Saudi Arabia banned film for 35 years. The Red Sea festival is just one sign of the industry's rise

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Priyanka Chopra News

Hana Al-Omair,Mohammed Elshehri,Viola Davis

“My Driver and I” was supposed to be made in 2016, but was scuttled amid Saudi Arabia’s decades-long cinema ban.

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The Red Sea International Film Festival venue, located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 7, 2024. The festival continues to showcase films from around the world, emphasizing Saudi talent and regional storytelling. The Red Sea International Film Festival was launched just a year later, part of an attempt to expand Saudi influence into films, gaming, sports and other cultural fields. Activists have decried the investments as whitewashing the kingdom’s human rights record as it tightly controls speech and remains one of the world’s top executioners.

Even “My Driver and I,” featured at the Red Sea festival alongside 11 other Saudi feature-length films, was initially too controversial. It centers on a Sudanese man in Jeddah, living away from his own daughter, who feels responsible for the girl he drives as her parents are absent. It was initially blocked from being made because of the relationship between the girl and the driver, filmmaker Ahd Kamel has said, even though it's not a romantic relationship.

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