Dir: Albaqer Jafeer | Doc, Iraq 74′

 “You have dreams, but it’s important to fulfil them too”

The cinema has long provided an escape route, a journey into a dreamworld when reality is too much to bear, or freedom impossible. But does cinema have a future in the modern world ponders Iraqi filmmaker Albaqer Jafeer.

Four years in the making his documentary Take Me to The Cinema was inspired by Nassif Falak’s and serves both as a personal odyssey into the world of film and a potted history of a troubled era told through his protagonist, an Iraqi soldier who avoided active service in the 1980s Iran/Iraq disappearing into the world of film where his obsession with the film Papillon began.

The soldier reflects on a time only 50 years ago when travel was impossible, so the only way of escape was to flee into the darkness of a cinema. Papillon remained seared to his memory conjuring up images of conflict and confinement far worse than those experienced by Steve McQueen. Iraq went into lockdown when war was declared in 1981, so the soldier decided to forge a passport as a means of escape – he also forged passports for his friends.

Captured in magical images of the ancient riverside city and its splendid surrounds, the lyrical journey begins with the two traipsing round Baghdad in the purple gloaming during the evening prayer time. Intercut with reminiscences of the conflict, the 65-year-old former soldier and Jafeer browse through old combat gear, which now has a valuable market value of its own. A walk through a disused cinema is revealing – and it was where here the soldier last saw Papillon on the big screen. Italian movie posters of matinee idols still adorn the crumbling walls, old reels of film are strewn about the sandy aisles in a sight for sore eyes. But there’s also treasure amongst the wreckage. “Cinema is like an Iraqi person – he opines – it went through the sanctions and survived”. 

The final act comes full circle as the soldier acts out his ‘dream’ in the reality of the nearby countryside, striding symbolically through the wasteland, tossing away his combats triumphantly and embracing the future and all it holds declaring “I am here you bastards” a quote from McQueen’s Papillon in the film. Take me to the Cinema is another slim but enchanting film from the Arab world playing at this year’s Red Sea Film Festival. MT

RED SEA FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir/Ely Dagher | 119’ Drama Lebanon

The Sea Ahead is a rather languid feature debut for Lebanese writer/director Ely Dagher opts for moody enigma at the expense of a tangible plot in an enigmatic narrative that somehow suits its theme of directionless youth. 

Jana (Manal Issa) is back in a wintery Beirut to find life has changed in the Mediterranean capital – her father has even started doing the washing up in support of female emancipation. But Jana seems sullen at the prospect of being home again and somehow resentful of her middle-class parents. Trying to maintain a low profile while she  finds her feet again is impossible with her mother alerting the whole neighbourhood of her return from studying in Paris.

Beirut positively glows with the promise of new life, the city’s regeneration well on the way, with burgeoning construction stretching along the coastline – despite the ravages of the pandemic- but Jana is not convinced. Her years in Paris have broadened her horizons but not just culturally, leaving her disenchanted, coasting through her days not keen to work despite a potential job offer from family friend Hassan.

Another friend is getting married – word has it she’s already pregnant – and Jana’s father tuts away in dismay at the aimlessness of today’s younger generation:  “we fought and suffered” he claims, presumably referring to the 1982 war with Israel.

Seeing her old boyfriend Adam (Roger Azar) is the only thing that puts a smile on Jana’s face and they spend lazy days in the lowly mechanic’s apartment eating falafel, staring at their phones and dancing to Middle Eastern disco music until things turn sour.

A fadoesque portrait that explores a well to do generation with too much freedom and too many choices that leaves the uninspiring central character aimlessly drifting and dissatisfied. The feature works along similar lines to The Worst Person in the World although it lacks the energy, dramatic heft and fully fleshed out central character of the Cannes-winning Norwegian title showing that aimlessness can also have a winning appeal of its own. MT

RED SEA FILM FESTIVAL | Jeddah Old Town 6-15 December 2021

Dir/Wri: Haider Rashid | Adam Ali, Svetlana Yancheva, Mohomed Zouaoui, Michael Segal | Italy, Thriller 75′

This gritty migration movie clearly takes its cue from the 1964 black and white Czechoslovak classic Diamonds of the Night that followed two Jewish teenagers escaping from a train taking them to Dachau concentration camp.

