Riyadh, June 09: They only had a few hours’ notice, but a few hundred Saudis braved a small band of religious hardliners to take part in a historic event on Saturday night: the first public showing of a commercial film in decades in the Saudi capital.
With bags of salty popcorn and soft drinks in their laps, the men-only crowd of more than 300 in Riyadh’s huge King Fahd Cultural Centre cheered, whistled and clapped when the first scenes of the Saudi-made Menahi hit the screen and the film’s score erupted in surround sound.
“This is the beginning of change,” said university student Ahmed al-Mokayed. Businessman Abdul Mohsen al-Mani, who brought his two sons to the film, said, ” I don’t want my two sons to grow up in the dark.”
It was long in coming — and no one is certain that it will launch a thriving public cinema industry, with opposition from clerics who regard film, music and other entertainment as violating Islamic teachings.
–Agencies