The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival will open this November 30, and will run until December 9, 2023 in Jeddah, KSA. Eight films supported by AFAC are setting sail to take part in the festival’s different sections.

Premiering in the Red Sea: Competition section, “Dalma” by Emirati director Humaid Alsuwaidi follows Dana, an Emirati woman who moves to Dalma island and becomes a hate figure on this quiet island when she turns her father’s house into a holiday rental. Participating in the same section of the festival, “Behind the Mountains” by Tunisian filmmaker Mohamed Ben Attia tells the story of Rafik, who has only one plan: take his son far away in order to demonstrate his spectacular ability to fly.

Competing in the Red Sea: Shorts Competition section, is “Manity” by Lebanese director Hussein Ibraheem. Set in the Lebanese mountainside, this short film tells the story of 11-year-old Firas as he embarks on a bird-hunting adventure with his father Tayseer and friend Rayan. What begins as a normal hunting trip evolves into an unforgettable journey, transforming an ordinary sunny day into an adventure of a lifetime.

Under “Festival Favourites” we have three films: “The Mother of All Lies” by Asmae El Moudir from Morocco, which fuses personal and historical narratives through a young Moroccan woman in her search for truth that tangles with a web of lies in her family’s history; “Hounds” by Kamal Lazraq, also from Morocco, which depicts the long night adventure of Hassan and Issam, father and son, as they find themselves forced to dispose of the body of someone they were meant to kidnap; and “Thiiird”, by Karim Kassem from Lebanon, which tells the story of a mechanic in a Lebanese village who comes to realize that he not only needs to fix the cars of his many visitors, but has to fix them as well.

Finally, the festival’s “New Vision” section presents two other films: “Donga” by Muhannad Lamin from Libya, and “The Sea and its Waves” by Liana and Renaud from Lebanon. Both films present new cinematic languages. While the first is a personal journey through the lens of a cameraman who plunges into the midst of the 2011 Libya uprising armed only with his camera, the second presents a passionate ode to Beirut through the story of siblings Mansour and Najwa as they wait, on a dark night, at the docks for a boat to take them away to Norway.

For the full program and films screening schedule, visit the festival’s official website.