It’s April 18, 2018, and hundreds of guests are streaming in to a cinema in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District. The invite-only group is a mix of VIPs, government officials and celebrities. Men and women. There is an electric energy in the air, the kind of energy reserved for a normal opening night at a film premiere in Hollywood. Except, it isn’t any normal night—as part of a series of major policy changes led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it is the first public film screening at a cinema in Saudi Arabia in 35 years.
Near the entrance of the AMC theatre is a line of dignitaries beaming widely, talking and shaking hands with the guests as they enter. One of those in the line on this historic night was the Saudi film producer Mohammed Al Turki.
“It felt like we were at a traditional Saudi wedding,” Al Turki recalls. “I was invited as a guest, but when I arrived the Minister of Culture had seen me and pulled me right to the front. People who knew that I was a filmmaker were coming up to me and congratulating me and I was just like, ‘but I didn’t do anything! I’m just here like you guys are!’” he laughs. “By the end of it I was thanking everyone for coming!”
The film being screened that night was Black Panther. The pre-film speech from the President of AMC cinemas cited that the reason that the Oscar-winning Marvel film was selected was that the story is about a young prince who wanted good for his people—the connection was an easy one to make. The sense of national pride was unmistakable that evening, at points during the film people in the cinema were cheering out loud.
If you’ve read anything about Mohammed Al Turki over the past decade, you will probably have seen him described as ‘a Saudi in Hollywood’ – it is a notable term because it was so uncommon. He is a tall, slight man with a calm sensibility and an aura that is welcoming and personable.
Born and raised in Khobar to an affluent family, he shared his family’s love for travel and film – so much so that he would eventually move to London to study film at university. Post graduating, following a brief stint working for an oil and gas company, he was randomly introduced to British writer-director Zeina Durra while on holiday. She was working on an independent film at the time, and asked Al Turki if he wanted to be involved.
That meeting might well be referred to as Al Turki’s breakthrough moment, lighting a fire under him that saw him go on to produce nine films in a hugely prolific three-year period, including working with Richard Gere on Arbitrage, with Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham on At Any Price and Julianne Moore in What Maisie Knew.
He quickly started making a name for himself as one of the few Saudi men committed (and succeeding) within the world’s hardest film industry, and yet due to theatres being closed across Saudi during that time, no one back in his home country had ever seen his work on a cinema screen.
All that is set to change this month, with Al Turki’s latest film Crisis set for a cinematic release.
“It would be a huge milestone achieved,” Al Turki says following his photoshoot with Esquire Middle East in a studio in downtown Riyadh. “When I started my career in 2010, cinemas were banned in Saudi and I never imagined that I would be able to watch one of my films in a movie theatre here. It is really quite humbling.”
“When I started my career cinemas were banned in Saudi and I never imagined that I would be able to watch one of my films there. It is really quite humbling.”
But he, and thousands of others, will likely have the opportunity to going forward. Over the past couple of years there has been an explosion of cinema culture across the country with at least ten cinemas opening up in Riyadh, five in the eastern province, and another five in Jeddah, and major international chains such as AMC, Vue and Empire entering the market. Last year, despite cinemas being closed across the world due to Covid-19 preventative measures, the Saudi box office numbers still grew in comparison to 2019 levels—it was the only country in the world to do so.
“As Saudi is the biggest country in the GCC, I believe this will change the game when it comes to Middle East box office revenue,” says Al Turki.
“The amount of cinemas opening up shows that the demand is there, and soon I won’t be surprised if we’re seeing the country host Middle East premieres with international casts flying over for the big blockbusters.”
The fact that Crisis is being shown in Saudi cinemas is another strong indicator to the progressive changes in the country. Starring Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly and Michelle Rodriguez, it tells the story of the opioid epidemic in the US in the first half of this century.
“I was approached by the director, Nicholas Jarecki, who showed me the script and I thought about how it was an important story to tell,” Al Turki says, “the style of writing was very similar to Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, looking to tell the story of the opioid crisis with the same type of impact. I hope that young filmmakers across the country go to see it, because it is a Hollywood-Saudi collaboration being shown in a Saudi cinema, and I hope they are inspired by it.”
That sense of inspiring young talent manifests itself in the day spent with Al Turki on set. The photographer and crew are all young, creative Saudis and the positive energy is palpable. “It was a lot of fun,” says Al Turki about the shoot, “you could feel this wonderful, cheerful energy from young people working hard and enjoying what they are doing. Honestly, it didn’t feel like I was in Riyadh. There was a fresh new vibe to it and it feels like a really positive direction in which Vision 2030 is heading.”
In terms of the growing sphere of entertainment, the opening of cinemas has been an important one, but it is by no means the only cog currently turning. The Saudi Film Commission recently announced a SAR40 million deal for 28 film-related projects based on the winning entries to last year’s Daw competition—
a competition launched in September 2019 to support Saudi cinema in line with the country’s Quality of Life Program.
The funding is to be spent on helping the development of scripts as well as production of short and feature-length films. On top of that Netflix has recently shown significant interest in Saudi talent, having approached local talent to create both original TV series and feature films for the streaming service. Similar big-bucks investments in the country’s film and television prospects are also appearing from the likes of MBC.
A regional media powerhouse, MBC has made significant investments in producing films with big budgets, but also ensuring that young Saudi talent is cast in their films.
“As such a new market it is hard to find young Saudi actors,” says Al Turki. “Companies like MBC are not only holding open casting sessions all across the country, but if they find people with talent, they are also funding acting coaching for the talents that sign up to the projects.”
Al Turki has also been lending his experience, insight and contact books to the Ministry of Culture over the past few years in order to help the continual growth of the country’s cultural pillars. “One of the projects that I helped with was the MDL Beast music festival,” says Al Turki.
“I helped reach out to celebrities and musicians that I know from my time in L.A., and organized schedules for them to come and experience what the country is all about in person.” During the festival, one of the services offered to the celebrities was a ‘Saudi friend’, who acted as a de facto cultural liaison to the international talent whose job it was to help answer any questions they had about the Saudi and its culture. It was something that Al Turki described as working “wonderfully”.
“I’m proud of where I’m from. I want people to learn more about my culture…to see there is a rich history of Saudi that needs to be told.”
Although he is not a cultural liaison himself, Al Turki takes pride in his heritage. “I’m proud of where I’m from,” he says. “I want people to learn more about my culture, there’s so much more about my country to see and there is a rich history of Saudi that needs to be told.”
That is his next objective. Although, he is cautious to let slip too much information in the interview, you can sense his excitement for the next project he has in the pipeline. “I’m working on my first feature film based on a Saudi story,” he say and catches himself before revealing too much, but then the excitement gets the better of him and he finishes his thought.
“Essentially, it is a universal story about inspiration and hope that anyone would be able to relate to, but it focuses on a young Saudi woman. It’s a story with an eye on helping humanise elements of this region for people who are unfamiliar with our culture, or have misinterpreted what they’ve seen in the media.”
In many different industries, the expression ‘to crack America’ is seen as the yardstick for success. But for someone like Mohammed Al Turki, who has walked the Hollywood red carpets; has had his films shown at the world’s most prestigious film festivals; and can call the likes of Richard Gere and Michelle Rodriguez close friends, perhaps the biggest success would be to make it at home.
Crisis will be released in cinemas across the GCC on April 1st.
Photography by Kinzy Alsaheal / Styling by Haya Abdullah / Hair & Make-up by Safaa Alireza / Production by Mustafa Alamasi / Photo assistant: Osama Yahya Al-Jabarti / Location: Personage, Riyadh
