DUBAI: Great family films have the power to change lives. Saudi filmmaker Khalid Fahad should know, as it was Disney’s “The Lion King” that changed his. Now, nearly three decades later, Fahad hopes to do the same for a new generation, using the inimitable magic of Saudi Arabia to craft the first family film in the Kingdom’s history, “Valley Road,” a stirring ode to both the films and the country that he loves so dearly.
That wasn’t always Fahad’s intention, of course. In fact, the initial idea that sparked “Valley Road” came to him during a visit to his brother’s house, as he spoke to his young niece and wondered why she didn’t speak back.
Filmmaker Khalid Fahad on set with Aseel Omran. (Supplied)
“I asked her mother, ‘Why isn’t she responding with words?’ and she explained to me that she had a disorder called ‘selective mutism.’ I started reading about it later and got very interested. I ended up sitting down to write a story about this kid, thinking that it would be a small indie film following them around,” Fahad explains to Arab News.
“I then wondered, ‘Why am I writing this story?’ And I started to think back to myself at that age. I realized I wanted the world to be big, the same sort of family film that I once fell in love with. I wanted stirring music, big special effects, song and dance — a truly sprawling world. I realized this was something that no one had ever done here,” he continues.
A still from 'Valley Road.'
As wonderful as that sounds on paper, making it happen in a country that has never produced a film of such ambition would be no easy task. Fahad got his start on YouTube making clips with his friends, graduating to bigger and bigger short films over the last decade in which he honed his skills and developed his style. He knew he was personally ready, but who would help him meet this challenge?
“First, I went to a VFX company called Squids based in Egypt, not knowing if I could even afford them. I told them the story in detail, and they didn’t say anything. Then, they all started laughing. I didn’t know what to think! But before I could stand up and walk out, they said to me, ‘Since we were kids, we have been dreaming of working on a project like this. We’ll do it with you, even if we have to do it for free’,” Fahad says.
The filmmaker started identifying the talent he wanted to work with — composers, producers, even major celebrities like Saudi singer and actress Aseel Omran. One by one, as soon as they heard his story, they joined his cause. With all that might behind him, he approached Ithra, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture based in Dhahran, who he knew were looking to start funding films. They were impressed, but still skeptical.
“They said, ‘This is a risky project. It’s a fantasy adventure, and you want to build your own village and move everyone there for a full month to shoot? How can you even pull this off?’ Undeterred, I ended up going all over the country, finally finding an area in the south that would let us build the village if we agreed to clean it all up afterwards. Meanwhile, we were working tirelessly on our concept — making storyboards, VFX samples, even the score and original songs. After a full year of work to prove we had what it takes, Ithra agreed to come aboard and fund our film,” says Fahad.
Even with all of that in place, the most important piece of all was yet to be discovered: a child actor who could take on the lead role of Ali, a selectively mute young boy living in a village who goes on the adventure of a lifetime. He knew he needed an unknown, someone who had no experience in commercials or television, who would have the true innocence and untapped imagination that the film needed.
“We spent 10 days auditioning 150 kids in Riyadh. Towards the end, a mother came with two sons, but only one was there to audition. Our casting supervisor saw the other brother sitting there in the hallway, and asked him, ‘Why are you not auditioning? You better come inside and audition too, because you never know — the person chosen might be you!’ After some hesitation, he agreed, and we knew very quickly that that boy, Hamad Farhan, was our Ali,” says Fahad.
Hamad Farhan as Ali in ‘Valley Road.’ (Supplied)
As 10-year-old Hamad and the rest of the cast studied tirelessly to pull off what Fahad had envisioned, working with acting coaches and even a choreographer flown in from abroad to pull off the big musical numbers, Fahad himself went back to the movies that inspired him. Day and night, he studied Disney films and other influential family films from both Hollywood and Bollywood to figure out how to make his $1.5 million budget feel like at least 10 times that, a feat he achieved.
“I had to learn the visual language of these films, because it is truly a universal language all its own. Across in the world, when people watch films like “Aladdin,” “Coco,” “Encanto,” or “Luca,” they can connect with these characters and stories instantly. That’s what I knew I had to achieve, to make our Saudi story resonate the same way those had,” says Fahad.
While the team were proud of what they had created, Fahad didn’t know for sure how audiences would respond until the film debuted at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December 2022. The pressure was palpable — the film was given the prestigious closing slot, and celebrities and film luminaries from across the world sat in the audience, including the legendary Jackie Chan.
“It was heavy, but as soon as it finished, everyone started screaming and clapping. It was a magical moment. I knew we had done something crazy, but I didn’t know if people would love it. But then people came up to me to tell me that it was so touching that they had cried,” says Fahad.
Most important to Fahad, however, wasn’t the fact that they had pulled off what others had thought was impossible. It was gratifying that people from across Saudi Arabia and the world all connected with his sprawling fantasy, but what affected him most was the fact that each person in the audience had connected with the affliction of his poor niece. In that moment, it was clearer to him than ever before that the power of cinema could help us understand any human experience.
“People were amazed,” says Fahad. “They said to me, ‘This boy is silent, but he says so much. We know what he is feeling, and we feel it too.’ That meant the world to me.”
