JEDDAH, 1 August 2006 — For the first time in Riyadh, writers and movie lovers had the chance to watch two Saudi films in a public place on Saturday.

The Fiction Group at the Riyadh Literary Club organized a table talk entitled “The Relationship Between Novel and Cinema” and invited a host of Saudi directors and cinema critics to talk about their own perspective about the subject.

The Fiction Group members decided to not only talk about movies but opted to show two short Saudi movies — “Taxi” and “The Last Piece.” Both movies are being shown at the first Jeddah Movie Festival, which is running until next week.

Said Al-Ahmad, secretary of the Fiction Group, said the club administration did not object to showing the movies even though the program schedule published at the beginning of the summer did not mention film screening, which was arranged only a couple of weeks before the start of the event.

“Everything was arranged but at the end of the day we don’t have a movie theater at the club. It’s just a screen and projector,” said Al-Ahmad.

Both speakers and the audience, which consisted of above 40 males who filled the small tent where the Fiction Group gathers each week, were able to have a lively conversation. “It’s normal to give the cinema lovers more room to talk because we don’t get to talk every day about cinema. Fiction is always discussed in our meetings,” said Al-Ahmad.

The directors of the two movies, Mohammad Bazid and Mishaal Al-Enazi, spoke of their experiences in making the movies and their perception of fiction in relation to the cinema.

A paper written by movie critic Raja Al-Mitrai, which discusses Arabic novels that have been turned into movies, was read at the gathering although Al-Mitrai was not present.

Tarek Al-Khawaji, another movie critic, spoke about the historical relationship between movies and novels. He also made a reference to the immensely popular film The Da Vinci Code, which critics claimed had killed the novel.

“I was glad that they were eager to show the movies though it was not a festival. They heard about Saudi movies and were enthused to screen them and that really made our day,” said Bazid, the 27-year-old director of “The Last Piece”.

He said that this is the first time that he has met writers from the Riyadh Fiction Group and said he looks forward to building relations with them.

Bazid added that he hopes to keep in touch with members of the Fiction Group in order to exchange experiences and ideas.