\tArab independent films are enjoying a resurgence in terms of festival and commercial success affirms Antoine Khalife, the Red Sea Film Festival\u2019s director of Arab programs and film classics, citing the example of Egyptian thriller \u201cFlight 404,\u201d which has grossed over $4 million in Saudi Arabia this year.<\/p>\n
\tKhalife praises the modern spirit of recent Egyptian independent cinema and has chosen two titles for this year\u2019s official selection \u2013 \u201cSeeking Haven for Mr Rambo,\u201d about an evicted man who seeks a new home for himself and his loyal dog, and \u201cSnow White,\u201d about a woman with dwarfism who develops a relationship with a man over the internet. \u201cThey\u2019re both very modern and highly unusual films, which don\u2019t just try to convey a message,\u201d explains Khalife. \t<\/p>\n
\tRed Sea\u2019s opening film is a Saudi-Egyptian coproduction, \u201cThe Tale Of Daye\u2019s Family,\u201d about an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy who travels to Cairo to participate in an Egyptian version of \u201cThe Voice.\u201d The lead actress Aseel Omran is a major influencer in Saudi Arabia, with 7 million followers. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tFor Red Sea\u2019s Arab Spectacular section, Khalife has selected the Egyptian film \u201cAbdo and Saneya,\u201d a black and white silent film about an Egyptian peasant couple who travel to New York. \u201cThe selection committee wanted to choose something creative,\u201d explains Khalife. \u201cWe didn\u2019t just want a straightforward commercial film.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIndependent films from North Africa are also a key focus of this year\u2019s edition. \u201cWe were impressed by the films submitted from Tunisia, including \u2018Agora\u2019 and \u2018Red Path\u2019 that both screened in Locarno,\u201d says Khalife. \u201cWe were particularly impressed by \u2018Aicha,\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe 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.<\/p>\n
\tThe festival\u2019s 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\u2019s very proud of the success of the Jordanian film \u201cInshallah a Boy,\u201d 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. \t<\/p>\n
\tKhalife says that one of the main benefits of the Red Sea support system has been to help local filmmakers to work on their scripts. \u201cSaudi filmmakers have a lot of stories to tell about the country\u2019s past. Many of our films have antiheroes as the main protagonist, for example last year\u2019s hit \u2018Mandoub\u2019 and this year\u2019s official selection film, \u2018Saify,\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tGiven 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\u2019s houses. Khalife cites the example of the short film \u201cMera Mera Mera,\u201d 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. \u201cMany young Saudi filmmakers are talking about themes of loneliness, melancholia, and depression,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
\tSaudi Arabia has also been producing some very successful local comedies. \u201cMost of the films that enjoyed box office success screened at Red Sea,\u201d says Khalife, citing the recent example of \u201cSattar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis year we have the very interesting comedy \u2018Lail Nahar,\u2019 about an opera singer who has become very famous through social media but risks being cancelled because people claim he\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAlthough many Saudi films are mining stories from the past there are important exceptions, such as the social media satire \u201cFever Dream,\u201d by the Godus Brothers, with many visual effects, that screened at Red Sea last year.<\/p>\n
\tKhalife 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. \u201cIt\u2019s a vital principle for us that we don\u2019t touch the films. We show many films that challenge taboos and raise important contemporary issues. I think that\u2019s why North African filmmakers are so keen to submit their films to us, because we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe complex geo-political context in the Middle East doesn\u2019t deter Khalife from selecting bold, innovative visions. \u201cA lot of people ask me why I don\u2019t take more Lebanese or Palestinian films. My answer is very clear \u2013 it all depends on the films we receive. The fact that there is military conflict in the region won\u2019t stop us from selecting films. This year we have one Palestinian film in competition, \u2018To a Land Unknown\u2019 that has its MENA premiere at the festival. I don\u2019t have a Lebanese film in competition because I didn\u2019t find something that was attractive for me. For example, we have selected several Egyptian films this year, simply because we liked them.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\tThe 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. \u201cThere 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 \u2018The Journey\u2019 that was a coproduction between Saudi Arabia and Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tKhalife concludes that the key focus for Saudi filmmakers must be to find modern, innovative story telling approaches. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about having the funds in place. We need to develop creativity because if we don\u2019t have strong filmmakers, with good film making approaches and good stories, the cinema won\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arab independent films are enjoying a resurgence in terms of festival and commercial success affirms Antoine Khalife, the Red Sea Film Festival\u2019s director of Arab programs and film classics, citing the example of Egyptian thriller \u201cFlight 404,\u201d which has grossed over $4 million in Saudi Arabia this year. Khalife praises the modern spirit of recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}