WME has signed writer-director MeshalAlJaser for representation.
Meshal recently made his feature film debut with “Naga,” a madcap satirical thriller about a young woman stranded in the Arabian desert as she races to get home before her strict father punishes her for missing curfew. It premiered at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival midnight section, the first Saudi film ever selected for Midnight Madness, and will be released on Netflix this winter.
Peter Kuplowsky, who programs TIFF’s Midnight section, said he wanted “Naga” as part of the lineup because it gripped him from the very first scene. “I am often looking for films that rattle an audience within their opening minutes, and more than any other title in my selection this year, ‘Naga’ just blew me away with its shocking prologue,” he told PvNew before this year’s festival. “It perfectly set the stakes of the story. As it unfolded, I only became more and more impressed with how Meshal was navigating so many potent and provocative themes, and never at the sacrifice of character or momentum.”
Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Meshal began making films at the age of 17, despite the country’s 80-year cinema ban. He spearheaded an infamous “Folaim” YouTube channel, which garnered more than 200 million views.
In 2016, when Saudi Arabia revived its cinema industry and removed the ban on theaters,Meshalwas chosen to represent the government’s new industry with his film “Is Sumyati Going To Hell?” which premiered at Paramount Studios and was acquired by Netflix.
His absurdist sci-fi romance short film “ArabianAlien” debuted at Sundance 2020, where it won a jury award.
Meshalcontinues to be repped byGrandview Managementand Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.