Haider Rashid’s debut may slimmer of script and less engaging but the sombre subject remains the same. A breathless Zac handheld camera follows a young Iraqi Muslim who reaches the coast of Bulgaria on a boat, trafficked from North Africa. Hoping for a better life, rather than escaping certain death like the teens in Jan Nemec’s Czech New Wave debut that ends in tragedy, Europa is more enigmatic.

DoP Jacopo Caramella keeps his camera right up close to Kamal (Ali) as he rushes on through the bosky undergrowth. Occasionally the focus broadens to the near distance where his pursuers are hot on his trail. Europa is about the pain, fear and the gruelling tiredness suffered by this modern refugee who may be young and fit but is also injured and exhausted by his dangerous odyssey, and ill-equipped to endure the perilous journey that lies ahead when night falls.

Writing with Sonia Giannetto, Haider keeps the tension taut in this fact- based drama driven forward by Kamal’s terrorised POV. We feel his sheer exhaustion, his fear-fuelled energy sapping away. Eventually he reaches a safe haven in the woods but not for long. Adam Ali grew up in the safety of Manchester but his performance as Kamal is fraught with palpable terror in this tightly-wound unhurried tragedy that ponders the unkindness of strangers. MT

RED SEA FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir: Radu Muntean | Romania, 104′

“No good dead goes unpunished” is the idea behind this latest film from Romania’s Radu Muntean (One Floor Below). Întregalde ponders how modern Romania has gone backwards and forwards at the same time through a richly thematic psychodrama playing in this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival.

Written by Răzvan Rădulescu, Alex Baciu and Radu Muntean it centres on three friends Maria, Ilinca and Dan (played by Maria Popistașu, Ilona Brezoianu and Alex Bogdan) who embark on a humanitarian mission to deliver food parcels to a remote part of Transylvania.

But on their way home the upbeat charity jaunt soon turns into a stress-fuelled nightmare when they pick up a mysterious old man in the forest. Kente (played by non-pro actor Luca Sabin) takes them wildly off track, before leaving them on a muddy track in the autumnal gloom of the Apuseni mountains.

Early scenes strike a familiar note for most of us used to charity efforts, food banks and child poverty, now at 21st century reality. In the back of their land-rover the two stranded women talk about relationships and fertility problems while they wait for Dan (Bogdan) to get help to repair their stricken vehicle. Arguments follow as they all fall out over their decision to leave the main road in the bitterly cold falling snow. By the morning the woods are transformed into a winter wonderland where time seems to have shifted back hundreds of years in the village of Întregalde.

Muntean gives us a sardonic vision of a country where two worlds collide: one is the complex modern existence, the other is caught in a fairytale past of painted wooden houses and rural traditions. Both exist in the 21st century: Kente still believes in his imaginative stories and folklore and lives sustainably off the land and his livestock. The three helpers have been catapulted into an economic reality where food and money are now scarce for many ordinary people, caught in the poverty trap of modern Romania. MT

RED SEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL | JEDDAH OLD TOWN 6 -15 December 2021

 

Dir: Amir Fakher Eldin | Drama 112′

“How can we fear death when we have not lived”

Amir Fakher Eldin’s feature debut a melancholy parable, a tribute to all those oppressed or forced to live elsewhere. As Palestine’s Oscar 2022 hopeful the film also reflects the disenchantment of the older generation with the next one, as it in turn considers an uncertain future in the internecine conflict. Laced with metaphors and sage quotes from ‘the prophets’, this quietly engrossing slow-burner establishes character and place before moving on to a tense but satisfying conclusion.

On an opening vignette a father (Mohammed Bakri) is writing his will, disinheriting his only son Adnan (Ashraf Barhom, an borderline alcoholic failed doctor who has always disappointed him, leaving all his worldly possessions to the temple, apart from the treasured family orchard which produces a decent crop of apples and cherries on the slopes of the occupied Golan Heights.  

Amid the sound of distant shelling we meet Adnan, tending the orchards in the glowing shades of late Autumn, a dusting of snow glistens on the distance mountains, a chilly reminder of another winter of discontent. Rather than turn in a profit the orchard is the his refuge to get away from the everyday realities of a cow with an infection, a wife who wants to emigrate, and a daughter who desperately needs his guidance. Meanwhile his brother in law demands he shape up or ship out. At least he still has his faithful dog Kosba.

