When people think about awards for movies, naturally, they all immediately turn to the Oscars. Understandable. But in the eyes of true movie fanatics, there is little argument to be made that the coolest, most iconic (and, arguably, most prestigious) awards circuit is the Cannes Film Festival, taking place this year from May 14 to 25. After all, the Cannes festival helped introduce the world to Pulp Fiction, Drive, and most recently, Anatomy of a Fall.
And this year, 2024, Arabic filmmakers have made history. As there is a growing effort to champion voices from the KSA, especially from foreign production companies, as of 2018, traditional movie theatres have opened in Saudi Arabia, severing the 35-year ban, thus unleashing an ocean of creativity just waiting to be discovered. Fun fact: Black Panther was the first film to be shown in theatres upon their reopening in Saudi Arabia.
Norah
Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s (shown in the cover image of this article) debut will show in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes Festival, becoming the first movie in the Cannes Film Festival for the KSA. This section of the festival is dedicated to showcasing films of a more innovative, unusual, and non-traditional variety, giving a platform for up-and-coming filmmakers who, although not directly in competition, still get to showcase their talents on one of the most prestigious stages in the world.
Alzaidi’s Norah takes place in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and tells the story of a chance encounter between two unfamiliar people, and the effect it has on their lives.
Alzaidi, who is based in Riyadh, began directing films at an early age and is considered one of the pioneers of the rapidly exploding wave of cinema in Saudi Arabia. His first short film, Perfect Crime, won the Jeddah Film Festival in 2007, and he has won several Arabic film festivals since.
Motel Destino
Algerian-Brazilian director, Karim Ainouz, is no stranger to the Cannes festival, as only last year he premiered his psychological thriller, Firebrand, starring Jude Law and Alicia Vikander. This year, he presents Motel Destino, a romantic/erotic thriller about a youth whose future has been stolen by a toxic and oppressive elite. The poster alone is giving major Y Tu Mama Tambien vibes.
Everybody Loves Touda
French-Moroccan director, Nabil Ayouch, will be screening his film Everybody Loves Touda, about a young singer/poet raising her deaf-mute son in a tiny Moroccan village. But as she heads to Casablanca for fame and recognition, as expected, an ocean of perilous adversaries awaits.
Co-written by Ayouch and his wife, Maryam Touzani, the couple also co-wrote the film, The Blue Kaftan, which debuted at Cannes in 2022, eventually becoming the first Moroccan film to be shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination.
The Apprentice
Sure, we already mentioned this one, but Iranian-Dutch filmmaker, Ali Abbasi, has generated some serious buzz for this early days Trump biopic, and understandably so. Starring the Winter Soldier, erm…Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump, and Kendall Roy, erm, sorry, Jeremy Strong as villainous lawyer, Roy Cohn, this feels like the best thing we may get to a solid adaptation of The Bonfire of The Vanities (by Tom Wolfe, who first got started in Esquire).
During our interview with UK based Vertigo Films, (responsible for the Tom Hardy starring Bronson) who worked with Filma Alula to produce ‘Alula Creates Short Film Female Filmmaker Competition’, one up-and-coming director mentioned that the only film she’d ever had access to growing up was Mary Poppins. She’d seen it hundreds of times over the years, so, naturally, she assumed every other film would be a musical too. She added how mystified she was during the viewing of her first ever non-musical film, constantly wondering: “Why is nobody singing and dancing?”
It will be very exciting to see what Saudi begins to concoct over the next few years with its rapidly growing cinema landscape, especially since external influences have been so limited, and up until now, the only inspiration has come from within. Similar to legendary Russian filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky, who, too, having grown up in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule, had essentially no access to any foreign films, or art, for that matter. And yet in spite of his restricted upbringing, Tarkovsky has gone down in history as one of the most celebrated and imitated filmmakers of all time, one lauded by other greats such as Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and many modern filmmakers like Taika Waititi and Lars Von Trier. So, now that these blinders have been lifted from Saudi eyes, one can only assume that the KSA’s very own Tarkovsky is just waiting to be discovered, one that will be studied at universities in the future. And considering Hollywood’s droning treadmill of uninspired reboots and sequels, we need an original voice now more than ever.
Grab your popcorn, and stay tuned for more Cannes Film Festival updates.
