The auditorium at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) was filled with about 300 men, women and children, Saudi families that had arrived to watch a handful of films in what would be the closest thing Saudi Arabia has to a film festival.
Separated by a glass partition, the men sat in the front seats while the women and kids were kept in the back. But despite this uniquely Saudi seating arrangement, the films offered citizens the rare opportunity not only to watch films in a public venue, but to watch socially relevant films that both celebrated the good and illustrated the bad of Saudi society.
The film festival, which ends tomorrow, is featuring 48 short pieces of fiction, documentaries and animated works. Nineteen of the films are Saudi productions. Apart from two Russian works and nine Japanese films, the rest of films are Gulf productions from Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE. The screenings are taking place from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. through Friday at the Abudawood Auditorium at the JCCI.
The film forum began on Tuesday night with several showings, including “Heaven’s Child” by Saudi director Ali Al-Amir, a harsh film about the difficult subject of child abuse. The main characters of the shirt film are two young girls. Sarah, confides in her friend about the problems in her household. The girl and her mother cower in the shadow of their alcoholic father, who is presented throughout the film only from the chest down, a scoundrel with no face who beats his child and wife and, eventually, in a drunken rage shoots his daughter with a gun, putting Sarah’s abused life to an early end.
The message of “Heaven’s Child” is clear, delivered partly though Sarah’s diary entries: Domestic violence is bad. What distinguishes the film is not so much the simple message but that the message is being addressed on film at all, and with Saudi characters.
On a lighter note: “Laylat Al-Badr” (Moon Night) takes viewers one a short but stimulating tour of Hijazi (Western Saudi) culture, capturing the tales spun by elderly Jeddawis in their distinct colored turbans. The old men talk about traditional singing and dancing and marriage customs and Ramadan and Eid and the film is a whirlwind of abrupt cuts and changes in streams of thought — it’s as if the narrative of the film is tracing the narrow alleyways amid the old buildings of Jeddah’s Historic Center with their countless turns. The film obviously aimed to be as spontaneous as possible with one interview subject and topic jumping to the next. Nonetheless the Hijazi music put fire beneath the seats of the audience, especially among the women, who clapped along to the music and cheered the songs they obviously recognized.
During last year’s film forum, media personnel, actors and directors engaged in a discussion on the subject of Saudi film. This year such discussions were not planned. Organizers say they believed that the public wasn’t interested in the spin and just wanted to watch some films. On Friday organizers will announce the winners of the best Saudi film and documentary out of the 19 being shown.