On his way home Adnan is stopped by Israeli soldiers who smell drink on his breath, he winds them up a provocative way, claiming to be heading to Damascus and challenging them over the Israeli occupation. Not a clever idea in the circumstances, but Adnan is not a particularly sensible man whose poor decisions have left him and his family financially broken.

But Adnan is a decent soul, and his next decision is a good one. Driving with his friends Akram and Hani, later that night, they pick up a wounded man who is gravely ill, and needs a doctor. Hani insists on knowing the man’s identity before they get a doctor. But Adnan objects to Hani’s lack of care: whoever the man is he deserves saving. Using his medical knowledge he treats the man’s leg wound himself.

When he wakes up the man claims to be a Syrian war photographer searching the Golan Heights for his grandparent’s house before they were exiled to Syria in the 1967 war. A Syrian exile himself, Hani insists on seeking the advice from the elders, still believing the photographer to be an imposter. Should the traditional values of neighbourliness transcend political differences? Eldin’s absorbing drama raises all sorts of questions, but in a poetically appealing, unoffensive way. MT

RED SEA FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir: Yamina Benguigui | France, Drama 99′

Isabelle Adjani is the star of this turbulent sophomore feature from French filmmaker Benguigui that sees three sisters ride an emotional rollercoaster en route to discovering what became of their brother after their father took him back to their homeland.

Part road movie, richly complex character study and melodrama, Benguigui touches on socially relevant themes of immigration and female empowerment in her largely autobiographical film that is powered forward by genuine enthusiasm – and it succeeds, despite structural flaws, in relating a genuine story of sisterhood set against a turbulent past.

The film open as the youngest sister Norah (Maiwenn) finds herself back home with her mother Leila (a fierce Fattouma Ousliha Bouamari) causing ructions in the domestic status quo. Past resentments resurface, Norah blaming her mother’s divorce from their abusive Algerian father as the root of her problems. But Leila claims she bringing her daughters to freedom they now enjoy in France. And although only the middle sister, Djamila (Rachida Brakni), seems settled with a high profile career in the Law her feathers are ruffled when the eldest sister Zorah (Isabelle Adjani) decides to write a play about the family story, the others reacting with varying degrees of horror, not wanting to relive the trauma through a play. Sudden news of their father’s stroke back in Algeria then forces the girls to pull together and visit him in the hope of a family reunion, and to find out what happened to Redah.

Much soul-searching follows as they all make the fraught homeward journey that leads to  tears and violent recriminations, and some really powerful acting from the trio. Benguigui’s fractured narrative swings flips backwards and forwards to fill us in on the past, but the doubling up in casting is often confusing with Zorah’s daughter Farah, (played by Hafsia Herzi) also playing her mother in the play’s flashbacks. And the father’s sudden stroke feels rather too convenient as an opportunity to return to Algeria although the scenes around the capital are some of the film’s most enjoyable moments. And it’s interesting to see some nuanced subtlety for Adjani after her more fraught roles in Possession and Camille Claudel.

RED SEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2021

 

Every festival has to attract and entertain the public and The Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) is no different. Taking place from 6-15 December, it will be a chance for audiences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to catch up on some of the year’s most powerful stories from iconic, award-winning international filmmaking voices. All eight films in the INTERNATIONAL SPECTACULAR section will be Arab premieres, showcasing the very best of international cinema.

Much will be made of the ground-breaking contribution of women to cinema, including tributes and masterclasses from some of the most inspiring female names in cinema. The Festival will honour the first female Saudi filmmaker, Haifaa Al Mansour, who is not only one of the most significant names in the Saudi film industry, but has lead the way in championing female empowerment across the region. Academy Award and BAFTA nominated French actress Catherine Deneuve will also be honoured by the Festival.

Academy-Award, BAFTA, and multiple award-winning writer, director, and actor Giuseppe Tornatore’s latest, Ennio, is a documentary focusing on the late Ennio Morricone, who was among the most influential and prolific musicians of the twentieth century, the winner of two Academy Awards and composer of over 500 unforgettable movie soundtracks. Tornatore interviews the Maestro himself, who had a long-established association with the director, having composed the music for 13 Tornatore feature films, including for Tornatore’s Academy-Award winning Cinema Paradiso.

Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour is a fantasy thriller that had its world premiere this year at Venice, telling the story of a girl with unusual powers, who escapes from a mental asylum and tries to make it on her own in New Orleans. Starring Jeon Jong-seo, Kate Hudson, Craig Robinson and Ed Skrein.

French-Algerian director Yamina Benguigui’s latest film Sisters (French: Soeurs), starring Isabelle Adjani, tells the story of three French-Algerian sisters: Zorah, Nohra and Djamila. For thirty years, they have been living in the hope of finding their brother, Rheda, abducted by their father, and hidden in newly decolonized Algeria. When they learn that their father is dying, the three sisters decide to go to Algeria to seize their last opportunity to have him reveal where their brother is.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter also world premiered at Venice 2021 where the director won Best Screeplay for her adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name. It stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley in the film adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name. The psychological drama tells the story of a woman on holiday, who meets another woman and her young family, prompting surprising memories of her own early motherhood. Expect something completely different.

 

Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Kenneth Branagh, Belfast is an autobiographical poignant story of love, laughter and loss in one boy’s childhood, amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s in Northern Ireland. The highly anticipated cinematic tribute to Branagh’s native city is beautifully shot in black-and-white and stars Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, and Ciarán Hinds. The film scooped the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Spanish comedy The Good Boss (Spanish: El Buen Patrón) is written and directed by Fernando León de Aranoa. Standing on the industrial outskirts of a small provincial town, for decades Básculas Blanco, played by Javier Bardem, has been making industrial scales for major retail outlets, to weigh vehicles and livestock. The good boss likes to tell his workers that Lady Justice holds Blanco’s scales in her hand. The film premiered at this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival and has been chosen as the Spanish entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming 94th Academy Awards.

You Resemble Me (French: Tu Me Ressembles/main image) is the directorial debut of Egyptian-American filmmaker and award-winning journalist, Dina Amer. The film, co-written by Amer and Omar Mullick, tells a story of cultural and intergenerational trauma, takin-g on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructing it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging. After two sisters on the outskirts of Paris are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. The film had its world premiere in the Venice Days section of this year’s Venice International Film Festival.

Based on a true story, Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor plays Clarice Cliff, a remarkable figure who revolutionized the British pottery industry in the 1920s. Sky Original Film The Colour Room directed by Claire McCarthy is a fabulous period drama showing how Cliff battled against the odds in a world run by men to establish herself as a pioneering ceramic artist, impressing an eccentric factory owner (Matthew Goode) with her ingenuity. Director Claire McCarthy makes a brilliant mark by highlighting the battles women had to win to be heard in the workplace in a feel-good tale of talent, determination, and perseverance.

RED SEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2021

 

The inaugural edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival is set to bring the best in Arab and World Cinema to the UNESCO world heritage site of Jeddah Old Town.

The Festival will open with Joe Wright’s musical dramady CYRANO (2021) based on Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play and starring Peter Dinklage in the lead alongside Ben Medelsohn and Haley Bennett (as Roxanne). The world premiere of Egyptian director Amir Salama’s BARA EL MANHAG closes the festival in a light-hearted mode after ten days showcasing a compelling slate of new and diverse films, alongside a retrospective programme celebrating the masters of cinema as well as introducing audiences to exciting new voices from the region and beyond. The Festival will provide a platform for Arab filmmakers and industry professionals from around the world to connect, host feature and short film competitions, and present a series of events, masterclasses, and workshops to support emerging talent.

COMMUNION is the latest film from Tunisian actor, director and writer Nejib Belkadhi. In life under lockdown, Sarra works from home, helping people distressed by Covid-19. The film questions whether they can survive this confinement without sinking into depression and whether their marriage can return to normal. The film is one of 14 to receive a grant from the Red Sea Fund, and will have its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

PAKA – RIVER OF BLOOD (above) s the feature debut from Indian writer and director Nithin Lukose. The Malayalam-language drama introduces us to two families in North Kerala that that for generations have been locked in a blood feud, separated by the river running between them that has become a makeshift graveyard for the feud’s many casualties. When Anna and Johnny, scions of these opposing clans, fall in love, it signals hope to ending the violence – until another body is pulled from the river.

