Saudi filmmakers eye return of the cinema
riyadh — Saudi filmmakers and major cinema chains alike are basking in the news the kingdom will lift its decades-old ban on movie theatres, opening a market of more than 30 million people.
At the Dubai International Film Festival, short-film directors talked shop on a seaside veranda. And Saudi Arabia was on everyone’s mind.
Director Hajar Alnaim recounted how she received the big news on Monday. “I posted a picture of me on the red carpet on Facebook and someone told me, ‘What a coincidence! This is a great picture on a great day’ ... I was like, ‘what?’”
Alnaim took to Twitter to find out the buzz and was “shocked” to see her government had announced the immediate licensing of cinemas.
The move is part of a modernisation > Lifting of ban will open a market of more than 30 million people in Saudi Arabia. > First cinema is expected to open in March 2018. > Decision to lift ban on cinema drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Alnaim admits that she was once susceptible to those hardliners, but a Saudi government scholarship to study film in Los Angeles changed her world.
Alnaim says her short-film Detained — about a Syrian asylum seeker under interrogation by the US Homeland Security over the actions is part of modernisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. > Filmmakers hope the industry will blossom as Saudis become used to theatre-going. of her father — offers a window into the Muslim perspective, and that of the West.
One decade ago, Saudi filmmaker Abdullah Al Eyaf captured the longing of his countrymen for the silver screen in a documentary.
“Cinema 500 km” is the tale of a Saudi crossing his country’s borders for the first time, just to see a film.
“It’s funny, right?” remarked Hanaa Saleh Alfassi, a Saudi director taking part in the Dubai film fest.
“We’re ready for a long time for all these bans to be lifted,” she said.
Alfassi’s own film “Lollipop” also tackles restrictions, legal and social.
“It’s a coming of age story about a girl who gets her period for the first time and decides to hide it from her family in order not to cover her face,” she said.
Alfassi’s film was inspired by a pamphlet advising women to “protect” themselves by veiling, with an image of two lollipops.
“One is wrapped and has no flies and the other one is unwrapped and has flies.”
But for her the message is misleading, because “in Saudi, most people are covered and they still get harassed”. — AFP
First cinema expected to open in March 2018