If you were forced to pick one reason that the Red Sea International Film Festival has risen so quickly among the list of top global film festivals after only three years it wouldn’t necessarily be due to the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation which organizes the event and awards millions of dollars in production financing. Nor would it be red carpet gala events populated by A-list movie stars. Or the remarkable awareness of the event generated by its stellar, tireless publicity team.

To be sure, all of these attributes (among many others) have helped raise the profile of RSIFF to a point where it is being whispered about in the same breath as decades old festivals such as those in Cannes, Toronoto and Venice. Yet it is more the strength of programming that has truly stimulated the exponential growth of RSIFF’s global reputation.

Coming at the end the year Kaleem Aftab, the Director of International Programming at RSIFF, and his staff of programmers have at least eight months of festival favorites to choose from. However, rather than simply programming half a dozen or more of these titles and calling it a day, they have created a special section just for these films (the 2023 edition has 22 entries) and then gone out and found over a dozen movies (17 to be exact), to appear in competition, a majority of which are premiering publicly for the first time. That Aftab and company are still able to find undiscovered, worthwhile films at the end of each year says something about the effort they put in to do so.

And did I mention a good portion of these films hail from the Arab market. Speaking of which, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of my favorite sections of RSIFF; Arab Spectacular. This year it boasts a selection of ten Arabic titles.

So while it may be the screenings of “Ferrari,” the Nicolas Cage starrer “Dream Scenario” or Catherine Deneuve in “The President’s Wife” that gets a lot of ink internationally, what keeps attendance at RSIFF growing are the quality films and selections you might not hear about for months afterwards. With that in mind, I wanted to call your attention to some of the titles that might otherwise go overlooked, that other festivals should program, distributors should acquire (at the right price) and cinema operators should eventually consider booking. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order so as not to play favorites.

“Hajjan”
Premiering in the Arab Spectacular section of RSIFF, Abu Bakr Shawky’s was billed as “The Black Stallion” with camels. “Hajjan” is indeed set in the world of Bedouin camel racing and filmed in picturesque Saudi Arabian locations. It is an uplifting drama about a young orphaned boy named Matar who becomes a jockey to save his beloved camel Hofira from being shipped off to the meat market. Societal norms and gender issues creep into the story in a movie that could play just as well to young children as adults.

“Hiding Saddam Hussein”
It’s hard to know what to make of Halkawt Mustafa’s documentary about the Iraqi farmer who, 18 years ago, provided refuge for President Saddam Hussein when he disappeared after the United States invaded the country. Part documentary, part dramatized re-enactment, a good portion of the film is the farmer, Alaa Namiq, telling his story to the camera. Over the 235 days before Hussein’s capture, Namiq became a friend and confidant to the former leader of his country as it fell deeper into war. Despite knowing the ending, it’s a riveting tale.

“Mandoob”
Ali Kalthami’s Saudi-set film derives its name from the Arabic word for courier. Popular Saudi actor Mohamad Aldokhei plays Fahad, a night courier whose mental health is crumbling under the financial burden of caring for his ailing father. After stumbling upon Riyadh’s illicit alcohol trade (Saudi Arabia is a dry country) he sees a potential solution to his money woes. As one might expect, his plan doesn’t entirely work out and he winds up having to deal with some of the shady characters that inhabit Riyadh’s underground economy. “Mandoob” is a competition entry at RSIFF that is a well made, commercial thriller.

“Norah”
The first movie to be shot entirely in the stunningly beautiful AlUla region of Saudi Arabia, “Norah” is a surefooted debut from director Tawfik Alzaidi. Set in a small remote Saudi village in the 1990s, the film stars Maria Bahrawi as the film’s namesake character, a young woman who yearns to shed the religious and gender confines of her existence and move to a big city. Into her world, and village, comes a new teacher, a former artist named Nader, played by Yaqoub Alfarhan. As much as Norah would like to read, listen to music and dance, Nader would like to draw and paint. Because it is forbidden for Nader to ever see Norah’s face, let alone be together in private, their emerging friendship may not end well, despite benefiting each of them in different ways. A well told, touching story appearing in competition at RSIFF.

“Sunday“
One rarely sees movies from or about Uzbekistan, though if Shokir Kholikov’s RSIFF competition entry “Sunday” is any indication to that country’s filmmaking talent than the cinematic world should pay far more attention to the region. Kholikov tells a very quiet, simple story of an elderly Uzbek couple, living and farming as they always have using antiquated tools and methods. The husband is habitually cranky and the wife always overly-generous. When their grown children decide to bring modern-day convinces into their life it disrupts their world in so many ways they no longer know how to cook, change the television channel or sleep without a noisy refrigerator. On paper, a movie about an old couple, set in a single rural location, in a story told with sparse dialogue in which little happens should in not work. And yet, it’s somehow brilliant and incredibly moving.