Key Highlights
- Whitby/ for the Red Sea International Film Festival Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen’s road movie “Hijra,” about the bond formed between different generations of Saudi women during a journey across the desert, delves deep into the country’s multi-cultural DNA, intending to show the country’s little known aspect “as a melting pot,” says the director.
- “Hijra,” which is Saudi’s Academy Award submission and is in competition at the Red Sea Film Festival this week, is the second feature from Ameen whose feminist fable “Scales” made a splash after launching from Venice in 2019.
- Related Stories Kim Kardashian and Skims to Host Shoppable Holiday Livestream Event on TikTok (EXCLUSIVE) Shot in a vast swathe of desert and in several Saudi cities and urban areas including Jeddah, Medina, AlUla and Neom, “Hijra” is set in 2001 and revolves around a Saudi grandmother named Sitti (Khayriya Nazmi) traveling from Taif to Mecca to perform the sacred ritual of Hajj with her two granddaughters Janna (Lamar Faden) and Sarah (Raghad Bokhari).
- Popular on Variety The ambitious film, which features stunning visuals of remote parts of Saudi, is a co-production between A Beit Ameen and Iraqi Independent Film Center Production in association with Ideation Studios, Film Clinic, Human Film, Daw’ Film – Film Commission | MOC, Noon Art Media Production and Three Arts.
- Variety speaks to Ameen about taking her vision as filmmaker to the next level with “Hijra” and depicting Saudi Arabia “in a very different way.” How did this story germinate?
