RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Aspiring Saudi filmmaker Mohammed al-Khalif is having a hard time finding a leading woman for his short film, "Garbage Bag." Partly, it is because Saudi Arabia does not allow unrelated men and women to mingle and has no movie theaters or film schools, and no culture of actors or acting.
And partly, it's the subject matter.
"Garbage Bag" is about a woman stuck in a public restroom because her abaya, the black cloak women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public, has been stolen. After an agonizing night in the restroom, she fashions an abaya out of a black garbage bag and walks out."It's almost impossible to find a woman to act in a movie and even harder to find someone willing to wear a garbage bag as an abaya," said Khalif, a 23-year-old graduate student who sports a goatee and white-rimmed glasses. "My intent is not to insult the abaya, but to use film to ask why it has become such a shackle for Saudi women."
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Saudi Films
Washington Post reports today on Saudi filmmakers and their plight. The religious goons in the country have suceeded in having movies banned since the 1980s because they are "evil." I love the subject of the film that leads the story.
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3 comments:
My goodness what a topic – toilets and abaya all in one place ; but seriously I often wonder if all the misogynists in Saudi love their mother, sister, daughter and think the rest of femalekind are different
Bizarre.
Sounds like interesting art. He could make it with anyone in the role outside Saudi... Sounds like a whiner?
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