Saudi filmmakers build audiences in nation without cinemas
DUBAI: With daring filmmakers, untold stories and entertainment-starved young people, Saudi Arabia has all the makings of a movie industry — except for theatres.
As the traditionally austere kingdom cautiously embraces more forms of entertainment, local filmmakers are exploring a new frontier in Saudi art, using the internet to screen films and pushing boundaries of expression — often with surprise backing from top royals.
“Saudi Arabia is the future of filmmaking in the Gulf,” said Butheina Kazim, co-founder of Dubai’s cinema platform Cinema Akil.
Kazim screened three Saudi short films to audiences in Dubai last month, including one called Wasati, or moderate in Arabic. The movie is based on a real-life event that took place in the 1990s when a group of ultra-conservatives rushed the stage during a play in Saudi Arabia and shut it down.
The film by Ali Kalthami was screened in Los Angeles, and was shown for one night in June at Riyadh’s Al Yamamah University — the same theatre where the play was shut down two decades ago.
Kalthami is co-founder of C3 Films and Telfaz11, a YouTube channel that has amassed more than one billion views since it was launched in 2011.
By using the internet to show films, Telfaz11 and other Saudi production houses have managed to circumvent traditional distribution channels and make do without cinemas. Even so, Saudi filmmakers have to contend with how to tell their stories within the bounds of the kingdom’s ultraconservative mores and its limits on free speech.