RIYADH: When Saudi film director and producer Aymen Khoja started his own company AK Pictures two years ago, most of his proposals were rejected by investors. Half-jokingly, he told his business partner he wished he was a foreigner. “If my hair was blonde and my eyes were blue, they would have accepted at least five of these projects,” he tells Arab News. “And then I looked at him and thought, ‘Oh. That could be an idea.'”

That was it. And now that idea has become Il Signore, Khoja’s latest film as a director, currently playing in cinemas across the GCC.

“Il Signore,” says Khoja, is “a light comedy” about a Saudi architect named Salem who works hard for a promotion. But when he comes into the office that day expecting to be told he has succeeded in his efforts, he learns that he is instead being fired because a Westerner working at the firm “put in a word” that Salem is no longer needed.

Salem is looking for a new management position, but most of the jobs he applies for are filled by foreigners. In desperation, Salem decides to assume a false identity – an Italian named Paolo.

“That’s the funny journey you’ll see in the first 20 or 30 minutes of the film, until he becomes Italian,” says Khoja. “And then his life changes. He gets the Porsche, he gets the big salary and he gets the lifestyle he wanted as a Saudi. But he doesn’t have it as a Saudi, he has it as an Italian. And then he faces this identity problem. And he has to decide whether he can confess his love to his family or not.”

“It’s so different from any other Saudi film,” Khoja continues. “It’s contemporary. I think it’s very important to discuss these challenges. I don’t want to call it a problem; it’s a challenge we see around us. We’re not saying that Westerners or experts from outside don’t add value. No. They add value. At the same time, we’re saying that Saudis deserve a chance. And how can we find the right balance between learning from the experienced people from outside and giving the locals a chance?”

The film has “nothing to do with politics,” Khoja stresses. “It’s pure comedy. When we made this film, we thought of three things: we wanted to entertain people, we wanted to touch people and we wanted to satisfy people. We never thought about politics. We discuss this issue from a comedic perspective. And the bottom line is simply that I think there are some locals who deserve a chance.”

Finding an actor who could play Salem/Paolo was also a challenge, says Khoja. “The reason I chose Yasir (Alsaggaf) for this role is because I needed an actor who, when people see him, they think he’s Italian, but at the same time they think he’s Saudi. That was really difficult, but that’s why we cast Yasir.”

“Il Signore” also stars Egyptian star Bayoumi Fouad as Paolo’s boss. “The great thing about Bayoumi is that he can play the comedian and the serious one at the same time, so you never know if he’s serious or if he’s joking. We needed someone like him for this role. And you can see the chemistry between Yasir and Bayoumi. It’s there.”

When putting together his crew, Khoja practiced what he preached and gave the Saudis a chance. He estimates that Saudis and non-Saudis were represented about equally. “We had people from Tunisia, from Egypt, from the United Arab Emirates. We represented the United Arab Nations,” he says, laughing. “But I would say more than 50 percent were Saudis.”

He is obviously keen to support Saudi Arabia’s thriving film industry, but he also wants to ensure that it is viewed as a business and must make a profit.

“Il Signore,” says Khoja, is a “high-quality, very inexpensive” film that was shot in just 18 days after two months of preparation.
“If you make films that cost, say, two or three million dollars, how are you going to make a profit at the box office?” he says. “The risk is so high. You don’t need a lot of money. It’s about the stories, the characters… it’s about the idea. Honestly, I specifically asked for that (low) budget. We did that to stabilize the market. That’s a statement, because if we keep spending money to make films that don’t make money, this industry will not survive. Government support will not last forever. We need to show the private sector how to make films on a budget that actually makes a profit so that we can build a sustainable industry. That’s the goal. We could have offered this film for three million dollars, but we chose that budget because now we only need about 50,000 admissions to break even. And our forecast is about 250,000 admissions.

“You know, we care about what we do. And we care about building a sustainable industry. It’s such a great industry. You can impact people’s lives,” he continues. “That’s why I love movies. People might be sad, they watch a movie and they’re happy, you know? And that’s why I believe in what I do. I love making movies because they change people.”

Ultimately, Khoja wants to bring success not only to his own films, but to the entire Saudi film industry.

“I want to make films that reach the 400 million people who live in the Arab world. And I want to help other filmmakers (do the same),” he says. “I want Saudi films to succeed.”