The Red Sea International Film Festival will host a selection of Saudi and international films, during the Al-Ula Cinema Week, which is hosted by the New Region Cinema, in partnership with the second session of the Al-Ula Arts Festival.
The Cinema Week in Al-Ula, which starts from February 23 and continues until March 4, witnesses the screening of selected films that were previously screened at the Red Sea Film Festival in its second session in Jeddah, which received 39,000 moviegoers and more than 4,000 film industry professionals, media and students.
This cooperation comes with Al-Ula Cinema Week, as part of the Red Sea International Film Festival’s initiatives to entertain film lovers and celebrate and encourage filmmakers.
The cinema week begins on February 23, with the screening of Abdullah Al-Arak’s film “Satar”, which broke records in ticket sales, and its events take place in the world of free wrestling, and the film is classified as a “comedy drama”.
The vitality of Saudi cinema
For his part, the director of the Arab and Classical Film Program, Antoine Khalifa, affirmed his desire to shed light on the vitality of Saudi cinema and Arab cinema through short and feature films in the presence of directors, referring to the great influence of Saudi films this year during the festival, saying: “We want to share this enthusiasm with the audience Al-Ula.
The screening program includes the movie “Through the Alleys” by Yemeni director Youssef Al-Sabahi, “The Zoo” by Jordanian Tariq Rimawi, “Naima Film” by Sudanese Sami Sir Al-Khatim, and “On My Father’s Grave” by Moroccan Joahine Zentar, in addition to “The Boy Who Doesn’t See Beauty.” ” by the Indian Sourav Yadav, “Tsutsoi” by the Ghanaian Amarti Armar, “Night Stop” by the Somali Khader Ahmed, and “Turtle Soup” by the Singaporean Lchun.
Films also include “Estelle” by Senegalese Ramata Solay Si, “Auntie” by Singaporean He Shuming, “Donia and the Princess of Aleppo” by Maria Zarif and Andre Kady, “Queens” by Moroccan Yasmine Benkirane, as well as the Egyptian classic “Khali Balak by Zouzou” Hassan Al-Imam, “A Video Tape Changed” by Maha Al-Saati, “Koura” by Ziad Al-Zahrani, “An Old Phone Number” by Ali Saeed, and “Aquamarine” by Hussein Al-Mutlaq.
The screenings are followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers. The week ends with a special screening of the film “The Crow’s Song” by Saudi director Mohammed Al-Salman, which was nominated to represent the Kingdom in 2022 at the Oscars.
