Umm Kulthum’s Restored Films Shine at Red Sea Intl Film Festival
This year’s lineup features six restored films, including two 4K restorations of Umm Kulthum’s most celebrated works.
The Red Sea International Film Festival has announced details of its upcoming ‘Treasures of the Red Sea’ programme, which will bring restored cinematic masterpieces from across the Arab world and beyond to the big screen during its fifth edition, running from December 4th to 13th in Jeddah’s Historic District.
This year’s lineup includes six restored films, among them two 4K restorations of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum’s most celebrated works — ‘Aida’ (1942) and ‘Nashid Al Amal’ (1937) — both directed by Ahmed Badrakhan and restored through a collaboration between the Red Sea Film Foundation and Egypt’s Media Production City. The films will screen in Saudi Arabia for the first time in their newly restored form, reintroducing Kulthum’s cinematic legacy to contemporary audiences.
International highlights include Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Spellbound’ (1945), restored in 2024 by The Film Foundation under Martin Scorsese, ‘Amrao Jaan’ (1981), a 4K restoration from India’s National Film Archive, and ‘The Big Blue’ (1988) by French filmmaker Luc Besson, one of the most acclaimed titles in French cinema history.
For the first time in the Kingdom, the festival will also host a live silent film concert led by British composer Neil Brand, featuring classic comedy reels from Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy, performed with live musical accompaniment.
