Saudi filmmakers and major cinema chains alike are basking in the news that the kingdom will lift its decades-old ban on movie theatres, opening a market of more than 30 million people
Longing for the silver screen
The move is part of a modernisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to balance unpopular subsidy cuts in an era of low oil prices with more entertainment options—despite opposition from religious hardliners
A 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
Lollipop in Arabia
At the Dubai International Film Festival on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia was on everyone’s mind. Saudi director Hanaa Saleh Alfassi’s 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 was quoted as saying by AFP
Saudi women are required to wear a black abaya and veil, although the latter is arbitrarily enforced and in recent years some women have started showing their faces. Alfassi’s film was inspired by a pamphlet she used to see 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”
Breaking into an untapped market
Major cinema chains are clamouring to break into the untapped Saudi market, where the majority of the population is under 25. US giant AMC Entertainment Monday signed a non-binding agreement with Saudi Arabia’s vast Public Investment Fund to build and operate cinemas across the kingdom. It will face stiff competition from Dubai-based VOX Cinemas, the leading operator in the Middle East