Saudi film 'Raven Song' makes UK debut at SAFAR Film Festival – Arab News

DUBAI: Saudi filmmaker Mohamed Al-Salman’s “Raven Music” — the Kingdom’s entry for this yr’s Academy Awards — had its British premiere on July 2 as a part of the annual SAFAR Movie Competition. His fellow Saudi Maha Al-Saati was additionally featured within the pageant along with her quick “VHS Tape Changed.” 

SAFAR payments itself because the UK’s largest pageant devoted to cinema from the Arab world, and this yr’s theme is “A Journey Via Area and Time.”  

As curator Rabih El-Khoury defined, this yr marks 20 years for the reason that invasion of Iraq and 75 years for the reason that Nakba in Palestine. Together with the current unrest in Sudan, he stated, “I used to be fascinated by the significance of time, the significance of those dates.” However equally necessary is the “house” facet of this system. “The Arab world consists of such a wealthy geography. We now have a Somali movie in this system — many individuals don’t know that Somalia is an Arab nation; we have now the 2 Saudi movies, movies from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Syria… We wished to discover the geography of the Arab world.” 

The 2 movies from the Kingdom share similarities — and never simply their nation of origin. In “Raven Music,” set in 2002, a person who has been identified with a mind tumor seeks to woo a lady with whom he has turn into infatuated by way of tune. It’s, in line with the pageant’s synopsis, “a satire about an absurd love story and a seemingly misplaced soul.” 

Al-Saati’s quick, in the meantime, is ready in 1987 and tells the story of a younger Black Saudi man making an attempt to impress his crush “by mimicking an iconic singer.” 

“They’re each love tales, actually,” El-Khoury stated. “And what I discover extra fascinating than the singing theme is definitely that they’re each period items — eras which are very completely different from at present’s Saudi. Courting, for instance, was fully completely different; you by no means had blended places for women and men. I discover it very fascinating that Saudi filmmakers are revisiting — or rediscovering — the previous of their tales. 

“I used to be involved in each of them as a result of they discuss house and time — so each slot in our theme of this yr — but additionally as a result of we don’t know a lot about Saudi as a rustic. What we do find out about it’s what we hear within the information,” he continued. “Movies like these — that are fully completely different from what we count on not solely from Saudi cinema, however from Arab cinema — are fascinating for me; movies that talk about issues that we, as a public, don’t essentially know. It is fascinating to discover what Saudi is, as a rustic, by way of the lens of its filmmakers, not simply by way of the information.”  

El-Khoury was talking the day after the screening of “Raven Music,” which was adopted by a Q&A with Al-Salman. “The movie isn’t a simple movie, I’ve to say. It’s a style movie from Saudi Arabia and folks right here don’t essentially know the filmmaker,” El-Khoury stated. “We have been thrilled that we might current this singular voice from Saudi Arabia, however after all you don’t know if the general public will flip up or not. However we had a very good crowd and what I believed was actually fascinating is that the viewers additionally stayed for the Q&A; they have been desperate to take heed to him converse. Which made the Q&A simply as fascinating as watching the movie. There have been Saudi folks and non-Saudi folks within the viewers, and everybody mirrored on the movie in a really particular manner.  

“There have been individuals who wished to know some bits and items about precise scenes from the movie, however the director didn’t wish to elaborate; he stated he wished the viewers to know it the way in which they wished, and didn’t wish to give them his imaginative and prescient of issues. But additionally folks requested in regards to the political facet, since 2002 was a essential yr (within the area) due to the occasions of 2001. I believed it was very fascinating how he tackled this query. He stated he was making a movie for the native viewers, and that, on the time, in Saudi, folks weren’t fascinated by politics on a regular basis; they carried on with their lives. So he was extra involved in telling a social story than a political one. He stated that if he had made a movie in regards to the political ambiance on the time, then the native viewers would know that this was a movie made for Westerners.” 

The screening match nicely with what El-Khoury’s targets for SAFAR.  

“I’m so excited that audiences are responding to, and figuring out with, what we do,” he stated. “Non-Arabs are discovering the Arab world in all of its range and complexity. They usually’re altering their perspective on the Arab world.”