Saudi Arabia participated in the Asian Film Festival held here in February and also plans to participate in the city's European Film Festival next year. Films are a means of showing the cultural diversity of a nation and a good means of enhancing mutual relationships, so keeping this in mind we plan to have Saudi films shown at next year's European Film Festival, said Mamdouh Salem, Saudi filmmaker and executive producer and director of Rawad media and production. Saudi films have been screened in various film festivals around the world and recently four Saudi films won awards at the Dubai Film Festival. “Saudi cinema is fully prepared to participate in the festival in the coming years so that the European community in Jeddah can experience Saudi culture and traditions which reflect the civilization of the Kingdom,” Salem said. “Saudi films try to outline a particular message and portray Saudi culture and beliefs to other societies. They are a tool to help people understand the deep cultural and traditional aspects of the Kingdom and its society,” he added. The 4th European Film Festival, which is being held from April 17 to May 5, is screening films which reflect the diversity of European culture, deal with a number of social and humanitarian issues and are a good way for Saudis to learn about the reality of Europe, Salem said. ?Other possibilities to encourage cultural exchange are to hold an African Film Festival or an African Arab Film Festival which would help to highlight the rich African culture, Salem said. Further enhancement of cultural exchange could be achieved if film festivals featuring North and South American and Australian cinema were organized in the future, he added.
