Rollem (2019)

As far as I know, Roll'em is the first Saudi film to be commercially screened in Saudi cinemas after lifting the ban on public theatres in 2017. Our Saudi cinema has a lot of catching up to do, so I went to watch this film with my expectations lowered, but I am happy to say it exceeded them by a lot. The protagonist Omar is an a aspiring and frustrated filmmaker. He is a flawed yet well rounder character. He is hotheaded and broody, and he really hates his 9-5 job as a director in an ad agency, and despised the compromises he has to do to make ends meet. He is in love with a lovely woman Leena who has aspiration of her own and feel suffocated by him. She needs a distance to evaluate the relationship, which attributes to his depression and state of loss he ends up in. One day while scouting for location in Jeddah's Old Town (AlBalad) he finds Farid Lutfi, a 70somthing antique shop owner who he finds out was once accomplished but now a retired filmmaker. Omar convinces Farid to work with him on a film about Old Jeddah, and in the process he teaches him a lesson or two about live, love and how to overcome the odds against him. What I liked about the film is how at brisk 90 min, it managed to tell a well rounded story with a few clunky moments here and there. The performances for the most part were good, considering most of the actors are not seasoned, but the two leading roled played by Khaled Yeslam and Shaher Al Qurashi were especially strong. The film is beautifully shot, and the director knows where to place the camera and and how to frame qnr shoot a scene, and plays with depth of field in the external shots to alternate the focus between the actors in the foreground and AlBalad in the background with its busy streets, stray animals, and flocks of pigeons flying everywhere. Such flourishes made the film always interesting to look at, and not your run of the mill boring film. The music and the score of film is another strong elemnt, as it stirrer nostalgia without overwhelming the narrative. The ending of the film was wrapped a little bit too neatly with a scene I could only describe as nothing more than wish fulfilment, but it did not really take away from the film overall message. I will be looking forward to the director's next film, but this was a good step in what I am hoping it will be a long and successful career. My Rating 4/5