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“My Driver and Me” was supposed to be filmed in 2016, but fell through due to the decades-long ban on cinemas in Saudi Arabia. Eight years later, the landscape for film in the kingdom looks a lot different – and the My Driver and Me star now has an award.
Roula Dakheelallah was announced as the winner of the Chopard Emerging Saudi Talent Award at The Red Sea International Film Festival on Thursday. The award — and the glittering festival itself — is a sign of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to shaping a new film industry.
“My heart is attached to film and art; I’ve always dreamed of a moment like this,” Dakheelalah, who still works a 9-5 job, told The Associated Press before the awards ceremony. “I’ve worked in voluntary films and helped friends in the field, but this is my first big role in a film.”
The reopening of cinemas in 2018 marked a cultural turning point for Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy that imposed the ban 35 years ago under the influence of ultra-conservative religious authorities. Since then, she has invested heavily in the local film industry by building theaters and launching programs to support local filmmakers through grants and training.
The Red Sea International Film Festival was launched just a year later, as part of an effort to expand Saudi Arabia’s influence in films, games, sports and other cultural fields. Activists have condemned the investments as a whitewash of the kingdom’s human rights record as it tightly controls speech and remains one of the world’s biggest executioners. With FIFA awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia this week, Lina al-Hathloul, a Saudi activist with London-based human rights group ALQST, said the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman “he’s really managed to create this bubble where people only see the entertainment and don’t see the reality on the ground.”
These efforts are part of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan unveiled in 2016 to ease the economy’s dependence on oil. As part of this, Saudi Arabia plans to build 350 cinemas with over 2,500 screens – as of last April, in 22 cities, it already had 66 cinemas showing films from the local film industry, as well as from Hollywood and Bollywood. (The Red Sea International Film Festival attracts a host of talent from the latter industries, with Viola Davis and Priyanka Chopra Jonas also set to pick up awards on Thursday.)
The State Entertainment Authority last month opened Al Hisn Studios on the outskirts of Riyadh. As one of the largest such production centers in the Middle East, it not only includes several film studios but also a production complex with workshops for carpentry, blacksmithing and fashion tailoring.
“These facilities, once they exist, will stimulate filmmakers,” said Saudi actor Mohammed Elshehri. “Today, no writer or director has an excuse to imagine and say, ‘I can’t bring my imagination to life.'”
Objects are one part of the equation – the content itself is another. One of the main players in the transformation of Saudi filmmaking was Telfaz11, a media company founded in 2011 that started as a YouTube channel and quickly became a pioneer. Producing high-quality digital content such as short films, comedy sketches and series, Telfaz11 has offered fresh perspectives on Saudi and regional issues.
In 2020, Telfaz11 signed a partnership with Netflix to produce original content for the streaming giant. The result has been films that demonstrate evolution at the level of storytelling, dealing with topics that were once taboo and sensitive to the public like the secret nightlife in “Mandoob” (“The Night Courier”) and changing social norms in “Naga”.
“I think we’re telling our stories in a very simple way, and that’s what reaches the world,” Elshehri says of the shift being made. “When you tell your story in a natural way without any affectations, it will reach everyone.”
But the films were not without their critics, causing mixed reactions. Social media discourse ranged from delight that a Saudi film tackled such themes to anger at how the films reflected a conservative society.
As Hana Al-Omair, a Saudi writer and director, points out, there are still many untold stories.
“There is certainly a long time ahead of us before we can tell the Saudi narrative as it should be,” she said, acknowledging that there are still barriers and rampant censorship. “The Goat Life”, a Malayalam film about an Indian man forced to work without pay in Saudi Arabia, is not available on Netflix’s platform in the country. Films that explore political themes or LGBTQ+ stories are essentially out of the question.
Even “My Driver and Me,” screened at the Red Sea festival along with 11 other Saudi feature films, was initially too controversial. It focuses on the Sudanese in the Jeddahwho lives far away from his daughter, who feels responsible for the girl he drives because her parents are away. Filming was originally blocked because of the relationship between the girl and the driver, director Ahd Kamel said, although it was not a romantic relationship.
Now, in 2024, the film is a success story — a symbol of the evolution of the Saudi film industry, as well as the growing role of women like Kamel behind the camera and Dakheelallah in front of it.
“I see a change in Saudi cinema, a very beautiful change and it is moving at a wonderful speed. In my opinion, we should not rush,” said Dakheelalah. “We have to lead the truth about the art movement that is happening in Saudi Arabia.”