HUDA’S SALON (above) is the latest film from Academy Award nominated Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad. The film, written and directed by Abu-Assad, follows Reem, a young mother married to a jealous man, who goes to Huda’s salon in Bethlehem for a haircut and an attentive ear. The feminist thriller portrays two women fighting for their freedom, filled with contradictions and battles between betrayal and loyalty.

In its world premiere at RSIFF, SOULA (above) is the directorial debut feature from Salah Issaad, co-written with Soula Bahri. Bahri plays herself in this road movie about a young single mother rejected by her family. Trying to make it through the night with her baby, she sets out along the roads of Algeria, only to find herself caught up, through a series of unfortunate encounters, in a spiral of violence.

EUROPA (above)is the latest feature from writer and director Haider Rashid. Intent on leaving Iraq for Europe, Kamal faces a long, difficult and dangerous journey on foot. Crossing the border between Turkey and Bulgaria, where local mercenaries are hunting down migrants, he must negotiate a seemingly endless forest that is also host to a lawless underworld. The film premiered during this year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

BRIGHTON 4TH is the third fiction feature from Georgian New Wave director Levan Koguashvili. Kakhi, a former Olympic wrestler, travels to New York to clean up a mess made by his gambling addict son, Soso, who was trying to marry Lena for a green card. Khaki discovers that life in America is not that different from Georgia. The film presents a touching exploration of masculinity in a stunning central performance by real-life former Olympic wrestling champion Levan Tediashvili. Selected as the Georgian entry for the upcoming 94thAcademy Awards, it had its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, where it won Best International Narrative Feature Film.

YUNI above)  the latest feature from award-winning Indonesian writer and director Kamila Andini. At 16, Indonesian schoolgirl Yuni will qualify for a highly-prized college scholarship if she maintains good grades and avoids marriage. She has already rejected two suitors, but her community’s belief is beginning to close in on her: if a woman rejects three proposals, they say, she will never marry at all. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Platform Prize, and has been selected as the Indonesian entry for the upcoming 94th Academy Awards.

SALOUM (above) is the latest feature from Congolese writer and director Jean Luc Herbulot. Set against the backdrop of the 2003 Guinea-Bissau military-backed coup d’etat, an elite trio of mercenaries extract a drug dealer and his wares from the chaos to take him to Dakar, Senegal. The escape goes awry, leaving them stranded in the Sine-Saloum Delta, an area rife with myth and mystery, where the mercenaries face an unexpected foe from local legend.

RUPTURE directed by Saudi filmmaker and writer Hamzah Jamjoom is a suspenseful drama that follows a Saudi pregnant woman who must decipher reality from dreams, drug-induced delusions, and perceptions of death before a killer gets to her and her family. Her fractured life and memory are not the only thing that stands in her way.

REHANA MARYAM NOOR is the second feature from Bangladeshi writer and director Abdullah Mohammad Saad. A tense tale of abuse, accusation, and resistance, the film depicts the opposition and negligence at a university when Rehana, an assistant professor, reports a professor abusing students. The film was selected in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Bangladeshi film to be featured in this category. It has also been selected as the Bangladeshi entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming 94th Academy Awards.

HIT THE ROAD (above) has been one the highlights of the summer festival circuit in Europe and the feature debut from Iranian writer and director Panah Panahi. This road movie is a rollercoaster ride of emotions – from belly-aching laughter to a sea of tears – as a family of four take a borrowed car on a road trip to the sounds of 1970s Iranian pop. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Caméra d’Or for best first feature. At the BFI: London Film Festival, it won the top prize for Best Film.

Written and directed by Al Hadi Ulad-Mohand, LIFE SUITS ME WELL is set in the mid-1990s, in a small town in the north of Morocco, where Fouad is the only employee of the local post office. When he is diagnosed with a neurological disease, his whole family enters a new chapter of their lives during which they rediscover what life means to them. The film is one of 14 to receive a grant from the Red Sea Fund, and will have its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

NEIGHBOURS (above) is the latest film from Kurdish writer and director Mano Khalil. Arabs, Kurds and Jews live amicably together in a small Syrian village on the Turkish border. The arrival of a fanatical new teacher at the primary school divides the community, where 6-year-old Sero finds his own small world turned upside down. Drawing on his own experience, Khalilpays tribute to the good neighbours of his childhood.

