Arab independent films are enjoying a resurgence in terms of festival and commercial success affirms Antoine Khalife, the Red Sea Film Festival’s director of Arab programs and film classics, citing the example of Egyptian thriller “Flight 404,” which has grossed over $4 million in Saudi Arabia this year.
Khalife praises the modern spirit of recent Egyptian independent cinema and has chosen two titles for this year’s official selection – “Seeking Haven for Mr Rambo,” about an evicted man who seeks a new home for himself and his loyal dog, and “Snow White,” about a woman with dwarfism who develops a relationship with a man over the internet. “They’re both very modern and highly unusual films, which don’t just try to convey a message,” explains Khalife.
Red Sea’s opening film is a Saudi-Egyptian coproduction, “The Tale Of Daye’s Family,” about an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy who travels to Cairo to participate in an Egyptian version of “The Voice.” The lead actress Aseel Omran is a major influencer in Saudi Arabia, with 7 million followers.
For Red Sea’s Arab Spectacular section, Khalife has selected the Egyptian film “Abdo and Saneya,” a black and white silent film about an Egyptian peasant couple who travel to New York. “The selection committee wanted to choose something creative,” explains Khalife. “We didn’t just want a straightforward commercial film.”
Independent films from North Africa are also a key focus of this year’s edition. “We were impressed by the films submitted from Tunisia, including ‘Agora’ and ‘Red Path’ that both screened in Locarno,” says Khalife. “We were particularly impressed by ‘Aicha,’ about a girl who assumes a new identity to go to Tunisia because she wants to completely change her life. These kind of stories are really attractive, with modern storytelling techniques.”
The Red Sea festival will inaugurate a new purpose built multiplex cinema in the recently renovated Al-Balad district in Jeddah, which Khalife says they plan to use to organize retrospectives for Arab or international filmmakers, special programs, independent releases of films, and programs for documentaries or short films.
The festival’s official selection is completely independent from projects chosen for the Red Sea Lodge or Red Sea Fund, but several projects have come through this eco-system. For example, Khalife says he’s very proud of the success of the Jordanian film “Inshallah a Boy,” that was among the first films supported by Red Sea Lodge and screened at Cannes in 2023, and was then released in several European countries.
Khalife says that one of the main benefits of the Red Sea support system has been to help local filmmakers to work on their scripts. “Saudi filmmakers have a lot of stories to tell about the country’s past. Many of our films have antiheroes as the main protagonist, for example last year’s hit ‘Mandoub’ and this year’s official selection film, ‘Saify,’ about a man who discovers a tape containing a scandalous recording of an influential Sheikh and then wants to get blackmail money. These anti-hero characters are very different from the model of Egyptian comedies.”
Given that cinemas were banned for 35 years in Saudi Arabia, until 2018, local filmmakers are often attracted to stories from the past, especially from the years when they were growing up, between the late 1980s and the early 2000s. Many local films focus on stories about family life, shot inside people’s houses. Khalife cites the example of the short film “Mera Mera Mera,” about a man in a neighborhood that is about to be leveled, who wakes up one day and has lost his ability to speak and only remembers how to say Mera Mera Mera. “Many young Saudi filmmakers are talking about themes of loneliness, melancholia, and depression,” he notes.
Saudi Arabia has also been producing some very successful local comedies. “Most of the films that enjoyed box office success screened at Red Sea,” says Khalife, citing the recent example of “Sattar.”
“This year we have the very interesting comedy ‘Lail Nahar,’ about an opera singer who has become very famous through social media but risks being cancelled because people claim he’s racist. To prove them wrong he declares that he is going to marry a black woman, leading to multiple misadventures. We decided to organize a Gala session for the film.”
Although many Saudi films are mining stories from the past there are important exceptions, such as the social media satire “Fever Dream,” by the Godus Brothers, with many visual effects, that screened at Red Sea last year.
Khalife emphasized that there is no censorship of films chosen for the festival, but to be released in Saudi Arabia the films must have a distributor who will need another certificate for this effect. “It’s a vital principle for us that we don’t touch the films. We show many films that challenge taboos and raise important contemporary issues. I think that’s why North African filmmakers are so keen to submit their films to us, because we’re looking for bold creative visions. For example, from the beginning we have screened many challenging Moroccan and Tunisian films, and this year we also have two Algerian films.”
The complex geo-political context in the Middle East doesn’t deter Khalife from selecting bold, innovative visions. “A lot of people ask me why I don’t take more Lebanese or Palestinian films. My answer is very clear – it all depends on the films we receive. The fact that there is military conflict in the region won’t stop us from selecting films. This year we have one Palestinian film in competition, ‘To a Land Unknown’ that has its MENA premiere at the festival. I don’t have a Lebanese film in competition because I didn’t find something that was attractive for me. For example, we have selected several Egyptian films this year, simply because we liked them.”
The Red Sea Film Fest is also looking to reinforce its ties with Asia. Khalife explains that Saudi Arabia has a very strong relationship with several Asian countries, in particular Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and China. “There is a demand from local audiences for productions from Asia. For example, animation films have always been very popular here, and I believe our relationship with Japan can explore this field. Around three years ago we had an animation film ‘The Journey’ that was a coproduction between Saudi Arabia and Japan.”
Khalife concludes that the key focus for Saudi filmmakers must be to find modern, innovative story telling approaches. “It’s not just about having the funds in place. We need to develop creativity because if we don’t have strong filmmakers, with good film making approaches and good stories, the cinema won’t be relevant. We need to continue working on developing good scripts and helping the films to be distributed in independent theater. I believe this is a crucial moment for Saudi filmmakers to establish the bases to build a strong national cinema.”
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