Director Abdulelah Alqurashi sat down with Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay at Variety’s Artisans Screening Series to break down his film “Alhamour H.A.,” Saudi Arabia’s official Oscars submission.
The film is based on the true story of one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest con artists, a former security guard named Hamed who grows rich by convincing people to make dubious investments. Alqurashi lived in Jedda as a banker while the scam was happening. He was inspired to make the film after one of his friends fell for one of the investments.
“I wasn’t a filmmaker, but the way he told me the story, it was that scene, and how greed affects people and to trust no one… I think the whole story comes from that,” he said.
When asked about comparisons between his film and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Alqurashi welcomes them. “To have my name close to Scorsese in the same article, that’s amazing. Even if it’s a negative article of the movie, comparing with “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the budget was $100 million, and I did that for $5 million. So I love that comparison,” he said.
“The greed and the story about fast wealth and how people try to get a lot of money in a short time, and they’re in denial to believe that they are a businessman, not thieves — this is a universal story that could happen in Saudi or here or around the world,” Alqurashi added.
One of the greatest challenges was shooting in over 200 locations, as well as not knowing what to expect for “Alhamour H.A.” which has been classified as the first R-rated Saudi film.
“You don’t know what to write, what the red lines there, no one did it before. So we don’t know if the drugs, it’s good or not. And for a guy who made $1.4 billion real in three years, for sure, he’s not going to give charity for that. He will do more than we have seen in the movie,” he said.
The conversation transitioned back to how Alqurashi got started as a filmmaker. When he moved to Los Angeles to study film in 2013, he had already seen a lot of movies on DVD, despite Saudi Arabia not having cinemas at the time. For him, the most challenging part was learning a different protocol about how movies were made.
To wrap up the conversation, Alqurashi was asked about his experience gaining international recognition for his film. He was pleasantly surprised to see people understand and enjoy the movie, given how many Saudi references there are.
“It’s a very Saudi movie, so for people internationally to be engaged with the movie, this is amazing,” Alqurashi said.
Watch the video above.
