Al Majalla's Film Watch

Every month, Al Majalla presents its Film Watch show, offering viewers a selection of the newest films and sometimes classic titles. This month, the spotlight is on Tawah's Tape, a 18-minute narrative drama from Saudi Arabia. The film, directed by Murtada Al-Awwas, revolves around a widow and her young daughter who flee their tyrannical brother.

Although shorter than Al-Awwas' previous works, Tawah's Tape delves deeper into local identity themes. The cast includes Latifa Al-Muqrin, Hassan Al-Ashour, Nayar Abdulaziz, Lubna Boukhamsin, and Ali Rajab.

In contrast, the new film The Gallerist, directed by Cathy Yan, tackles the question of what defines art. The story, set in a gallery, follows gallery owner Polina (Natalie Portman) and her assistant Kiki (Jenna Ortega) as they consider exhibiting a deceased man's body as a work of art. The film explores themes of social activism, commodification, and the ever-evolving definition of art, drawing inspiration from works like Jorge Amado's The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell and Egyptian director Osama Fawzy's Paradise of the Fallen Angels.