Long banned passion for silver screen
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AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 25, 2008 00:00
JEDDAH - They howled and clapped, munching popcorn while cheering the figures on the screen - a normal movie theater scene elsewhere, but revolutionary in Saudi Arabia where films have not played publicly for decades.
Massive lines snaked out from the King Abdul Aziz Cultural Centre as Jeddah residents queued up to see the first feature film opened to the public for 30 years, hoping the event heralded a big change in the ultra-conservative kingdom's stinted cultural scene.
In what took hush-hush negotiations with senior political officials and the strict religious police, the Red Sea port of Jeddah and the nearby city of Taif allowed the Rotana entertainment group, owned by powerful Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, to put on its new comedy "Manahi" for nine days.
The result was overwhelming; the 1,200-seat hall hardly meeting the demand for the 15-riyal ($4) tickets over more than a week.
"The hall was filled up to the very last seat during the two shows scheduled each day, forcing us to add a third show after midnight," organiser Mamdouh Salem said.
Decades ago, film lovers in Saudi Arabia would crowd into clubs and halls to watch the same movies enjoyed throughout the Arab world.
But in the 1970s, clerics of the ultra-conservative Wahhabist version of Islam which is practiced in the country cracked down and banned cinemas for having a corrupting influence on society.
The taboo has been broken somewhat in recent years, with videos and satellite television, and movies shown surreptitiously at night in popular coffee shops.
Putting on the film in Jeddah, a progressive city compared to the capital Riyadh, took the support of Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the powerful governor of the province of Mecca, himself a poet and supporter of the arts.
With women sitting apart in the balcony, and men and boys on the ground floor below them, the hall echoed with raucous laughter as they took in the story of the misadventures of a Saudi country farmer who finds himself in the city of Dubai.
In what took hush-hush negotiations with senior political officials and the strict religious police, the Red Sea port of Jeddah and the nearby city of Taif allowed the Rotana entertainment group, owned by powerful Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, to put on its new comedy "Manahi" for nine days.
The result was overwhelming; the 1,200-seat hall hardly meeting the demand for the 15-riyal ($4) tickets over more than a week.
"The hall was filled up to the very last seat during the two shows scheduled each day, forcing us to add a third show after midnight," organiser Mamdouh Salem said.
Decades ago, film lovers in Saudi Arabia would crowd into clubs and halls to watch the same movies enjoyed throughout the Arab world.
But in the 1970s, clerics of the ultra-conservative Wahhabist version of Islam which is practiced in the country cracked down and banned cinemas for having a corrupting influence on society.
The taboo has been broken somewhat in recent years, with videos and satellite television, and movies shown surreptitiously at night in popular coffee shops.
Putting on the film in Jeddah, a progressive city compared to the capital Riyadh, took the support of Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the powerful governor of the province of Mecca, himself a poet and supporter of the arts.
With women sitting apart in the balcony, and men and boys on the ground floor below them, the hall echoed with raucous laughter as they took in the story of the misadventures of a Saudi country farmer who finds himself in the city of Dubai.