It's show time!

SAUDI ARABIA: For the first time in 30 years, Saudis in the capital city of Riyadh are allowed go to the cinema. The activity had been prohibited by religious leaders as a way to discourage men and women from meeting at public gatherings.

A comedy about a naive Bedouin villager began showing on 6 June at the King Fahd cultural centre in Riyahd. In the film Menahi, a young man named Menahi is involved in a get-rich-quick scheme. When he moves to Dubai, he finds himself in a number of humorous situations as he tries to adjust to big-city life.

The film was produced by Rotana Group, an entertainment company belonging to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a nephew of the country’s ruler, King Abdullah.

Conservatives shouted that cinema goers should go to the mosque instead.

Some religious conservatives tried to stop the show, shouting that cinema goers should be going to the cultural centre’s mosque instead. The audience, however, enjoyed the event. “It was just beautiful to see people look so animated and happy,” Misfir al-Sibai, a 21-year-old Saudi businessman, told Variety magazine. “That was the best part of the evening.”

Allowing a film to be shown is a first step — allowing women to attend might be the next one. Only men and children, including girls up to age ten, were permitted in the cinema.