Secret cinema gently subverts Saudi Arabia's puritanism
In a country where culture can be declared sinful and cinemas were shut down in the 1970s, just showing a film can be revolutionary
"In a country with no public cinemas and where only a few films have been shown to the public in more than three decades, it is a radical step: a handful of film-makers in Saudi Arabia has launched a secret cinema group, showing their own films that explore social and political issues such as women's rights, the lives of migrant workers, urbanisation and the belief in black magic.
Last Thursday, after evening prayers, more than 60 people attended the first screening by the Red Wax secret cinema in a large warehouse in the south-western city of Abha. Directed to the clandestine event by text message, they crowded inside the hired space, which was then bolted shut.
Most sat on cheap red plastic chairs placed in rows before a makeshift screen made from a large white sheet, but as the audience was larger than the organisers had expected, some stood.
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Egyptian writer and curator Omar Kholeif, director of the UK's Arab Film Festival, also gave a cautious welcome to the secret cinema: 'I would personally question what real impact a 'secret' cinema event could have – after all, it is secret. In spirit, and in ethos, I think it is to be applauded, but what I would really like to see is how this group could intervene publicly – to mount a true act of subversion.'"
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