Cinema in Arabia: from 40 years without films to Hollywood premieres, authorized, in mixed theaters and with areas for prayer

• Big events Are they of any use to Saudi women?

  "It's a great publicity campaign"

• Halah Alhamrani, Saudi boxer "I still find families who believe that sport is not necessary for a woman"

• Religion The drama of the million Christians in Saudi Arabia: "A church here? Never"

It's Saturday, a public holiday in

, and there are queues at the Muvi cinema in

shopping mall .

Groups of young people decide between seeing the latest romantic comedy by Jennifer Lopez,

or the terrifying

, the latest Hollywood releases.

On the billboard there are also Egyptian and Kuwaiti films and the children

.

Nothing strange if it were not for the fact that there are two generations of Saudis who could not go to the cinema until 2018. With a population of 31 years on average and seven million inhabitants, cinemas were prohibited for 40 years.

Wahhabism, the most radical current of Islam that censors all artistic expression, imposed its control in 1979 by prohibiting the production and exhibition of films, music and even removing women from television and photographs from newspapers.

Focused on strictly complying with the precepts of religion, leisure in public disappeared.

"

. They would go out on a Friday night to gather 50 people," Mohammed Alrasheed tells EL MUNDO.

"Since 1995, my generation no longer saw the point of watching movies as if they were on television. We had other needs."

The children of those who could never go to the movies, or had to travel to other nearby countries to attend a big screen projection, now come in groups of friends and boys and girls can be together in the same room, although at the beginning of the opening attempted to segregate women into family rooms.

"The most conservative ones don't usually mix, but there are people with more open minds and more relaxed ideology who go together," explains this young man.

They pay an average of 17 euros and have options that are unusual in Europe, such as attending with babies or reserving a private session for family members, a way to attract older people who are used to this format.

Also, for those who strictly follow religious precepts, there are

Due to the prayer schedule, which varies, it coincides with the movies.

Own production and a festival

Although there are lost generations that will no longer set foot in a theater due to lack of habit, Arabia is the tenth largest importer of foreign films.

The first to be exhibited in 2018 was

, from the Marvel universe, and the first to be filmed broke ground: directed by a woman,

,

tells the story of a girl who wants to win a recitation contest from the Koran to buy a bike and compete with a friend.

In December 2021, the first edition of the Red

was held in Jeddah, where the red carpet brought together an amalgamation of party dresses and abayas.

However, the openness that oxygenates the life of young people has limits.

In Arabia

-themed films are prohibited and family films such as

or

were censored for exhibiting a lesbian kiss and a homosexual marriage.

Music

also taken steps forward.

It can be heard live in many venues in modern Riyadh, "and there are even Saudis who are putting together Western-influenced techno, rap and rock bands," Mohammed explains.

Every year, for the last three years, two festivals have been held:

and

, for electronic music, praised even by

.

"Young people like this, because the generation of the 60s and 70s continues with traditional music."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Spain Supercup

• cinema

• Saudi Arabia