Saudi Arabia Lands First Cannes Official Selection Slot with "Norah"

Saudi Arabia has landed its first movie in the Cannes Film Festival official selection with “Norah,” by pioneering director Tawfik Alzaidi.

“Norah,” which premiered locally in December at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, will be launching internationally from Cannes’ prestigious Un Certain Regard section.

The participant marks the first Saudi film to screen in Cannes and becoming a symbol of Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing film industry, following the lifting of a 35-year-old ban on cinema in 2017.

Set in the Kingdom in the 1990s, “Norah” tells the story of an illiterate, orphaned young woman who lives in a remote village in Saudi Arabia.

She faces an arranged marriage, feels trapped, and searches for a source of self-expression. Played by rising Saudi star Maria Bahrawi, Nora has a chance encounter with an artist named Nader — played by Saudi actor Yaqoub al-Farhan — who has given up painting and moved to the village to be a schoolteacher.

The meeting unleashes Norah’s passion for art during the height of the country’s conservatism when all forms of art and painting were banned.

“Norah” is produced by Alzaidi and U.S. producer Paul Miller, the former Doha Film Institute head of finance who shepherded “Scales” – which was Saudi’s submission for the Oscars in 2020 – and by Jordanian producer Sharif Majali.

They teamed up with Saudi production companies Black Sugar Pictures and Nebras Films.

“This marks one more step in the right direction for the Saudi film industry to be showcased on the international level,” said Saudi film industry pioneer Faisal Baltyuor, who is not directly involved in “Norah.”

Baltyuor, who is CEO of prominent distributor CineWaves Films, pointed out that since Saudi Arabia first officially attended Cannes in 2018 with a national pavilion, the country has had films selected by other top festivals such as Venice, Berlin, and Toronto. And now, Cannes

Global rights to “Norah” were acquired in December by a new company launched in Riyadh by former Universal Pictures exec Paul Chesney's TwentyOne Entertainment.

"Norah" was the first Saudi film to be shot in the ancient city of AlUla.

It won the top prize of a funding award from the Saudi Film Commission’s Daw Film Competition.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture launched the initiative in September 2019 to support Saudi film production and promote the next generation of filmmakers.