good old days of the property boom and his success resulted in him owning his own company, which he now employees a manager to run so he can finally pursue his filmmaking dream.

"I've always loved to write from school, but I never had the fortitude to keep on doing it or courage of my convictions," he says. "When I was 16, a friend's father said: ‘work out what you really want to do in life because 40 years is a long time if you don't'.

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