DUBAI: Saudi director Mohammed Al Salman’s “The Crow” – the kingdom’s entry to this year’s Oscars – premieres in Britain on July 2 as part of the annual Safari Film Festival. Fellow Saudi Maha Al-Saati also appeared at the festival with her short film “VHS Tape Replaced”.

SAFAR bills itself as the UK’s largest festival dedicated to cinema from the Arab world, and this year’s theme is ‘A Journey Through Space and Time’.

As explained by curator Rabie El-Khoury, this year marks 20 years since the invasion of Iraq and 75 years since the Nakba in Palestine. Besides the recent unrest in Sudan, he said, “I was thinking about the importance of time, the importance of these dates.” But the “space” aspect of the program is just as important. The Arab world consists of such a rich geography. We have a Somali film on the program – many people don’t know that Somalia is an Arab country; We have the two Saudi films, two films from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Syria… We wanted to explore the geography of the Arab world.”

The two films are similar from the Kingdom – not just their country of origin. In Raven Song, set in 2002, a man diagnosed with a brain tumor seeks to woo a woman he has become infatuated with through singing. It is, according to the festival’s brief, “a satire about an absurd love story and a seemingly lost soul.”

Meanwhile, the short film The Hours is set in 1987 and tells the story of a young black Saudi man who tries to impress him “by imitating a famous singer”.

“They are both really a love story,” Elkhoury said. And what I find more interesting than the subject matter of the singing is actually that they are two pieces of the era — very different eras from Saudi Arabia today. Dating, for example, was very different; you don’t have mixed sites for men and women. I find it very interesting that the directors The Saudis are revisiting – or rediscovering – the past in their stories.

“I was interested in both because they talk about space and time — so both fit with our theme for this year — but also because we don’t know much about Saudi Arabia as a country. What we know about it is what we hear on the news.” Saudi cinema, but from Arab cinema – interesting to me; Movies about things we don’t necessarily know as a whole. It’s interesting to explore what Saudi Arabia is, as a country, through the lens of filmmakers, not just through the news.”

Al-Khoury was speaking the day after the presentation of “The Crow’s Song”, which was followed by a question and answer with Al-Salman. “The film is not an easy film, I have to say. It’s a Saudi Arabia-type film and people here don’t necessarily know the director,” Al-Khoury said. “We were thrilled that we were able to bring this unique voice from Saudi Arabia, but of course you don’t know what Whether the public will attend or not. But we had a great crowd and what I thought was really interesting was that the audience also stayed for the Q&A; They were anxious to hear him speak. Which made the questions and answers as interesting as watching a movie. There were Saudi and non-Saudi people in the audience, and everyone reflected on the film in a very special way.

“There were people who wanted to know some bits and pieces about the actual scenes from the movie, but the director didn’t want to go into detail; he said he wanted the audience to understand it the way they wanted it, and he didn’t want to give them his view of things. But people also asked about the political side, a year ago. 2002 was a crucial year (in the region) because of the events of 2001. I thought it was interesting how he approached that question. He said he was making a film for the local audience, and at that time, in Saudi Arabia, people weren’t thinking about politics all the time; they just went on with their lives. So he was more interested in telling a social story than a political one. He said that if he had made a film about the political atmosphere of the time, the local audience would know that this was a film made for Westerners.”

The show fits well with El Khoury’s goals for Saffar.

“I’m really excited that the fans are responding and aligning with what we’re doing,” he said. Non-Arabs discover the Arab world in all its diversity and complexity. And they are changing their view of the Arab world.”