عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

Cinema ElHoush Champions Independent Films

Cinema ElHoush aims to revive the forgotten archive of classic cinema.
Cinema ElHoush aims to revive the forgotten archive of classic cinema.
TT
TT

Cinema ElHoush Champions Independent Films

Cinema ElHoush aims to revive the forgotten archive of classic cinema.
Cinema ElHoush aims to revive the forgotten archive of classic cinema.

Saudi Arabia's firs art house, Cinema ElHoush is championing independent movies, which veer away from mainstream commercial film-making. Independent films are often described as the cinema of the elite, given that they target an audience of refined taste and they do not make major revenues at the box office. They do, however, reap major global cinema awards.

Located in the Al Jadida neighborhood in AlUla, Cinema ElHoush is celebrating films that were screened at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

Cinema ElHoush is seeking to prove its standing as a hub for arts and cultural heritage by selecting films that back this ambition. Its selection of movies boasts the best productions from Japan, Norway, Italy, Thailand, the United States, Egypt, Morocco and other countries. Saudi cinema will also be highlighted as film-making in the Kingdom takes steady steps towards claiming its spot on the global scene.

Cinema ElHoush aims to revive the forgotten archive of classic cinema from the 1970s and 80s. It will screen films from Arab and global icons, such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and Khairy Beshara.

Director Mahmoud Sabbagh described the new season at Cinema ElHoush as being three times greater than the previous one that was held in Jeddah al-Balad in 2019.

As winter grips AlUla, he said: "The weather is not our main concern as the cinema is still operating independently and temporarily without clear licenses."

"We are awaiting the necessary permits so that it can operate on a regular basis and expand its reach," he explained.

"We are the first art house in Saudi Arabia. This gives us an extraordinary drive to keep going, but also places a lot of responsibilities on our shoulders in raising the quality of the movie-going experience," he remarked.

Five days a week, Cinema ElHoush attracts movie-goers who are seeking a refined film experience. On offer is a selection of local independent movies and global productions.

Cinema ElHoush also boasts a cafe dedicated to receiving the audience before and after the screening of movies. On the menu are light meals and various drinks, such as sahlab and hot chocolate. Sabbagh recommends that moviegoers try the sweet popcorn offered at the cinema while they enjoy their movies.

This week, movie-goers will have the opportunity to watch the latest masterpieces that were screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Cinema ElHoush will screen award-winning films, such as "Memoria", by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year.

Another selection is "Drive My Car", directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The movie is an adaptation of a novel by acclaimed author Haruki Murakami. The film explores the avenues of love, loss, acceptance and peace. It won three prizes at Cannes and has since racked up a slew of awards.

"Annette", directed by Leos Carax, made its premiere at Cannes. The musical explores themes of love, passion and stardom.

Norway's "The Worst Person in the World", directed by Joachim Trier, tackles the story of a 30-year-old woman and her chaotic life.

The screenings at Cinema ElHoush will continue through March 10.

It will also feature Saudi movies, such as "Had Al Tar", "Carnaval City" and "Forty Years and One Night". It will go on to screen classics, such as the "La Dolce Vita" and "Youm Mor We Youm Helw", and later contemporary Arabic films, such as "Feathers" and "Gaza Mon Amour". Movies from Afghanistan will be also be featured, followed by documentary films.

Cinema ElHoush will conclude with a selection of movies by director Wong Kar-wai, whose works often explore themes of romance or loneliness. The art house will have the privilege of screening five of his movies for the first time in Saudi Arabia. The films have been restored for the best viewing experience.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Queen’s Brian May Outraged by AI-Generated Image of Freddie Mercury

On July 13, 1985, Freddie Mercury of Queen takes the stage at the Live Aid rock festival held in London, England. Reuters. 
On July 13, 1985, Freddie Mercury of Queen takes the stage at the Live Aid rock festival held in London, England. Reuters. 
TT
TT

Queen’s Brian May Outraged by AI-Generated Image of Freddie Mercury

On July 13, 1985, Freddie Mercury of Queen takes the stage at the Live Aid rock festival held in London, England. Reuters. 
On July 13, 1985, Freddie Mercury of Queen takes the stage at the Live Aid rock festival held in London, England. Reuters. 

Sir Brian May has urged British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to block AI “before it’s too late” after being left outraged by an AI-generated image of his former Queen bandmate Freddie Mercury.

The British guitarist decided to check what Meta AI would create when he asked it what the cover of Queen’s 1980 record The Game looked like, according to The Independent.

He was unimpressed with the result, writing on Instagram: “This is what it gave me ! Good job, eh? So this is the kind of intelligence that will soon be ruling the world??! Well, great. Maybe this is the time to realise WE ACTUALLY DON'T NEED AI !!!”

