Saudi woman risks her reputation and engagement in order to save an art piece, at at time female nationals operated at whim of their husbands and creative expression was seriously frowned upon - from the Un Certain Regard section of the 77th Cannes International Film Festival
Director
Tawfik Alzaidi
Year of release
2024
Country
Saudi Arabia
Starring
Yagoub Alfarhan
Maria Bahrawi
Abdullah Al-Sadhan
Aixa Kay
Rating
"Dirty gem"
Key message
You gotta fight for your art!
QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM CANNES
Norah is a curious young woman, who buys smuggled magazines from a “respectable” grocery store in her hometown. Aiding her brother with his homework, she is intrigued to hear that the new teacher, Nader, has a talent for sketching. With the aid of the shopkeeper, Norah meets up with the artist, though their respect for local customs – not forgetting the burqa that hides a lady’s face – makes it harder for him to complete the portrait of her. The film is set during the 1990s, at a time when forms of creative expression were discouraged/banned throughout Saudi Arabia. Nader has driven from the city, where it is possible to enjoy a degree of intellectual discourse, but his predilection for free-thinking doesn’t sit well with some of the parents in the town.
Norah – played with conviction by Maria Bahrawi – longs to look as glamorous as one of the “city people” she discovers in the colour supplements. An orphan raised by her aunt, the eponymous character has never visited the industrial paradise, yet her eyes gleam when she reads about cultural outlets. Engaged to a local man at the bequest of her family, Norah’s rebellious leanings are clear by the way she dances in the private dormitory.
The 1990s was 30 years ago, and Saudi Arabia has progressed rapidly since then. But the problems faced by Norah were undoubtedly ones women endured throughout the decade. The women depended entirely on the whims of their husbands: Norah’s relative pleads with her niece to behave herself and settle. “You are so stubborn,” cries the aunt, knowing that nothing productive can be gained by pursuing this trivial exercise in art. Nader is stifled by other barriers: fathers walk in to collect the boys, feeling that their sons “don’t need” the classes.
Nader’s passion for art and drawing comes at a price: the greengrocer’s safety. Yaqoub Alfarhan co-stars as the teacher, a lone voice in a region proud of conservative governance. Although he speaks a great deal – Nader probably has the most lines of any character – the most impactful moments are the silent ones. Peering at the burqa, Norah’s eyes are the only part of the face visible to him, Nader pauses, looks around him, and agrees to work.
Nader and Norah are aware of the risks: Not only will it upset the locals if word gets out, but the titular character’s fiancé won’t take too kindly to the gesture either.Director Tawfik Alzaidi deserves credit for exhibiting an agreement between a man and a woman that’s based on friendship alone; there are no moments of sexual chemistry let alone sexual interaction amid sketch artist and subject (a no-go for Saudi cinema). What the audience sees is a conversation based on an ideological handshake: the observations from two misfits in a controlled environment.
Bahrawi settles into the role of a dreamer, poring over her smuggled works with passion, perseverance and pride. Encouragingly, one of the magazines contains a Mad Max (1979, George Miller) poster, suggesting that the country has time for spark and spontaneity. Ominously, Nader recalls the video shops that were destroyed: “Anyone who likes drawing must like movies.”
Bare-bone in plot and ambition, the success of the story lies in the central performances; both of them are very good. Invariably, Nader’s antics get him into trouble among the elderly contingent, though the young children are gobsmacked by his ability to create a painting out of thin air. The infants from the 1990s make up the adults of today, cleverly suggesting that people such as Nader played the long game by virtue of these ornate gestures. A sensitive and occasionally beautiful homage to the power of art, Norah is fundamentally a human story; a very watchable one too.
Norah premiered in November 2023 at the 3rd Red Sea International Film Festival, where it won the Best Saudi Feature Award. It showed in the Un Certain Regard section of the 77th Cannes International Film Festival in May 2024, where this piece was written. This is the very first time in history that the Festival showcased a Saudi film.
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