Maha Al-Saati

Maha Al-Saati (Arabic: مها الساعاتي) is a Saudi Arabian filmmaker, media educator and graduate of Simon Fraser University who has taught both in Vancouver, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Her academic research covers the representation of architectural spaces,

Film style and themes Al-Saati's style leans toward genre and fantasy filmmaking, and is inspired by fairytales, classical Disney cartoons, and 80s-90s American pop culture and music videos. films have played in genre and fantasy festivals such as Fantastic Fest, Her projects have also been featured in TIFF labs, where she received the TIFF Share Her Journey award, Nouveau Marché of Festival du nouveau cinéma, El Gouna Film Festival, and Red Sea International Film Festival. thumb Al-Saati at the Independent Spirit Awards 2022Her film, "Fear: Audibly" (2017) is about a girl's fear of the trumpet of doom which will end the world. The film reflects a religious period in Saudi Arabia between the 1980s and 1990s. Its dependence on sound is influenced by the Islamic restriction on visual depictions, often depending on oral narrations distributed through cassette tapes. It also features the mistreatment of stray cats. This film has won Al-Saati the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) residency award of 2021. Collaborations Al-Saati collaborated with American electronic opera composer Alice Shields on to compose the music for Cycle of Apples (2019).

Her short film "VHS Tape Replaced" (2022) is a romantic comedy exploring the 1980s Saudi Arabia and features a young black man who mimics Prince (musician) to win the love of a girl. The film also stars Saudi actress Sarah Taibah, who was awarded The Chopard Rising Star Award. The film music was composed by Austrian violinist Yury Revich and has received an Honorable Mention at Fantastic Fest.

Filmography