After 10 years in Hollywood, Saudi film producer Mohammed Al Turki has finally done what he always dreamed of doing: hold a premiere of one of his films in his home of Saudi Arabia.
“Finally brought Hollywood home,” Al Turki exclaimed on Instagram.
The premiere was for Al Turki’s latest film, Crisis, a thriller that explores the United States’ opioid crisis starring Gary Oldman and Evangeline Lilly and Michelle Rodriguez. Al Turki was able to hold two premieres, one first in Dhahran in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province on Tuesday, and one in Saudi’s capital city of Riyadh on Wednesday.
The film opens in theaters across the UAE and Saudi Arabia today, April 1.
“I never expected to have a special screening for a film I worked on in Hollywood in a cinema two minutes away from my house. It was wonderful to have my parents, their close family friends, and members of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce, a bunch of elite businessmen, and the support of the US Consul Nicholle Manz-Baazaoui, who also attended. It was great to see that turn out,” Al Turki tells Esquire Middle East.
The premiere was held in the newly opened Muvi Cinemas in Dhahran Mall, Saudi’s first home-grown cinema chain.
“Obviously, the cinema itself is state of the art and has the best new equipment, and watching it in that kind of equipment made me wish I had my close friend [Crisis director] Nicolas Jarecki with me. Obviously he was not able to come to Saudi because of COVID, but he was excited when I told him the response and he was hearing the response from different people in Saudi,” says Al Turki.
For the Riyadh premiere at Vox Cinemas, Al Turki was joined by Saudi’s Vice Minister of Culture Hamed Fayez, as well as the CEO of the Saudi Film Commission Abdullah Al–Qahtani, as well as numerous Saudi actors and members of the growing Saudi cinema scene. For Al Turki, he was proud to be able to share his work with the people of his country, especially with his brother and nephew by his side.
“In 2012, almost ten years ago, I brought my film Arbitrage to open the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. The movie was chosen to open the festival because of me being from the region working on a Hollywood film. Now, ten years later, I finally had my film premiere in Saudi with a wonderful audience and government officials,” says Al Turki.
The premiere was the only one that Al Turki was able to attend globally, as COVID-19 has stopped most film premieres in places like the United States.
“It was wonderful to have that intimate feeling at home and also be able, with the extra precautionary measures because of COVID, to celebrate the film in its original format, the way it was meant to be celebrated,” says Al Turki.
Since Saudi Arabia reopened cinemas in 2018 after a decades-long ban, it has made a strong push to develop a film industry in the Kingdom. Mo Al Turki has been at the forefront of that, with numerous projects in development in Saudi Arabia.
The premiere was also a chance to meet with some of Saudi’s burgeoning talent, who he may one day work with. At the very least, those attending were inspired by Al Turki’s accomplishments to reimagine what is possible in their own careers.
“A lot of the conversations I had were very humbling, because a lot of the people who came have mentioned to me when I met them that they’ve been following me for quite a while, and they were really genuinely excited to meet me. I told them I’m open if they want to email me and work on Saudi-Hollywood productions, I’m open and they were as well to support,” says Al Turki.
Some of Al Turki’s favorite memories have been sharing his work with his loved ones and family, such as when his mother came to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, also for Arbitrage.
“She bonded with Richard Gere in Sundance, and she took maybe hundreds of photos with Richard and he was very accommodating to that, and he understands that women love him,” laughs Al Turki.
Al Turki brought both his father and mother to the Venice Film Festival in 2014 for the premiere of At Any Price starring Zack Efron, Heather Graham and Dennis Quaid, his first collaboration with his friend Ramin Bahrani, who also helmed the 2021 Oscar nominee White Tiger.
“I asked my dad’s permission, because of Saudi traditions, if he wouldn’t mind me having my mom as my red carpet date and take her to do press photos, and he said absolutely, if you want to take your mom, it’s up to her, and she was happy,” says Al Turki.
Crisis is now in cinemas across the Middle East
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