Underplayed Gems

Shams Al-Ma'arif (2020)

Shams Al-Ma'arif poster
Original title
شمس المعارف
Directed by
Faris Godus
Genre
comedy film
Country
Saudi Arabia
Runtime
2h
Rating
7.8 of 10 from 44 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A group of Saudi teenagers are changed by the internet and content creation. The film shows how Saudi online content evolved from the 1990s to today.

nostalgiclightheartedenergeticcomedicupbeatwarmbittersweetfast-paced

What happens

The Book of the Sun (Shams Al-Ma'arif) is a 2020 Saudi comedy film directed by Faris Godus. It premiered on July 22, 2020, in Jeddah, then in Riyadh. It was widely released in Saudi Arabia on July 31, 2020. The film was supposed to premiere in the Red Sea International Film Festival but it got delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Shams Al-Ma'arif tells the story of a group of Saudi teens and how the internet and content making changed their lives. It gives an insider's look at the origins of Saudi content making from the nineties to the current times. The story also has a personal nature as the Godus brothers started making content on YouTube before their debut. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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