Saudi ‘zero-censorship’ claim for film festival fails to mute critics

A glitzy international film festival in Saudi Arabia has laid out the red carpet for a host of famed actors and directors, promising a “zerocensorship” event that will feature LGBTQ+ themes despite being held in a country where homosexuality is criminalised.

Only five years since the hardline Gulf monarchy lifted a decadesold ban on cinemas, the Red Sea international film festival launched 10 days of screenings on Thursday. Guests include the Lebanese actor and director Nadine Labaki, as well as fellow directors Guy Ritchie and the Oscar winner Spike Lee.

The festival debuted in 2021 to accusations that the Saudi government was using culture to whitewash its poor human rights record.

Despite reforms of social laws, including allowing women to drive, the country’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, has overseen a surge in executions and crushed political dissent. According to US intelligence he probably ordered the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Michael Page, the deputy director of the Middle East and north Africa division at Human Rights Watch, accused the Saudi Arabian authorities of using “festivals as a reputation laundering tool to try to whitewash their quite terrible image”.

Mohammed Al Turki, a Saudi Arabian film producer and chief executive of the festival, said there was “a bit of western hypocrisy” when it came to criticism of holding a film festival in Saudi Arabia, adding that he was excited to host an event in his home country that would have been impossible a few years ago.

Asked by the film industry news website Deadline Hollywood about LGBTQ+ rights, Turki said: “The festival has a zero censorship policy … I don’t think you can have an international film festival if you’re going to have censorship.”

One of the films being screened, The Blue Caftan, is about a secretly gay Moroccan tailor who is forced to confront his sexuality. The festival website credits the director, Maryam Touzani, for covering “a complex subject with sensitivity, pointing the way to a society where tradition and tolerance can flourish together”.

This year, Riyadh announced a 40% cash rebate on film production, and alongside the screenings the festival will operate a conference to promote the sector, named the Red Sea Souk.