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When cinema was still banned in Saudi Arabia, Meshal Aljaser posted his short films on social media, gaining more than 200 million views. His short films “Is Sumyati Going to Hell?” and “Under Concrete” later showed on Netflix, while “Arabian Alien” won awards in Sundance and Atlanta. “Naga”, his first feature, screened in Toronto and Red Sea, and is currently streaming on Netflix.
Naga screened at Red Sea Film Festival
The movie begins with a shocking scene of violence in the 70s, which actually looms over the rest of the story, that takes place, however, in the present, and focuses on Sarah, a young woman who has received a set curfew by her father to return from her visit in the market, which is, though, just an excuse to go on a date with potential suitor Saad. The latter has plans for them to attend an underground party in honor of...
Naga screened at Red Sea Film Festival
The movie begins with a shocking scene of violence in the 70s, which actually looms over the rest of the story, that takes place, however, in the present, and focuses on Sarah, a young woman who has received a set curfew by her father to return from her visit in the market, which is, though, just an excuse to go on a date with potential suitor Saad. The latter has plans for them to attend an underground party in honor of...
- 12/20/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
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The urge to dazzle can be its own straitjacket, and it’s one that weighs heavily on Meshal Aljaser’s feature debut “Naga.” He aims for a hurtling virtuosity, à la “Run Lola Run,” in depicting a disobedient young Saudi woman’s extreme travails in trying to get home before her strict curfew. But that quarter-century-old German thriller’s simplicity of plot supported its hyperbolic style, while here the writer-director is so preoccupied with camera and editorial calisthenics, nothing else has a chance to come into focus. The flamboyant but hollow results feel like too conscious a calling card for a talent that next time out should embrace some restraint, not to mention substance.
A 1970 prologue of murky relevance starts things off at peak melodramatic and cinematic hysteria, as a man enters a hospital with an automatic weapon while Dp Ibraheem Alshangeeti does upside-down 360’s for no obvious reason. In the present day,...
A 1970 prologue of murky relevance starts things off at peak melodramatic and cinematic hysteria, as a man enters a hospital with an automatic weapon while Dp Ibraheem Alshangeeti does upside-down 360’s for no obvious reason. In the present day,...
- 12/7/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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Young Saudi director Meshal Al Jaser, who springs from the country’s vibrant YouTube scene, is making a splash with his madcap feature debut “Naga,” in which a young woman named Sara goes on a date and takes drugs in the desert. She then must overcome various obstacles, including a rabid camel, to get home before the curfew set by her punishment-prone father.
Produced by Saudi’s prominent Telfaz11 production company in tandem with Netflix, “Naga” marks the first Saudi film selected for Toronto’s Midnight Madness program and is now premiering locally to ravishing response at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah.
Born in Riyadh, Al Jaser began making films at the age of 17, during the country’s now lifted cinema ban. He spearheaded an infamous “Folaim” YouTube channel that garnered more than 200 million views.
In 2017, when Saudi Arabia revived its cinema industry and removed the ban on theaters,...
Produced by Saudi’s prominent Telfaz11 production company in tandem with Netflix, “Naga” marks the first Saudi film selected for Toronto’s Midnight Madness program and is now premiering locally to ravishing response at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah.
Born in Riyadh, Al Jaser began making films at the age of 17, during the country’s now lifted cinema ban. He spearheaded an infamous “Folaim” YouTube channel that garnered more than 200 million views.
In 2017, when Saudi Arabia revived its cinema industry and removed the ban on theaters,...
- 12/4/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2UzYmEyNjgtZjVkOS00YWU2LWJjNGUtOGJiZTI3ZGY1NjkwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR31,0,500,281_.jpg)
Writer/director Meshal Aljaser’s Naga opens with a moment of shocking violence: in 1970, a man with a gun moves through the halls of a hospital, searching for his pregnant wife. When he finds her, he murders her and the male doctor, incensed that his baby boy wasn’t delivered by a female doctor as he prescribed.
The incident hangs heavy over the entire film – in part because of the random nature of the violence, but more specifically because it is so gendered. Saudi Arabia is a deeply patriarchal society where the rules of men are paramount and the penalties for women who “misbehave” are severe.
This is certainly the experience of Sara (Adwa Bader), the daughter of an affluent and intimidatingly strict man (Khalid Bin Shaddad). In the present day, Sara is gently rebelling however she can: she smokes (discreetly) and she has a secret boyfriend, Saad (Yazeed Almajyul...
The incident hangs heavy over the entire film – in part because of the random nature of the violence, but more specifically because it is so gendered. Saudi Arabia is a deeply patriarchal society where the rules of men are paramount and the penalties for women who “misbehave” are severe.
This is certainly the experience of Sara (Adwa Bader), the daughter of an affluent and intimidatingly strict man (Khalid Bin Shaddad). In the present day, Sara is gently rebelling however she can: she smokes (discreetly) and she has a secret boyfriend, Saad (Yazeed Almajyul...
- 9/13/2023
- by Joe Lipsett
- bloody-disgusting.com
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