Saudi film ‘Raven Song’ makes UK debut at SAFAR Film Festival 

DUBAI: Nice household movies have the facility to vary lives. Saudi filmmaker Khalid Fahad ought to know, because it was Disney’s “The Lion King” that modified his. Now, almost three many years later, Fahad hopes to do the identical for a brand new era, utilizing the inimitable magic of Saudi Arabia to craft the primary household movie within the Kingdom’s historical past, “Valley Highway,” a stirring ode to each the movies and the nation that he loves so dearly. 

That wasn’t at all times Fahad’s intention, in fact. In actual fact, the preliminary concept that sparked “Valley Highway” got here to him throughout a go to to his brother’s home, as he spoke to his younger niece and puzzled why she didn’t communicate again.  

“I requested her mom, ‘Why isn’t she responding with phrases?’ and he or she defined to me that she had a dysfunction known as ‘selective mutism.’ I began studying about it later and acquired very . I ended up sitting down to write down a narrative about this child, considering that it could be a small indie movie following them round,” Fahad explains to Arab Information. 

“I then puzzled, ‘Why am I penning this story?’ And I began to suppose again to myself at that age. I spotted I wished the world to be large, the identical kind of household movie that I as soon as fell in love with. I wished stirring music, large particular results, track and dance — a really sprawling world. I spotted this was one thing that nobody had ever completed right here,” he continues.  

As great as that sounds on paper, making it occur in a rustic that has by no means produced a movie of such ambition can be no simple process. Fahad acquired his begin on YouTube making clips together with his pals, graduating to larger and greater quick movies during the last decade wherein he honed his expertise and developed his fashion. He knew he was personally prepared, however who would assist him meet this problem?  

“First, I went to a VFX firm known as Squids primarily based in Egypt, not realizing if I may even afford them. I instructed them the story intimately, they usually didn’t say something. Then, all of them began laughing. I didn’t know what to suppose! However earlier than I may get up and stroll out, they mentioned to me, ‘Since we had been children, now we have been dreaming of engaged on a mission like this. We’ll do it with you, even when now we have to do it at no cost’,” Fahad says.  

The filmmaker began figuring out the expertise he wished to work with — composers, producers, even main celebrities like Saudi singer and actress Aseel Omran. One after the other, as quickly as they heard his story, they joined his trigger. With all which may behind him, he approached Ithra, the King Abdulaziz Heart for World Tradition primarily based in Dhahran, who he knew had been trying to begin funding movies. They had been impressed, however nonetheless skeptical.  

“They mentioned, ‘It is a dangerous mission. It’s a fantasy journey, and also you need to construct your personal village and transfer everybody there for a full month to shoot? How are you going to even pull this off?’ Undeterred, I ended up going all around the nation, lastly discovering an space within the south that might allow us to construct the village if we agreed to wash all of it up afterwards. In the meantime, we had been working tirelessly on our idea — making storyboards, VFX samples, even the rating and unique songs. After a full yr of labor to show we had what it takes, Ithra agreed to come back aboard and fund our movie,” says Fahad. 

Even with all of that in place, a very powerful piece of all was but to be found: a baby actor who may tackle the lead function of Ali, a selectively mute younger boy residing in a village who goes on the journey of a lifetime. He knew he wanted an unknown, somebody who had no expertise in commercials or tv, who would have the true innocence and untapped creativeness that the movie wanted.  

“We spent 10 days auditioning 150 children in Riyadh. In the direction of the top, a mom got here with two sons, however just one was there to audition. Our casting supervisor noticed the opposite brother sitting there within the hallway, and requested him, ‘Why are you not auditioning? You higher come inside and audition too, since you by no means know — the individual chosen may be you!’ After some hesitation, he agreed, and we knew in a short time that that boy, Hamad Farhan, was our Ali,” says Fahad.  

As 10-year-old Hamad and the remainder of the solid studied tirelessly to drag off what Fahad had envisioned, working with performing coaches and even a choreographer flown in from overseas to drag off the large musical numbers, Fahad himself went again to the films that impressed him. Day and evening, he studied Disney movies and different influential household movies from each Hollywood and Bollywood to determine methods to make his $1.5 million funds really feel like at the very least 10 instances that, a feat he achieved.  

“I needed to be taught the visible language of those movies, as a result of it’s really a common language all its personal. Throughout on the earth, when individuals watch movies like “Aladdin,” “Coco,” “Encanto,” or “Luca,” they will join with these characters and tales immediately. That’s what I knew I needed to obtain, to make our Saudi story resonate the identical approach these had,” says Fahad.  

Whereas the staff had been happy with what that they had created, Fahad didn’t know for positive how audiences would reply till the movie debuted on the Purple Sea Worldwide Movie Pageant in December 2022. The stress was palpable — the movie was given the celebrated closing slot, and celebrities and movie luminaries from internationally sat within the viewers, together with the legendary Jackie Chan. 

“It was heavy, however as quickly because it completed, everybody began screaming and clapping. It was a magical second. I knew we had completed one thing loopy, however I didn’t know if individuals would find it irresistible. However then individuals got here as much as me to inform me that it was so touching that that they had cried,” says Fahad.  

Most vital to Fahad, nonetheless, wasn’t the truth that that they had pulled off what others had thought was unattainable. It was gratifying that folks from throughout Saudi Arabia and the world all related together with his sprawling fantasy, however what affected him most was the truth that every individual within the viewers had related with the affliction of his poor niece. In that second, it was clearer to him than ever earlier than that the facility of cinema may assist us perceive any human expertise. 

“Folks had been amazed,” says Fahad. “They mentioned to me, ‘This boy is silent, however he says a lot. We all know what he’s feeling, and we really feel it too.’ That meant the world to me.”