Trust cinema About 10 days ago, the list of films of the Saudi Red Sea Festival was published, and the film “6 o’clock in the morning” by Mehran Madiri was among the films in the competition section of this festival. It was one of the interesting points.
According to the best from the era of Iran, considering the atmosphere and structure of the film, its international premiere in this festival seemed a little strange, but when the news was published, it was mentioned that this film is a joint production of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Naturally, this case is not so strange anymore, Saudi Arabia has been an investor in a film in Iran and it is showing it in the most important festival of its own country.
The 4th Red Sea Film Festival will be held in Saudi Arabia from December 5 to 14 (December 15 to 24). Negar Hassanzadeh is also present in the short film competition section of this festival.
Mehran Moderi’s film page at the Red Sea Festival
This case became an excuse to have a brief overview of the cinematic events in Saudi Arabia in the past few years.
There was no cinema in Saudi Arabia until a few years ago, and the first screening of a film in that country took place after 35 years in 2018, but now it can be said that it holds the largest film festival in the Middle East and Africa, inviting filmmakers and various guests from Hollywood. And from Bollywood to East Asia and Europe, it is trying to turn it into an important film festival in the world.
In the third edition of the festival, stars and famous figures such as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Sharon Stone, Baz Luhrmann, Ranveer Singh, Sofia Vergara, Amina Khalil, Frida Pinto, Paz Vega, Ed Westwick, Amy Jackson, Lebanese actress Nadine Naseeb Najim and… were present at the opening ceremony. Shah Rukh Khan, Oliver Stone and… were also present in the second period.
The Red Sea International Film Festival was established in 2019 as a plan to revive Saudi cinema. Initially, it was supposed to be launched in March 2020, but it was canceled due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and its first course was held in November 2021.
One of the interesting points is that the directors of the festival have promised that no restrictions or censorship will be applied to the films participating in the festival. In 2021, the director of the festival used the term “zero restriction”, which means that there will be no restrictions for the screening of any film.
For example, in Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is a crime and is punishable, but in the second Moroccan film festival, “Al Kaftan Azraq” (Blue Kaftan – Kaftan is the name of a long female dress in Morocco) was among the films that were shown in the “Red Sea” festival. It was accepted. In this film, directed by “Maryam Touzani”, the story of a Moroccan tailor who is homosexual is discussed.
Last year, Saudi Red Sea Fund sponsored 7 films in the category of the best international film of Oscar 2024, Emad Iskandar, director of the Saudi Red Sea Film Fund, announced that this fund has seven films in the category of best international film of Oscar 2024.
Seven films with the support of the Red Sea Fund participated in the international section, including “Four Girls” directed by Kouthar Ben Haniyeh from Tunisia, “Goodbye Julia” directed by Mohammad Kordafani (Sudan), “Hanging Gardens” directed by Ahmed Yassin Al-Daraji (Iraq). , God willing, a boy directed by Amjad Al-Rashid (Jordan). ), “Fal” was made by Balouchi (Belgium), “Khastegan” by Amro Jamal (Yemen) and “Mother of All Lies” was by Sakhate Asma Al-Moudir (Morocco) and the fund can grant up to 500,000 dollars for each project.
The director of the Red Sea Film Fund said that the fund is part of an ecosystem that includes the Red Sea Foundation, the festival, the Red Sea Lab program and the market, and strives to support Saudi, Arab and African films.
Now it is interesting that in Iran they have gone to one of the most famous faces of cinema and television and made a film with Mehran Moderi.
In general, Saudi Arabia’s strategy seems to be to increase its cinematic influence by attracting and cooperating with very famous figures in every country, for example, it is already predictable that Mehran Madiri’s presence at the Red Sea Festival and his photos at the red carpet ceremony His film and… will have a lot of reflection on social networks and what better way to introduce this festival in a country like Iran.
Of course, Saudi Arabia’s approach has been accompanied by criticism from some people or cultural and artistic institutions in the world, and especially last year, they were attacked a lot because of ignoring the events that happened in Gaza and holding the third Red Sea Festival, but they ignored it. They continued to work.
In short, Saudi Arabia has opened a special account on cinema as an art-industry-media, and it is interesting that within 6 years, it has managed to open 600 movie theaters in its own country, and by the way, it has become one of the best-selling countries in the field of cinema.