Arab cinema set for ‘great milestone’ at Venice Film Festival
A fantasy film made by Abu Dhabi production company Image Nation is to have its world premiere at the prestigious Venice Film Festival next month.
Sayidat Al Bahr (Scales) tells the story of Hayat, a girl living in a village with a tradition of sacrificing female youngsters to mysterious sea creatures.
Before she is sacrificed, Hayat decides try to escape and forge her own path.
The film is the work of Saudi Arabian writer and director Shahad Ameen, whose short Eye & Mermaid had its premiere at Dubai International Film Festival in 2013 and won Best Film from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival a year later. Shot on location in Oman,
Scales is a rare Arab arthouse film exploring the changing role of women in society through the lens of fantasy.
It will be screened as part of the festival’s Venice Critics’ Week competition, which Image Nation described as a “great milestone” for Arab cinema.
“Scales tells a story about growing up as a woman in a patriarchal society, offering an allegorical take on a universal theme that will resonate with audiences across the world,” Ms Ameen said.
“I want to immerse viewers in Hayat’s journey from her own point of view, letting them share in her experience as she finds her true self.”
Scales stars Baseema Hajjar as Hayat, alongside Ashraf Barhom and Fatima Al Taei.
“It embraces film’s power to address important subjects such as freedom and belonging,” chief content officer at Image Nation, Ben Ross, said.
“Scales is part of Image Nation’s efforts to expand our slate to encompass more intriguing, specialty films alongside our more commercial projects.
“We hope that it will bring further recognition of the region’s growing maturity and sophistication.”
Venice is one of the “big three” film festivals in cinema’s calendar and is also the oldest event of its kind in the world, having been founded in 1932.
In recent years, films that opened the festival went on to dominate nominations at the Oscars, as was the case with Gravity in 2013 and La
La Land in 2016.
This year, the festival will open with The Truth, the latest film from Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda.
This year’s festival will run from August 28 until September 7.