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\n\tDUBAI: Saudi feature film \u201cHobal,\u201d featuring actress Mila Al-Zahrani, is set to screen at international theaters.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAfter the success of the movie \u2018Hobal\u2019 at the box office in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, we embark on a new journey around the world with you. In the first phase, \u2018Hobal\u2019 will be shown in cinemas in America, Britain, Canada, Ireland and Germany. In the second stage, it will be presented in other countries,\u201d the filmmakers announced on social media Monday.<\/p>\n
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\n\tShot in NEOM in Saudi Arabia, the film was directed by Abdulaziz Al-Shlahei and features an all-Saudi cast, including Mohammed Al-Toyan and\u00a0Mishal Al-Mutairi.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe motion picture marked Al-Shlahei\u2019s third feature film, following the success of Saudi period drama \u201cThe Tambour of Retribution,\u201d which received two awards at the Cairo Film Festival and was chosen as the Saudi entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHobal\u201d tells the story of a Bedouin family, set in the early 1990s, living in extreme isolation, led by a paranoid patriarch (Ibrahim Al-Hasawi) who believes the end of times is near and strongly forbids anyone from his family to venture into town.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe family\u2019s situation intensifies when Rifa (Amal Sami), the teen girl, falls gravely ill with a highly contagious case of measles and is forced to isolate even further in a tent alone. Her anguished mother (Al-Zahrani) is consumed with worry, but the men, under the strict guidance of the patriarch, refuse to leave the desert to seek medical help. The women \u2014 and young teen boy, Assaf \u2014 are confronted with a dilemma: survival or obedience.<\/p>\n
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