The Red Sea International Film Festival has partnered with VOX Cinemas, MBC GROUP and Saudi Airlines, making its first inaugural Film Festival opening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between December 6-15, 2021. The festival, which takes place in Jeddah’s historic old town, opens with 138 feature films and shorts from 67 countries in 34 languages and featuring 27 new films from an exciting wave of Saudi filmmakers.
The idea for the festival was first spoken of at Cannes two years ago and there were discussions about what sorts of films could be screened, and whether Saudi Arabia’s domestic policies would affect the film selection. Saudi Arabia, it should be noted, has taken a great step forward in introducing cinema within its border. A look at the films chosen for the festival confirms that the selection was made on the basis of artistic merit, and religious and political factors don’t seem to have played much of a role. In fact, the festival aims to put the spotlight on films dealing with women and minorities.
Jeddah sits on the edge of the Red Sea and is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia with a population of about four million. The festival itself is held in a renovated district of the old town, Al-Balad, in a newly built theatre. There is also a cultural centre for journalists and market participants.
Organizers have clearly put a lot of effort into putting on a professional festival. The Festival’s Opening Ceremony featured prominent Arab stars and filmmakers, including Hany Abu-Assad, Amira Diab, Mohamed Henedy, Inas ElDeghedy, Saba Mubarak, Nelly Karim, Imed Marzouk, Lebleba, Hala Sedki, Najib BelKadhi and Elham Shaheen. The Red Sea Festival also honoured three women who have made significant contributions in the film industry: in Saudi Arabia, multi award-winning filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour, Academy Award and BAFTA nominated French actress Catherine Deneuve and acclaimed Egyptian actress Laila Eloui.
As history unfolds in this occasion in Saudi Arabia, a lot of Saudi stars and filmmakers were in attendance: Waheed Jamjoom, Hassan Assiri, Yousef Al Jarrah, Khalid Alfarraj, Yassir Alsaggaf, Ali Kalthami, Mohammed Abu Hamdan, Faisak Al Dokhy, Mohammed Aldokhy, Ibrahim AlKhairallah, Alaa Faden, Godus Brothers, Mila AlZahrani, Elham Ali & Khalid Saqr, Meshal Aljasser, Baraa Alem, Khalid Alharbi, Alanoud Saoud, Saad AbdulAziz, and Abdullah Dhahran.
The festival also could not have taken off without having to honour Jack Lang, President of the Institut du Monde Arabe and former Minister of Culture and Education, who played a significant role in promoting relations between Saudi Arabia and France and forming a positive cultural relationship between Arab and France cinema.
The opening film was Cyrano by director Joe Wright. This was a pleasant film about Cyrano de Bergerac, a well-known French character, with a strong performance by Peter Dinklage. Here, writer Erica Schmidt reimagines Cyrano as a little person, and Dinklage plays the title role. The role of Christian is played by Kelvin Harrison. Wright shot the film is such a way that we don’t notice Dinklage’s stature. It is a lively musical that is enjoyable and entertaining throughout its two hour length. The director has tried to play with common stereotypes and to create a new story from this well-known character. The animating spirit of the film can be summed up by the quotation, “True love is not based on appearance but defined by the soul of characters.”