Cinema of Kuwait
Cinema in Kuwait was introduced in the mid-20th century. The dominance of American cinema posed a problem in the formation of Arab cinema in general and of Kuwaiti cinema in particular. French film critic Guy Hennebelle argued that Arab intellectuals became convinced that only by imitating the American culture could they overcome national cultural decline and backwardness. This caused an absence of local Kuwaiti works of cinematic art. However, Kuwaitis preserved their national identity by producing local content in television. They planned a balance between preserving their national identity while also satisfying other preferences. The dependence of Kuwaiti cinema was rooted in the domination of American and other foreign-produced films.
In 1971, Khalid Alsidiqq directed the first Kuwaiti feature film that talked about local cultural heritage and history. The Kuwaiti cinema industry now employs a strong usage of local culture and tradition. In 1972, Kuwait produced their first feature film Bas ya Bahr (The Cruel Sea) which talks about common life in the pre-oil discovery period when fishing was a predominant occupation. This initiated the local film industry to be one of the most famous and acknowledged feature film of the era. Later in 1976, Kuwait produced its second feature film The Wedding of Zain.
There are female actresses who had a prominent role in shaping local cinema such as Souad Abdullah and Hayat Al Fahad, long considered an iconic Kuwaiti actress who had a prominent role in shaping local cinema to the present day.
In 1954, the Kuwait National Cinema Company was established. Being the first leading entertainment company in Kuwait and in the Gulf, in 2005 it released its Cinematic brand and theatre in the country, Cinescape. Kuwait was the first country in the Middle East and the second worldwide after Australia to ease M-NET payment, improving audience experiences in the cinema.
Falafel Cart, released in 2019 by director Abdullah Al-Wazzan became Kuwait's first film to be officially selected at the prestigious Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Japan where it received a "Best of the World" honorable mention. In 2021 the film won best animated short film at the Burbank International Film Festival in California, United States. In 2019, Falafel Cart was submitted for the 92nd Academy Awards in the short animated film category, making it Kuwait's first short film to ever be submitted to the Academy Awards.
History
Cinema in Kuwait was affected by the dominance of Hollywood on the cinematic world as most of the portrayed films were American made. It was dominated with Western movies, while the local television channels was dominated widely with Kuwaiti made movies and television series. Most of its portrayed films were in foreign languages imported from other countries. There is a clear dominance of Hollywood movies in Kuwaiti theaters. On average, the percentage of American movies are 80 percent, while other movie content produced by countries such as Egypt, India and Britain never exceeded 38 percent of the movies premiered. In a period of eight weeks only once a Kuwaiti made movie was shown in the cinemas. This is due to the fact that Kuwait is a rather small country that is saturated with expatriates. The domination of American film and other foreign produced films has the Kuwaiti cinema imitate and depend on it for so long. It was in 1971 that the young talent of Khalid Alsidiqqi that emerged and directed the first Kuwaiti feature film that talks about its cultural heritage and history.Kuwait began producing their own television content in 1961, which was early comparing to other countries in the region, thus it instantly gained popularity and admiration from surrounding gulf countries. This drove them forward to launch their own satellite. KTV 1 is one of the oldest television broadcast channels established in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti satellite was able to cover the gulf and reach further regions such as North America, which was difficult to accomplish at that time period in 1997. They had a vision which was “to spread Kuwaiti produced news, information, and cultural programming all around the globe.”. they wanted to share their culture and convey it to other nationalities. Kuwait was and still named ‘عروسة الخليج’ which translated to The Bride of The Gulf, this nickname was initiated by the Gulf countries to Kuwait for its history in films and music, etc. Kuwait is the birthplace of film in the Gulf, it was not until the release of Bas ya Bahr that it was recognized and known by Khalejis for its films and their artistry in showing the cultural and heritage of the Kuwaiti citizens and the Khaleji community in general.
''Bas ya Bahr'' (1972)
Bas ya Bahr is a film produced in Kuwait, directed by Khalid Alsiddiq. It is significant because it is Kuwait's first feature film. Actors who had a prominent role in the movie were Mohammed Al-Mansour, Amal Bakr, Saad Al-Faraj and Hayat El-Fahad. The film was in black and white and its duration was an hour and 41 minutes. Before the drastic changes that took place in Kuwait due to the discovery of oil, pearl diving was one of the main income sources people had. The events happen to a typical Kuwaiti family, a young man seeks to marry the girl he loves however many obstacles come in his way. The first issue is that he does not have enough money to propose thus her father stands in their way. He wants to marry off his daughter to someone with a decent amount of money in possession. “Moussaed” insisting on his decision to pearl dive finds his father also preventing him from diving, fearful of the many dangers in the sea that his son could come across. Eventually his father allows him to pursue what he wants. Moussaed excessively trying hard to obtain the pearls lead to his death. In his final dive, he found a huge pearl that was taken to his family as a gesture of his braveness and determination. His mother then goes to sea with grief and sorrow in her heart and yells “Bas ya Bahr” which translates in to “enough of the sea”. It was the first Kuwait produced film that reached the 45th Academy Awards as Best Foreign Language film, however, it was not nominated.''Urs AL-Zayn The Wedding of Zein'' (1976)
It is the second feature film to be produced in Kuwait, it was directed by the famous Kuwaiti director Khalid Alsiddiq. This film was based on a novel of the same name Urs Al-Zaynor The Wedding of Zein by Al-Tayyib Saleh. The film cast who were prominent in the film are Ali Mahdi as Zein, Ibrahim Hujazi as Haneen and Tahiya Zaroug as Nama. The film duration was 90 minutes and it was their first color film to be produced in Kuwait. The film talks about Zein who is perceived as an amiable buffoon clown by the village people, as his declaration for loving the village maidens brings nothing but laughs to the village. But to Haneen, a Muslim holy man, he has genuine pity and peace for Zein. As well as the young beautiful girl in the village who sees the most in Zein than other villagers.In 1978, Kuwait submitted the film to the 51st Academy Awards as representative for Best Foreign Language film category, but it did not get nominated and Kuwait has not submitted another film since.