Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH —The 13th Asian Film Festival, hosted by the Asian Consuls General Club (ACGC), concluded here at the weekend with the screening of Indonesian film “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih” (When Love Recites), which received warm cheers.

The film is a religious-romantic drama adapted from the bestselling novel by Habiburrahman El-Syirazi with the same title. It is about Khairul Azzam, an Indonesian college student at Cairo’s Al Azhar University, struggling to support his mother and two sisters back home while continuing his studies. His life then takes a sharp turn after an encounter with two girls that he gets a crush on.

The closing ceremony of the festival, held at the Nusantara Hall of the Indonesian Consul General’s residence, was attended by the consuls general of ACGC members, film enthusiasts, local dignitaries, participants of Bahasa Indonesia course, and local media personnel.

An Indonesian traditional dance was also performed on the sidelines of the event by a group of Indonesian school students.

The festival, which kicked off in February, screened films from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Welcoming the gathering, Indonesian Consul General Eko Hartono expressed his deep gratitude to the ACGC members for having chosen his premise to host the closing night of the high-profile annual cultural event. He also asserted that the film festival represents a rich and diversified cultures of the Asian countries and plays a role in bridging cultures closer together. “There are many ways to communicate our diversity, and film is one of them that speaks a universal language. More importantly, film makes our life relevant to the situation around us, be it in the past, present and the future,” he said.

He added that the Saudi government had generously opened up a gate to explore the Asian cultural wealth and provided a space to unveil its values to Saudi citizens and foreigners in the country.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Consul General Ed Badajos as the coordinator of this year film festival, thanked the Indonesian consul general for organizing an excellent forum of the closing night of the 13th Asian Film Festival. He reiterated the festival was a means of understanding cultures. “Through films that I have watched for the past few days, I feel so glad to have learned a lot the cultures of other Asian countries,” he said.

The Asian Film Festival is an annual project of the Asian Consuls General Club (ACGC), comprising 13 Asian countries in Jeddah, with the aim of promoting greater awareness and understanding of their cultures among Saudi and other foreign audiences. The members include Bangladesh, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand as members.