Algeria offers setting for an anti-Saudi film

Algeria, a country notorious for its inaccessibility to filmmakers and foreign journalists, has surprisingly allowed the shooting of Goat Life, an Indian movie that paints a very derogatory image of Saudi society.

The film was banned by the Saudis because it tells a one-sided story depicting the Saudis as slave owners.

While the movie has triggered mixed reactions, it is interesting to focus on Algeria as a closed-off country that has been shunned by filmmakers because of its censorship and lack of prerequisites for filmmaking. However, it has opened its arms to a movie that depicts Saudi Arabia negatively.

Surprisingly, after checking the anti-Saudi content of the plot, Algerian authorities allowed the crew to film.

The movie was shot against the backdrop of worsening ties between Algiers and Ryadh, following Saudi outright support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory, where Algeria nurtures a separatist chimera.

The next episode in the Saudi-Algerian diplomatic frost was the Saudi strong man Mohamad Bin Salman giving cold shoulder to Algeria’s military regime, shunning the Arab summit in Algiers.

Last year, Saudi Arabia did not invite Algeria, which held the rotating presidency of the Arab League, to a meeting bringing together nine Arab states to discuss Syria’s return to the league.