Desert Warrior review: Saudi Arabia gets the showcase it has long deserved

“If you didn’t know how beautiful your country was, you soon will,” remarked Finn Halliday, head of international programmes at the Red Sea International Film Festival, as she took to the stage in Jeddah to introduce Rupert Wyatt’s Desert Warrior. It sounded like typical festival bluster, but, for once, it was no exaggeration. Some films demand the biggest screen available – this is one of them. A spectacular and often thrilling historical film, it presents the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it has never been seen on screen.

In the five years of the festival, there has arguably not been a film more aligned with the Red Sea’s ambitions – telling Saudi stories with Hollywood scale and expertise. The biggest English-language production ever filmed in the kingdom, Desert Warrior features an international cast including Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley and Marvel star Anthony Mackie, and is backed by MBC, the Saudi-owned media giant. It has also been a long time coming – the shoot took place in late 2021 across Neom in the Tabuk region.

Whether the wait has been worth it depends on what you want from a period epic. Inspired by events from 1,500 years ago, the film embraces a notably old-fashioned style of storytelling – thousands of extras, fleets of horses and camels, and desert vistas that feel mythic. You sense David Lean might smile at cinematographer Guillermo Garza’s jaw-dropping compositions, golden sunsets silhouetting Arabian stallions against endless sands.

Actors Sharlto Copley and Aiysha Hart along with director Rupert