Highlighting the seriousness of his post, he added: “I believe the price we are about to pay for this 'inevitable' development is way too high. We must not allow these hideous Data Centers to be built in the UK. They will destroy our beautiful country, like they are already destroying beautiful America.”

He also wrote, “Dear Andy – you must stop it now. Before it's too late.”

According to The Independent, May’s post comes as a number of artists speak out both in favor and against AI.

In May, 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry told the Press Association that she felt artists should “embrace” AI while picking up the special international award at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards.

She said: “To me, it’s just another tool that has shown up to make people’s life easier in some way.”

Perry added, “And I said earlier, like microwaves, when microwaves showed up, everybody thought it was the end of making dinner, and mums were just going to throw it in there, and poof, we were going to be in the Jetsons with this powder that turns into a turkey for Thanksgiving, and it’s not.”

“It’s just this is the future, we have to embrace it, because if we try to run from the future, then we’re running from solution,” she also said.

But dance music producer Nia Archives said AI music “won’t last” while speaking at the launch of the Mercury Prize in July.

Archives said: “I don’t know if AI music will last to be honest with you, I think it’s quite like a fleeting technology moment.”

With Queen, Sir Brian had six UK number one singles and 10 UK number one albums. Some of the band’s best-known songs include “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Killer Queen”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and We Are The Champions.

 

 

Entertainment

Matthew McConaughey on His Sweet Return to the Big Screen

US actor Matthew McConaughey ended a yearslong break from acting with 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' which premiered at the 2025 SXSW film festival. SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP
US actor Matthew McConaughey ended a yearslong break from acting with 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' which premiered at the 2025 SXSW film festival. SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP
TT
TT

Matthew McConaughey on His Sweet Return to the Big Screen

US actor Matthew McConaughey ended a yearslong break from acting with 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' which premiered at the 2025 SXSW film festival. SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP
US actor Matthew McConaughey ended a yearslong break from acting with 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' which premiered at the 2025 SXSW film festival. SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP

Matthew McConaughey had plenty of reasons to select "The Rivals of Amziah King," a honey-themed thriller set in the American Southwest, for his return to the big screen after more than five years away.

"The joy, the soul, the humor, the music, the poetry, the mythology, original time, place, and space," the Oscar-winning actor told AFP when asked why he had chosen the indie film for his comeback.

Written and directed by Andrew Patterson, "The Rivals of Amziah King" follows McConaughey's charismatic local honey producer, who splits his time between tending his beehives and playing the banjo in a folk band of friends and neighbors.

"I knew these people. I liked the way they loved each other. I liked the way they fought with each other, I liked the way they cared. I liked the way they use music and humor to survive," the 56-year-old Texan said.

"Amziah is a guy who really, at the heart of himself, gives people belonging, helps people belong, and that's part of the thing.

"This wasn't the reason I did it, but in hindsight, I go: 'That's a nice thing to put out there into the world, and share with people.'"

- 'Strong Indigenous woman' -

McConaughey stepped away from movies after Guy Ritchie's 2019 dark comedy "The Gentlemen," turning his focus to writing his memoir "Greenlights."

Although movie-goers saw him last year in "The Lost Bus," that was filmed after "The Rivals of Amziah King" wrapped.

The Southwestern US tale, which draws on genres like crime, comedy, musical, and drama, sees King's life take on a new purpose when he reconnects with Kateri -- played by Angelina LookingGlass -- a young Native American woman he had first taken in years earlier with his late wife.

With life lessons learned among the bees, communal dinners, and music, King not only helps her gradually integrate into the community, but also passes on his leadership role to her.

However, the young woman soon learns that the world of honey isn't as sweet as it seems.

For LookingGlass, the role was a perfect fit.

"I really loved playing her," the 22-year-old told AFP.

"A lot of people would underestimate her just by looking at her. You know, they wouldn't expect the things that she does.

"Her being this really strong Indigenous woman, and this person that goes under the radar, but then like bites at the end."

That sting was very intentional on the part of Andrew Patterson, who developed the project after his acclaimed debut film, "The Vast of Night" (2019).

Patterson wanted to center the film around a Native American woman who stops at nothing, he told AFP.

"She just uses her intellect and resourcefulness. And I was excited to put that kind of character into the world. That was that was quite literally the germ of an idea that made me want to go, and then eventually the Amziah character came after that," Patterson explained.

McConaughey wasn't initially in his plans, said the indie filmmaker, who also added Kurt Russell to his cast.

"I was just a guy in Oklahoma writing scripts, making little movies. It had nothing. There was no way that this had any chance to get in front of him.

"And over a number of years, and people getting behind my career, and you know, I think in spirit, Matthew and I were on a collision course for each other. There was no way of knowing that it would happen."

