Saify

Feature Film competition

SAUDI ARABIA | 110 min | 2024

At 40 years old, Saify Muhammed is a washed-up confidence trickster who owes money to everyone, including his ex-wife. Now he is trying his hand at blackmail. The year is 2000; Saify has a dilapidated music shop selling cassette tapes, including recordings of banned Islamic sermons he mistakenly thinks will turn an illicit profit. His sermon supplier is Al-Mahdi, shady religious advisor to the local bigwig Sheikh Asaad Aman, who has a name as a philanthropist. When Saify finds one tape containing a scandalous recording of the influential Sheikh Asaad, he thinks he’s finally in the money.

Director:

WAEL ABU MANSOUR

Screenplay:

WAEL ABU MANSOUR

Cinematography:

SASHANK SANA

cast:

HUSAM ALHARTHI

BARAA ALEM

NOUR ALKHADRA

production:

TELFAZ11

Director:

WAEL ABU MANSOUR

Hashim Sharaf is a Bahraini film director, graduated from RMIT University, Australia, with a Bachelor degree in Filmmaking & Cinema studies. Since then, Hashim established himself as a leading figure in the Bahraini film industry by receiving local and international awards for his short films and directing major TV shows on Shahid. Hashims’ short films won the Jury prize in Baghdad Film Festival (2016), Golden Palm in Saudi Film Festival (2024), Best Film in GCC in Sharjah Film Festival (2015), Best Director at Red Carpet Festival and was nominated for the Best film award by the National Arab American Society (NAAS) in Carthage International Film Festival in Tunis, one of the most important film events in Africa and Arab world. On the other hand, in the last 10 years, he produced and directed TV shows and commercials in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman for the biggest corporate companies in the region and and got awarded with the Pioneer marketer 1st Place Award in Riyadh.