NEOM Production Hub to Host Shoot of Saudi Director Abdulaziz Alshlahei’s ‘Hobal’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi filmmaker Abdulaziz Alshlahei (“The Tambour of Retribution,” “Zero Distance”) is set to direct timely drama “Hobal,” about a Saudi family living in isolation in the desert during the early 1990s.

The film will be shot in NEOM, the sprawling production hub in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern corner. “Hobal” will be Alshlahei’s third feature, segueing from his groundbreaking social issues drama “The Tambour of Retribution,” about the forbidden love between an executioner’s son and a wedding drummer’s daughter in turn-of-the-century Riyadh. “Tambour” scored two prizes at the Cairo Film Festival, was released on Netflix, and was Saudi Arabia’s submission for the 2022 best international feature film Oscar.

In “Hobal,” the Saudi family is following strict instructions from their grandfather to remain confined in the desert during the early 1990s, when a series of events shakes the family’s foundation and finds them in a struggle between life and death.

The drama, which is bound to establish a contrast with present life in Saudi, where tradition is giving way to a more modern lifestyle, stars Jordanian actor Mohammed Altoyan (“Tash ma Tash”) and Saudi’s Mishal Almutairi (“Love, Life & Everything in Between”), along with an all-Saudi cast.