Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
THEY only had a few hours' notice, but a few hundred Saudis braved a small band of religious hardliners to take part in a historic event on Saturday night: the first public showing of a commercial film in decades in the Saudi capital, writes Paul Handley.
With bags of salty popcorn and soft drinks in their laps, the men-only crowd of more than 300 in Riyadh's huge King Fahd Cultural Centre cheered, whistled and clapped when the first scenes of the Saudi-made Menahi hit the screen and the film's score erupted in surround sound.
"This is the beginning of change," said university student Ahmed Al Mokayed, attending with his brother and cousin.
Businessman Abdul Mohsen Al Mani, who brought his two sons to the film, was ecstatic, after being denied public cinema for some three decades.
It was long in coming - and no one is certain that it will launch a thriving public cinema industry, with strident opposition from clerics who regard film, music and other entertainment as violating Islamic teachings.
Police at the venue had to fend off a small band of conservative Muslims who warned that films were bringing disasters on the country, citing a recent series of minor earthquakes in western Saudi Arabia.