Patterson said he was "grateful" to have a movie that will open in US theaters Friday and delighted that it was with such a stellar talent.

I'm "humbled that I'm getting to put Matthew back in cinema after six and a half years," he said.

Entertainment

Movie Review: ‘The End of Oak Street’ Is a Gonzo Good Time

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ewan McGregor, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from "The End of Oak Street." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ewan McGregor, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from "The End of Oak Street." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
TT
TT

Movie Review: ‘The End of Oak Street’ Is a Gonzo Good Time

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ewan McGregor, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from "The End of Oak Street." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ewan McGregor, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from "The End of Oak Street." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

At the end of the block in David Robert Mitchell’s “The End of Oak Street,” is a cul-de-sac with a telephone pole in the middle and wires radiating out like the cables of a big top. It’s a fitting touch for a breakneck, carnivalesque movie made with throwback showmanship.

Summer movies, of course, are not known for lacking in circus-like mayhem. But much of the pastiche delight of the 1980s-set “The End of Oak Street,” a mid-August surprise, is how it absorbs an Amblin-style blockbuster spirit and conjures, without winking irony or belabored homage, a summer thrill ride seemingly designed for the drive-in.

Mitchell’s breakthrough was the nifty 2014 horror “It Follows,” which he followed up with an admirably ambitious but shaggily self-indulgent Los Angeles neo noir, “Under the Silver Lake.” But any indulgences in “The End of Oak Street,” about a 1980s suburban family whose neighborhood is transported through time, are for the audience. “The End of Oak Street” is a bonkers blast.

It’s best going in not knowing anything about the movie’s twists, so tread carefully on the rest of this review. That’s not to say that an enormous amount of “The End of Oak Street” isn’t immediately familiar, starting with the central family.

The Platts live in what looks like a San Fernando Valley neighborhood full of split levels and tidy little streets. Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) have two kids and a dog named Starbuck. Audrey (Maisy Stella) is a teenager and Brian (Christian Convery) is her younger brother.

But from the moment we meet them, during a neighborhood fair, there are obvious cracks in their all-American life. Greg is working a side job delivering pizzas while Denise is secretly typing up a maybe-aspirational novel about a woman dreaming of leaving her family. The kids have their own secrets, too. They suspect their parents are on the cusp of divorcing, and so, seemingly, do Greg and Denise.

Such a framework for sci-fi cataclysm is, naturally, Spielberg 101. But while “The End of Oak Street” is sure to test and restore their familial bonds, Mitchell, who also wrote the script, takes a route that leans more into horror, absurdism and outright silliness.

In any case, yes, there are dinosaurs. It’s both skillful and a lot of fun how Mitchell teases them out. The first signs are mysterious. A flash of light. A strange exotic flower in a neighbor’s backyard. A giant mount of feces in another’s. But soon, the Platts find that their neighborhood is overrun with primordial beasts and surrounded by jungle: Oak Street is suddenly a suburban island in a prehistoric world.

It’s a perfectly “Twilight Zone” plot that inadvertently solves the problems that have plagued the “Jurassic Park” movies for 20 years. If those films have struggled to find an off-island setting, “The End of Oak Street” instead brings the dino isle straight into suburbia. Encounters with raptors and worse transpire across front porches and shag carpets.

You could chalk it all up to good dumb fun. And it is mostly that, with set pieces built to make an audience groan in anticipation or cheer for the successful swing of a sledgehammer. But where “The End of Oak Street” succeeds where so many others fail is in the sincerity it has for its characters. Ridiculous and over-the-top as the concept is, the Platts are firmly grounded. (Hathaway, especially, helps in this department.) The combination of an earnest family drama with CGI hijinks, plus increasingly nutty plotting, make “The End of Oak Street” a fairly nonstop hoot.

Composer Michael Giacchino does his best John Williams impression to match. But Mitchell’s film also increasingly detours from the Spielberg playbook. Only Mitchell would take a moment for a freaked-out Audrey to sneak into the car to pop a cassette in and listen to Steve Winwood’s “Valerie.”

And while it would be pushing it to say there’s that much underneath “The End of Oak Street,” its characters are united in keeping certain things secret out of fear that their spouse or kids or parents can’t handle the truth. The swiftness that the dinosaurs invade their neighborhood could be symbolic of any ecological disaster, but the subsequent challenges prove each member of the family can handle quite a bit more than expected — even when the parental assurance that everything's going to be OK, like when a giant snake is slithering through their home, is laughably disputable.

It adds up to a gonzo good time that gives an old-school family adventure a darker, modern spin. Mitchell has quickly made suburbia his evident domain, where “it,” or something else, is sure to follow.