Arab Filmmakers Tackle Tensions in Society: ‘We Defy Invisibility’
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia leads this year’s Arab cinema contingent at Cannes with pioneering director Tawfik Alzaidi’s “Norah” launching internationally from Un Certain Regard plus a clutch of films in other sections by directors from Egypt, Palestine and Morocco.
They collectively reflect both the vibrancy and the many hurdles that filmmakers face in the region. “Norah,” which is set in 1990s Saudi, when conservatism was at its height and filmmaking and other forms of art were banned for religion-related reasons, premiered in December at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah.
It marks the first Saudi film to screen in Cannes, becoming a symbol of the kingdom’s rapidly growing moviemaking ambitions ever since Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinema in 2017.
The film’s titular character, played by Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi, is an illiterate orphaned young woman who has a need for self-expression and lives in a remote village where she faces an arranged marriage in which she will be trapped.
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