Andrzej Witold Wajda was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "Polish Film School". He was known especially for his trilogy of war films consisting of A Generation (1955), Kanał (1957) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).
Youssef Chahine was an Egyptian film director. He was active in the Egyptian film industry from 1950 until his death. He directed twelve films included in a list of Top 100 Egyptian films published by the Cairo International Film Festival. A winner of the Cannes 50th Anniversary Award, Chahine was credited with launching the career of actor Omar Sharif. A well-regarded director with critics, he was often present at film festivals during the earlier decades of his work. Chahine gained his largest international audience as one of the co-directors of 11'9"01 September 11 (2002).
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and arrest. While no law requires all citizens to be Muslim, non-Muslim foreigners attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must convert to Islam. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim.
Tom Tykwer is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing the thriller films Run Lola Run (1998), Heaven (2002), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), and The International (2009). He collaborated with The Wachowskis as co-director for the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012) and the Netflix series Sense8 (2015–2018), and worked on the score for Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections (2021). Tykwer is also well known as the co-creator of the internationally acclaimed German television series Babylon Berlin (2017–).
The cultural setting of Saudi Arabia is greatly influenced by the Arab and Islamic culture. The society is in general deeply religious, conservative, traditional, and family-oriented. Many attitudes and traditions are centuries-old, derived from Arab civilization and Islamic heritage. However, its culture has also been affected by rapid change, as the country was transformed from an impoverished nomadic society into a rich commodity producer in just a few years in the 1970s. This change has also been affected by and the result of a number of factors including the communications revolution and external scholarships. The most recent ruler or king of Saudi is King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is a government religious authority in Saudi Arabia that is charged with implementing the Islamic doctrine of hisbah in the country. Established in 1940, the body gained extensive powers in the 1980s and continued to function as a semi-independent civilian law enforcement agency for almost 35 years until 2016, when societal reforms driven by then-deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman led to limiting some of its authority through a royal decree by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, including the rights of pursuing, questioning, detaining, and interrogating suspects.
Haʼil is a city in north-western Saudi Arabia. It is the capital and largest city of Ha'il Region, with a population of about 498,575 (2022).
Muhammad Asad was an Austro-Hungarian-born Pakistani Muslim polymath. He worked as a journalist, traveler, writer, political theorist, and diplomat.
Abdullah Al-Eyaf is a Saudi Arabian film director also known as Abdullah Al Eyaf or Abdullah Aleyaf. He has directed many award-winning films.
The cinema of Saudi Arabia is a fairly small industry that only produces a few feature films and documentaries every year. Theaters were closed after religious activism in the 1980s. With the exception of one IMAX theater in Khobar, there were no cinemas in Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 2018, although there was occasional talk of opening movie theaters, and in 2008 conference rooms were rented to show the Saudi comedy film Mennahi. Saudis wishing to watch films have done so via satellite, DVD, or video. Cinemas were banned for 35 years until the first cinema in Saudi Arabia opened on 18 April 2018 in Riyadh.
Neukölln Unlimited is a 2010 German documentary. The film follows three Lebanese siblings—Hassan, Lial and Maradona—through their daily lives in Berlin's district of Neukölln.
Saudis or Saudi Arabians are an ethnic group and nation native to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who speak the Arabic language, a Central Semitic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. They are mainly composed of Arabs and live in the five historical Regions: Najd, Hejaz, Asir, Tihamah and Al-Ahsa; the regions which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded on or what was formerly known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd in the Arabian Peninsula. Saudis speak one of the dialects of Peninsular Arabic, including the Hejazi, Najdi, Gulf and Southern Arabic dialects, as a mother tongue.
Raif bin Muhammad Badawi is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals.
María Sólrún Sigurðardóttir, also credited as Maria Solrun is a German film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her work on the films Adam and Jargo.
Wadjda is a 2012 Saudi Arabian drama film, written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour. It was the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first feature-length film made by a female Saudi director. It won numerous awards at film festivals around the world. The film was selected as the Saudi Arabian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. It successfully earned a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the 2014 BAFTA Awards.
Queen of the Desert is a 2015 American epic biographical drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog and is based on the life of British traveller, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and political officer Gertrude Bell. The film follows Bell's life chronologically, from her early twenties until her death. It was Herzog's first feature film in six years after his 2009 film My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
Mahmoud Sabbagh, or Mah Sabbagh is a Saudi film director, producer, and screenwriter. Sabbagh has been a major pioneer of independent cinema in Saudi Arabia since 2013. His debut feature, titled Barakah Meets Barakah, premiered at Berlin Film Festival in 2016; becoming the first feature film from Saudi Arabia to screen in the festival. His debut film was also selected as the entry of Saudi Arabia for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.
Barakah Meets Barakah is a 2016 Saudi Arabian drama-comedy film directed and written by Mahmoud Sabbagh, a remarkably candid Saudi Arabian love story which uses humor as a counterweight to the difficulties the couple face. Principal photography of Barakah Meets Barakah began on 25 September 2015 and ended on 22 October, and was shot entirely in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The film was selected as the Saudi Arabian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.
The Red Sea International Film Festival is a film festival launched in 2019 and held in Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia. The festival mainly focuses on new storytelling trends, as well as emerging talents from Saudi Arabia, the Arab world and the rest of the Global South. The festival looks at establishing a solid foundation for the film industry in Saudi Arabia that may contribute to diversifying the income of the country. The first edition of the festival was held in the old town of Jeddah from 6 December to 15 December 2021. The second edition of the festival was held between 1 and 10 December 2022, and featured the best films from Saudi Arabia, the region and a curated selection of titles from around the world.
Meshal Aljaser is a Saudi Arabian filmmaker, most notable for fast cutting, and topics that address the clash of Saudi culture, and musings at religious belief and the afterlife. His made a mini-series Folaim Ya Gholaim, and a short film Arabian Alien which premiered in the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. His short film Is Sumyati Going to Hell? tackles issues of religion, culture, and injustice towards maids in Saudi Arabia. It is told from the eyes of a young protagonist who questions her family's beliefs. It is featured as part of Netflix's six windows in the desert. He has often tried to push the cultural boundaries through provocative videos, such as when he features a Saudi man licking an American woman's face on his music video "Fadayeh" [scandals].