FARHA (above) is the feature writing and directorial debut from Jordanian filmmaker Darin J. Sallam. In 1948 Palestine, 14-year-old Farha has almost convinced her father to let her go to school in the city. Her village comes under a bombing attack and her father leaves, locking her for safety in the family’s cellar and promising to return. Through a small hole in the wall, Farha watches the village she was excited to leave turned to rubble, bearing witness to the collapse of her country and the forced displacement of its people.

Written and directed by Samir Nasr, SHARAF is adapted from the novel of the same name by acclaimed Egyptian writer, Sonallah Ibrahim. Sharaf may dream of being fabulously rich, but when he ends up in prison after killing a man in defence of his honour, he has to wake up fast. Prison mirrors the outside world, with all its systemic inequality, injustice and corruption– although, even here, Sharaf believes he can make his fortune. The film will have its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

THE ALLEYS (above) is the feature directorial debut from Jordanian filmmaker Bassel Ghandour, who also wrote the film. East Amman’s labyrinthine neighbourhood Jabal Al Natheef runs on a toxic brew of gossip and violence. Just one thing is certain: that the shadowy corners of the alleyways are crawling with secrets. Ghandour is most well-known for writing and co-producing the 2016 BAFTA winning and Academy Award–nominated Theeb.

The inaugural edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival will run in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 6-15, 2021.

The Red Sea Film Festival will celebrate its inaugural edition from 6 -15 December 2021 in the world heritage site of Jeddah Old Town, flying the flag for a flourishing filmmaking scene in Saudi Arabia. 

The New Saudi/New Cinema selection showcases the latest features from Saudi directors. 

Junoon is the feature directorial debut of directors Maan B. and Yaser B. Khalid, played by Maan B., is a wannabe vlogger, who travels with his wife and best friend from Saudi Arabia all the way to Southern California, hoping to catch some great footage of paranormal happenings. When his wish comes true, the question becomes whether the three of them will have the presence of mind to turn the cameras off and flee.

Route 10 is the latest feature from director Omar Naim, co-written with Khalid Fahad. Jamal and Maryam are set to travel from Riyadh to attend their father’s wedding in Abu Dhabi, until the flight is cancelled, and they plan to make the journey by car instead. They underestimate the many hazards of the desert road, including an angry stranger whose terrifying pursuit has the brother and sister driving for their lives. Naim’s 2004 film The Final Cut, starring Robin Williams, was nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2004 Berlinale.

The omnibus film Quareer is a collection of five Saudi women’s stories. The five female filmmakers, Ragheed Al Nahdi, Norah Almowald, Ruba Khafagy, Fatma Alhazmi, and Noor Alameer explore themes of abandonment, neglect, control, abuse and shame in a conservative society. In a captivating portrayal of a harsh reality, these women don’t hesitate to carve out their own spaces.

Fay’s Palette is the feature directorial debut from writer and director Anas Ba-Tahaf and produced by the leading actor Hisham Fageeh. Fay lives in a cloistered apartment, which she can’t leave because her only obstacle to the outside world is her brother. She expresses all of her obsessions through painting, but when she orders a new paint palette, matters get complicated.

Directors Sara Mesfer, Jawaher Alamri, Noor Alameer, Hind Alfahhad and Fatima Al-Banawi tell five women’s stories in Becoming which was produced by the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation. Stories of a female infertility healer, an 11-year-old girl raised in a conservative household, a disappearing bride, a forty-year-old hairdresser contemplating an abortion, and a divorced mother are beautifully illustrated in this omnibus film from the five female filmmakers.

Kayan directed by Hakeem Jomaah takes us to an almost deserted hotel where a couple is stranded with their baby, here they are confronted with their obsessions. This only strengthens the circle in which they find themselves.

Cinema Al-Hara directed by Faizah Ambah follows the lives of three teenagers whose lives are changed forever when cinema come to the old neighborhoods of Jeddah. Shot during the Festivals community outreach program Saudi filmmakers and talents hosted workshops that contributed to the performance of the teenagers in addition to film screenings in the heart of the city.

The inaugural edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival will run in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 6-15, 2021