More or no more?

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – An excited crowd of hundreds of people turned up for Friday’s screening of the comedy film “Manahi”, capping a hugely successful nine-day run here and suggesting that a rift has opened between a section of the Saudi public that wants more cinema and a moral authority that sees it as evil.“What’s wrong with having cinema? People enjoy cinema when they go abroad, but here it seems we are different from the others,” Salman Boghas, 22, a college student who was “lucky” to find a seat in the front rows for the last screening of “Manahi” told Saudi Gazette.The showing of “Manahi” marked a triumphant return of cinema to Saudi Arabia after a three-decade absence. Thousands of men, women and children watched the film with multiple daily screenings over a period of 9 days in theaters in Jeddah and Taif. Turnout for the movie, produced by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s media company Rotana, was so big that the film had to be played eight times a day over a 9-day period, the organizers said. It had to be stopped in Taif due to overcrowding in the hall, Rotana spokesman Ibrahim Badi told Reuters.Commission chief clarifiesBut along with the film’s enthusiastic public reception which saw hundreds of moviegoers disappointed at not being able to get a seat at the final screening on Friday, there has also been a sharp negative response from Sheikh Dr. Ibrahim Bin Abdullah Al-Ghaith, the chief of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Sheikh Al-Ghaith made it clear that cinema was an evil and that the Commission was firmly against the opening of movie theaters in the Kingdom. “Our position on this is clear - ban it,” he said Friday. “That is because cinema is evil and we do not need it. We have enough evil already.”On Saturday, Sheikh Al-Gaith however clarified that the Commission has “no objection to cinemas as long as they are used in matters that please Allah.”There are many who agree with Al-Gaith. Ibrahim Al-Ansari, 28, a private company employee on hearing about young men dying to watch “Manahi” said that these people have nothing better to do. “They are adolescents who want to watch what the unprincipled international cinema industry presents. We are a conservative society that rejects such things,” Al-Ansari said.He added that he was sure that the religious institutes would soon stop what he called “the coming danger.” “Our scholars won’t remain silent while seeing this danger to our younger generations,” he said.On the other hand, there are many others who want more cinema, especially after having watched “Manahi.” Several internet websites have responded favorably to what they called “society’s strong wish”.Faiz Al-Maliki, the Saudi actor who is the star of “Manahi,” saw a bright future for cinema in the Kingdom. He said that there were hundreds of young men outside the theater shouting because they could not get a seat, adding that they were yearning to see more cinema in their homeland. “This film is for the Saudi family; in that there is nothing that contradicts our religion, values or traditions. Its content is suitable for younger and older people,” Al-Maliki said. Countering rumors that screening of “Manahi” was forcibly stopped in Taif, Maliki told Saudi Gazette. “This is normal, there are some people whose main concern is to fight success. These are like bats of darkness. I neither follow what they say nor do I care. What really happened was that our seven-day show contract came to an end.”“Manahi” stars new comedy sensation Maliki as a naive Bedouin entangled in a get-rich-quickly scheme in Dubai. In a comic technique, the movie highlights how the stock market can affect a simple person. In the movie, Manahi buys shares in a sheep company thinking that the shares would soar simply because people would buy sheep after an outbreak of bird flu.Saudi Arabia had some movie theaters in the 1970s but the industry was banned afterwards.