Arab directors seek wider audiences – Sabbagh talks challenges facing Saudi filmmakers

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LOS ANGELES, May 14, (RTRS): After being largely confined to auteur ghettos and fest circuits, Arab directors are increasingly shifting toward making more accessible pics that can connect with larger audiences, both at home and abroad.

A desire to appeal to a wide audience is nothing new, since historically there have been directors such as Egypt’s late great Youssef Chahine, who gave Egyptian cinema international exposure and also played well domestically. But since the so-called Arab Spring, a wider range of genres is surfacing, including comedies, thrillers and fantasy pics, just as a younger generation of filmmakers tackle the timely often tragic issues impacting daily life in the Arab world.

These issues — especially Islamic fundamentalism — are now seeping into more innovative types of narratives that can can give Arab cinema a wider reach besides being fodder for bona-fide dramas.

“There is a new generation of Arab directors who understand that they have to make movies with a more universal appeal,” says Eric Lagesse, head of France’s Pyramide Films, co-producer of Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s Islamic fundamentalism-themed “Clash,” which is screening in Un Certain Regard in Cannes.

Set entirely inside an overcrowded truck packed with pro and anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Cairo, “Clash” is “very dramatic, but also funny” says Lagesse. Diab is known internationally for bold sex harassment pic “Cairo 678,” which played well both in Egypt and in France.

“Egyptian filmmakers have always looked to both the local and international markets,” says Intishal Al Timimi, co-topper of the Sanad Abu Dhabi film fund for Arab cinema. “But, for those outside Egypt it’s much tougher.”

Even Lebanese sensation Nadine Labaki, who set box office records in her home country, most recently with her fresh 2011 dramedy “Where Do We Go Now?” about a group of Muslim and Christian women in a remote village who band together to stop their hotheaded husbands from sparking another war, only played in Egypt for a few weeks, he notes.

Blames

More recently Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad’s “The Idol,” about Gazan singer Mohammed Assaf, who went from living in a refugee camp to winning “Arab Idol,” failed surprisingly at the Arab box office last year, Al Timimi points out. He blames this partly to the fact that several Arab territories don’t even have movie theaters, or are severely under-screened. While Egypt, somewhat like China, has a quota restriction on non-Egyptian films that penalizes outside Arab helmers.

In Egypt, however, a post-Tahrir Square pop culture is spawning fresh fare that’s getting local traction such as Amr Salama’s black comedy “Excuse My French,” about a Christian kid enrolled in an Islamic public school who’s forced to conceal his religious identity, and Marwan Hamed’s supernatural thriller “The Blue Elephant,” set in a psychiatric hospital. Both reached top slots in Egypt’s 2014 box office charts.

Salama’s next film will be “Sheikh Jackson,” about an Egyptian Islamic fundamentalist cleric with a secret passion for the music of Michael Jackson. Among other projects Hamed is developing is a film titled “Assassins” about the roots of ISIS.

“Cinema is very useful to show that life in these countries is not exactly what you see every day on CNN,” says Jean Labadie, head of French production-distribution company Le Pact. “I think right now there is plenty of interest on the part of international distributors to provide a perspective on everyday life in the Arab world that you just don’t get on TV.”

Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films, Le Pact, Germany’s Pandora and Egypt’s Film Clinic joined forces last year to co-produce Gaza-set romantic comedy “Catch the Moon,” by Palestinian director Sameh Zoabi, a European-Arab co-production effort that could serve as a model for mounting Arab movies with mainstream elements. “Catch the Moon” focuses on a young Palestinian whose father whimsically commits to providing him and his future bride a Mercedes-Benz as dowry, only to realize this is impossible due to the current Israeli blockade of Gaza.

“Conflict is just a context,” explains Labadie. “Inside this city at war there are still young people getting married and having love affairs. That’s the story we want to tell.”

While helmer-writer Haifaa Al Mansour directed the first Saudi Arabian feature shot entirely within the kingdom, her charming, polished debut “Wadjda” (2012) was co-produced with Germany, and her key technicians were all German. Al Mansour, who divides her time between Bahrain and the US, transitioned into directing “A Storm in the Stars,” a US-produced, big-budget, English-language period piece about the love affair between 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft and roguish older poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Pic is now in post-production. Inspirational value aside, “Wadjda” did relatively little to develop a homegrown Saudi industry, apart from setting a precedent as the first film submitted by the kingdom to the Academy Awards for foreign-language film consideration.

Now, a second Saudi feature, the independently financed, satirical comedy “Barakah Meets Barakah” is making waves at international festivals. But when you ask its helmer-writer-producer Mahmoud Sabbagh what he wants to do next, he says his focus is on building a film industry in his homeland.”Saudis watch and consume a lot of art,” he says. “Now it’s our time to produce.”

The 33-year-old Sabbagh grew up in Jeddah where he was influenced by Egyptian films of the 1980s. After earning a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking from Columbia University, he returned home, working as a columnist for a progressive newspaper before cutting his teeth on a 10-part Web series called “Cash.” It was shot over a two-month period, which he jokingly calls his film school.

“It was new for the Saudi audience, the cutting, the ideas discussed,” he says. “It was open about how things work, about class, about gender.”

Although Sabbagh searched for a sponsor for “Cash,” he didn’t find one, so he made it available for free online. Indeed, the Internet provides the chief way that Saudi filmmakers can get their work seen by the public. Now, however, after the success of “Barakah,” the Saudi-funded, pan-Arab TV network NBC plans to run “Cash.”

Created

Sabbagh says learning on the job created numerous production problems.

“When I made ‘Barakah Meets Barakah,’ I knew what the problems were and fixed them in advance, and the production was much smoother,” he says. “The toughest part was post, something very new for me. In my next film, I will hire a producer for post.”

“Barakah” premiered at the Berlinale Forum in February to strong reviews and media attention. French sales agent MPM Film nabbed the international rights, selling the film to Mad Solutions, which has a co-distribution pact with the Egypt-based Film Clinic for the Arab world, and an 11-country roll-out planned. Swiss and Austrian rights are already sewn up and MPM Film is in discussion with numerous other territories including the US.

Sabbagh is preparing his next feature, which will also revolve around Saudi youth culture, and an ambitious television series set in Jeddah during the tumultuous period of 1853-57. He says, “by doing films you create an eco-system, an industry and a culture.”

Sabbagh’s shoots have created Saudi job descriptions and introduced novel vocabulary words learned from the four Egyptian professionals who were part of his team. Production manager Mohd Jamal Eddien provided a crash training course for other crew members. Sabbagh is perhaps most proud of the fact that he and his team created a visual style that matches Jeddah’s aesthetic and pace, rather than copying Hollywood models.

No doubt in a country with only one cinema, Sabbagh and future Saudi filmmakers face enormous challenges.

“Fifty years ago, filmmaking wasn’t even thought about,” says Sabbagh. “Now there are talents everywhere. We could learn from Iran, Egyptian cinema, Dubai. We need films schools, film funds, policies, protections for cultural workers and producers. We need to professionalize the industry, provide legal frameworks, create jobs.”

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