DUBAI, 22 March 2006 — A trailblazing Saudi film featuring the country’s first silver screen actress will be shown this summer everywhere in the Middle East — except the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where cinemas are banned.
“Keif Al-Hal” (How Are You?) is the first produced by Saudi-owned Arab entertainment company Rotana owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The movie is a comedy-drama which its makers say embodies the tension between moderates and religious extremists and the struggle, especially among the young, to embrace globalization while retaining cherished Islamic values.
Given the absence of a Saudi movie industry, the film was shot in neighboring Dubai. It was directed by a Palestinian-Canadian and the script was written by a Lebanese national and an Egyptian.
The film’s Saudi associate producer is 30-year-old Haifa Al-Mansur.
“Keif Al-Hal” tells the story of Sultan, played by Saudi heartthrob Hisham Abdulrahman who was the 2005 winner of the pan-Arab version of the Star Academy talent contest.
Sultan, who lives at his uncle’s home after the death of his parents, is constantly clashing with his pious and ultra-conservative cousin Khaled because of his hip attitude and Western style.
Enter Khaled’s pretty sister Sahar, played by a Jordanian actress.
Saudi actor Meshaal Al-Mutairi, who has experience in theater and television drama, plays an opportunistic character who becomes closer to Khaled and his family by growing a long beard pretending to be religious while vying for Sahar’s attention.
Sahar escapes the tensions at home by going out with her best friend Dunya played by first-time Saudi actress Hind Mohammed, 25.
The highest profile Saudi woman involved in films is the movie’s associate producer Mansur, who made a controversial documentary last year titled “Nisaa bila Dhil” (Women Without Shadow).
Her film, in which a reformist cleric declares that it is not mandatory for women to cover up their faces, caused an uproar among the hard-line clerical elite.
It was shown at 17 film festivals worldwide and has attracted the attention of Prince Alwaleed.
Mansur said she was optimistic about her country’s prospects in the light of reforms initiated by King Abdullah and wants to continue making films in Saudi Arabia.
“I will then be able to express myself in a way that society will listen and debate,” she said.
But actor Mutairi, 28, warned that nothing would change as long as many voices in the society regard a desire for modernity and self-expression through arts like cinema as an “immoral attachment to Western values.” He graduated from the theater school in 2000 at Riyadh’s King Saud University.
