Sattar

Abdullah Al-Arak's 2022 Saudi film follows Saad, who cannot hold on in either his work or his private life. He decides to return to his childhood dream of freestyle wrestling, but when video of the beating he takes at the tryouts spreads, the dream becomes a joke. The comedy comes out of Saad's stubbornness. He starts working with a manager and a Pakistani coach and learns the rules of performance wrestling; that the work is staged does not trouble him, because what he wants is not victory but a place. It is one of the first local box office films made after cinemas reopened in Saudi Arabia. The production scale is modest and the wrestling sequences more careful than expected. Who it's for: those curious about the new period of Saudi cinema and those who like sports comedy. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an original narrative; the film barely alters the familiar template of the genre.