السيناريست السعودي وفرصة جمعية الأدب المهنية

The cultural and literary scene is witnessing exceptional developments and successive successes. Today, glory touches new ideas that stem from the essence of artistic works, achieving the desired impact to mobilize public opinion and direct attention towards them. Among these developments is what the Professional Literature Association offers in terms of qualitative projects that concern writers and enhance local creative content, and these efforts deserve to be acknowledged with pride, welcome, and rich discussions.

What delights the mind and defines the path of this artistic vision, announcing its brilliance, is the project to transform Saudi novels into cinematic scripts. This is a vital project related to the production of the cultural and value components of the local community and presenting them to the outside world. It is high time for our literary works to appear in a cinematic form that befits our image and quality. The first experience of transforming a Saudi novel into a film was with the novel "Hawjan" by the writer Ibrahim Abbas, which achieved remarkable success. This confirms that some local novels are suitable for cinematic adaptation due to the diversity of visual environments or fantastical elements and the uniqueness of experiences and their humanization.

Focusing on good narrative texts will contribute to the development of the quality of production and encourage youth to engage in diverse narrative experiences that fit the expected cinematic scenario of rapid and consecutive shots, and segments that the screenwriter can either condense, delete, add some scenes, intensify specific scenes, or elongate; allowing the screenwriter to describe the image, pay attention to sound effects, frame dialogues within the work, arrange scenes within a coherent plot of shots, and care for character development and their disruption through monologue. This project also creates promising opportunities for Saudi youth to cultivate, develop, and innovate in the art of screenwriting, especially since there is a pressing need to activate this field in light of the scarcity of local names who have worked diligently, such as Raja Al-Otaibi, Tawfiq Al-Zaydi, Badr Al-Sammari, Abdullah Al-Ayyaf, and Mufrej Al-Majfal, who wrote the screenplay for the film "The Departed," which won the Grand Prize at the Saudi Film Festival in 2017, and the film "Zero Distance," which won the Golden Palm Award at the same festival in 2019. Undoubtedly, Saudi novels carry qualitative themes across various social, cultural, political, popular, and fantastical fields, reflecting the level of awareness enjoyed by local novelists. Among the prominent novels that could be adapted into films are "The Scent of Charcoal" by Abdulaziz Al-Suqabi, which features cinematic cutting, "The Flood of Thunder" by Abdul Hafeez Al-Shammari, and the novels of Abdu Khal that portray the self's crisis towards the other, as well as "Maimouna" by Mahmoud Traore. Novels that address the Second Gulf War, such as "Barking" by Abdu Khal and "The Survivor" by Ali Al-Saadoun, which recount real events that occurred during the war, are also suitable for cinema. We also have a wealth of female narratives that express the female voice in the novels of Omaima Al-Khamis, especially "The Sea Women," and the novels of Badriya Al-Bushr, particularly "The Swing," which focus on building women's identity in the local community, as well as the novels of Atheer Al-Nashmi, especially "The Darkness of Memory," which contain techniques suitable for screenwriting. The desert has also formed an important cultural dimension, being an intrinsic feature in the formation of the Saudi identity, and transferring it to the art of cinema is a rooting of the component and identity. This is clearly evident in the novel "The Divers of Al-Huqf" by Amal Al-Faran, which tells the story of multiple generations raised between the desert and the sea, and the quintet "Cities of Salt" by Abdul Rahman Munif, as well as "The Ring" by Raja Al-Alam, "The Crow's Leg" by Yahya Amqasim, "The Wall Knot" by Khalif Al-Ghalib, and "Tears of Sand" by Shitwi Al-Ghaithi. We cannot overlook the fantastical dimension in local novels, which conveys a mental image of some of our cultural components and folk tales. This fantastical atmosphere suits the techniques and vast possibilities of cinema in the novels of Raja Al-Alam, "Um Al-Sabyan" by Ibrahim Muftah, "The Robbed" by Awad Al-Asimi, and "The Run of the Afraid" by Jawharat Al-Rimal. There are also novels distinguished by parallel narrative lines, such as those by Munthir Al-Qabbani, which allow for the interweaving of times, spaces, and stories, making them suitable for cinematic adaptation. Many others, like the novels of Muhammad Hassan Al-Awan, Yusuf Al-Muhaimid, and Abdullah Thabit, also fit this description.

Focusing on this great project will yield fruitful results in light of the abundance of local narratives and their adaptability for transformation, encouraging youth and teaching them the art of screenwriting while consulting with expert opinions. The future, in the hands of those who establish creativity, will flourish, and we—intellectuals in the field—eagerly await the outcome of this experience.