Cinemaless Saudi Arabia's second film festival opens

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/19/second-saudi-arabia-film-festival-opens

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Saudi Arabia will roll out the red carpet on Friday for its second film festival in seven years, despite cinemas being banned in the deeply conservative country.

More than 60 short films will compete for Golden Palm Tree trophies crowning the best drama, documentary and student film at a gala event attended by film and television celebrities from around the Arab world.

The kingdom practises an austere version of Islam that does not permit conventional entertainment venues such as cinemas, so screenings will take place in an arts centre in the Gulf coast city of Dammam.

Organisers say they hope the five-day festival will open eyes in Saudi Arabia to the possibilities of film, despite objections from some conservatives that cinema will westernise the kingdom or corrupt its morals.

“I think we in Saudi Arabia have beautiful culture to tell the world,” said Abdullah al-Eyaf, a film-maker and head of the festival jury. “Why should we wait for this country or that country … to tell stories about Saudi Arabia?”

Most of the film-makers showcased are under the age of 25, said the festival’s director Ahmed al-Mulla, who sees his role as helping them to develop.

As well as screening films, the festival will include workshops on scriptwriting, music and directing, and talks by industry figures from around the region. Thirty-four scripts that have not yet been made into films will also vie for a Golden Palm Tree trophy.

The winning scriptwriters and film-makers will get grants to help fund future projects, from a prize pool totalling 180,000 riyals (£31,000).

Among the films to be shown is Grand Marriage, a documentary directed by Faisal al-Otaibi that tells the story of a two-week wedding ceremony in the archipelago nation of the Comoros.

Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female film-maker, has been invited to attend but she lives abroad and is unlikely to show up. In 2013 her film Wadjda became the kingdom’s first to be listed as a candidate for a foreign-language Oscar, but did not make the final shortlist. It told the story of a rebellious girl who dreams of owning a bicycle in a country where women’s rights are restricted and the sexes strictly segregated.

Without cinemas, Mulla said, “sadly there is no way” to show such films publicly in Saudi Arabia, though many end up on websites such as YouTube. Others are sometimes featured at small, special screenings.

Mulla also directed the first Saudi film festival, in 2008. He was vague about why so many years had passed between events, but said this year’s festival had been organised “in the right way” by the Society for Culture and Arts, an NGO where he volunteers. He expects an overflow audience at the society’s 600-capacity screening hall on Friday’s opening night.

The festival received more than 120 submissions, of which around 66 met the requirements to be shown, including that they are less than 59 minutes long and have not been shown on YouTube or on television. “We received a lot of nice films,” Mulla said, adding that 10 would have their premieres at the festival.

He said the festival entries covered a wide range of subjects, including crime, society and history. There was one animated movie, and a “very strong” film about human rights.

He said that while the festival must ensure it respects Saudi Arabia’s culture and traditions, there was no formal censorship. “I think we can screen anything political,” he said.

Mulla said he hoped that one day cinemas would open in the kingdom, because film was “part of culture, part of loving life”. But first, he said, film lovers would need to convince “people who are scared of art and culture”.