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Saudi Arabia's growing cinema soft power

'Every year the Kingdom asks for a bigger pavilion, more facilities, to be more and more present': Guillaume Esmiol, head of the Cannes Film Market

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Accompanying Naomi Campbell on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival last week was one of cinema's most powerful men -- and he represents a country where cinemas were banned until five years ago.

Mohammed Al Turki, 36, heads Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Film Foundation, his name splashed all over posters and movie credits at the world's biggest cinema gathering on the French Riviera.

The foundation, formed two years ago, holds its own annual festival and has already financed 168 movies, including eight in the official selection at Cannes this year.

"We have learned to respect other cultures," Emad Iskandar, director of the Red Sea Film Foundation, told AFP.

He said the foundation focuses on Arab and African filmmakers, though the precise definition seems flexible: the French director of "Jeanne du Barry", Maiwenn, qualified thanks to her Algerian father.

"As long as we have the resources, we want to serve the region, but also take the opportunity to learn more," Iskandar added.

Al Turki's foundation also sponsored a gala for women, attended by Catherine Deneuve, Katie Holmes and supermodel Campbell.

"MO!! Proud of all your doing @redseafilm creating history of many 1st's and Changing the narrative," Campbell wrote of Al Turki on her Instagram.

Saudi largesse for the arts has boomed under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Cannes director Thierry Fremaux celebrated the kingdom's interest in "producing films and allowing artists to emerge".

"Saudi Arabia is evolving," he told Variety.

All over Cannes were adverts calling on producers and directors to shoot in Saudi Arabia, while its pavilion showed off the work of its own young directors.

"Every year Saudi Arabia asks for a bigger pavilion, more facilities, to be more and more present," said Guillaume Esmiol, head of the Cannes Film Market that runs alongside the festival.

Saudi Arabia is not the only country in the region investing massively in cinema: Qatar financed 13 films at Cannes this year, including three in the main competition.

"We have a lot of French productions," Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Doha Film Institute CEO, told AFP.

"We don't want to be insular, we want our filmmakers to be open to other regions and other filmmakers and work with them."

She had no qualms that such investments were aimed at spreading Qatar's soft power.

"Who doesn't do that? The US does that with their Hollywood films... At least we are doing what we believe in, and we are not losing our identity at the same time."

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