Diplomatic Quarter: Dutch Embassy to show 30 Saudi films at festival in Riyadh

Arab News

April 12, 2018

Riyadh, Apr 12: The Dutch Embassy will show 30 Saudi films during the first Golden Falcon Film Festival at the embassy premises in the Diplomatic Quarter next Tuesday and Wednesday (April 17 and 18), during which it will host three-hour screenings on three different screens placed at separate sites on the premises.

The films will be screened into three categories, best script, best director, and best movie.

Speaking to Arab News on Wednesday, Joost Reintjes, the Dutch ambassador in Riyadh, said: “The film festival is an excellent opportunity to provide the young Saudi filmmakers a platform to show their work. “It gives young Saudis the possibility to grow their talent with local and international experts,” added the envoy.

“The film festival will be a great stimulus to promote the filmmaking industry in Saudi Arabia,” said the ambassador.

He said that of the films screened at the festival, three best ones in different categories and their producers will be awarded the Golden Falcon trophy and a trip to study film-making and related technology in the Netherlands, which is known for making high-quality films.

The Netherlands is known for being a home to creative industries and open to international cooperation by putting on high-standard film festivals in the country, including the international film festival in Rotterdam and the international documentary film festival in Amsterdam, the world’s largest documentary festival.

The visitors will attend seminars and workshops on filmmaking during their stay, the envoy said.

“The initiative to launch this film festival in Riyadh comes with a Dutch touch after the lifting of the ban on cinemas that lasted for 35 years in the Kingdom,” said Reintjes.

It will be in the King Abdullah Financial District in a building originally intended to be a symphony concert hall, and three more screens will be added by mid-summer.

Hans Treffers, head of the jury for the Golden Falcon Award, said: “I am pleasantly surprised by the overall high quality of the submissions.”

“The quality of films shortlisted to be screened at the festival are exceptional, they add to the popular Saudi film sector, which is widely appreciated and respected in international film festivals,” he added.

The Director of the Golden Falcon Film Festival Jeroen Gankema, who is the first secretary at the Netherlands embassy, said: “The Kingdom and the Netherlands can capitalize on opportunities in the film and entertainment industry.”

Films to be shown at the festival include “1991,” “Al Qatt,” “Bilal,” “Zeina’s Cake,” “Luba Colors,” and “Hudu Mountasaf El Layl.”

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Israeli army captures Rafah crossing as tanks roll in after heavy bombardment

News Network

May 7,2024

The Israeli military says it has taken full control of the Rafah crossing, which borders Egypt.

Israeli tanks took over the crossing after advancing during the night following heavy bombardment of residential areas.

The military said the crossing is now disconnected from the Salah a-Din road in eastern Rafah, which was seized before.

Tel Aviv said it would continue the operation in Rafah even after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said it had agreed to a proposal on ceasefire in Gaza put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Earlier, Israeli military aircraft heavily bombed Rafah accompanied with ground advances shortly after Hamas said it had accepted the ceasefire proposal.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and Egyptian media said Israeli military vehicles advanced towards the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, as well as the Karem Shalom crossing with the Israeli-occupied territories.

A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian authority have told the Associated Press news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching as close as 200 meters from Rafah’s border crossing with neighboring Egypt.

The Israeli military has said it was conducting “targeted strikes” against Hamas in eastern Rafah.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has also said "Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas" in order to advance the release of captives and what it called "the other objectives of the war."

In the meantime, it described the proposal on ceasefire as "far from Israel's essential demands," but added that it would send negotiators for talks "to exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreement."

The military strikes on Rafah came ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal accepted by Hamas, which was put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

According to a copy of the proposal, there will be three phases to ending Israel’s onslaught against Gaza.

The first phase calls for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim corridor and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes. The second phase involves an announcement of a permanent cessation of military operations. In the last phase, there would be a complete end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In return, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw its troops from certain regions of the Gaza Strip, and allow Palestinians to travel from the south of the coastal sliver to the north.

About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, once designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military. Palestinians are now struggling to evacuate the city, after the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering them to leave as a large-scale assault on the city is planned.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that a ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable” and called on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a truce deal.

“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilizing impact in the region,” Guterres told reporters on Monday ahead of a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in New York.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has also warned that Israel is “jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah.”

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