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THE KING'S POEM

By Abdulwahab BIN SHADDAD

Documentary - Completed 2022

Festivals
& Awards

Red Sea IFF 2022

New Saudi/ New Cinema (Shorts)

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- SAUDI ARABIA
- Languages
- ARABIC
- Duration
- 25 mn
- Director(s)
- Abdulwahab BIN SHADDAD
- Synopsis
- The King’s Poem, is a documentary produced by Thmanyah Company for Publishing and Distribution. It features the story of a young Saudi poet who receives the prestigious title The Prince of Poets (Amir Al-Shu’ara), and nominated later to recite a welcome poem before King Salman. However, one word would render this festive evening into a nightmare.  Haydar Al-Abdullah and his poem gained sudden fame on Twitter after that evening. For six years now, the timeline is still haunted with tweets and video clips ridiculing his choice of the word  Suknana.  For the first time, we get to hear the story from the poet’s perspective. We go back to his childhood, his relationship with both the city of Al-Ahsa and the poet Jassim As-Sahih, then winning the titles of Okaz Youth Poet and The Prince of Poets. We go behind the scenes of the infamous evening in 2016, and the advice he received from the Prince of Al-Sharqiyyah Province, when the latter listened to the poem recital days before the ceremony. Finally, the poet opens up about the effect of the collective ridicule attack on him, and on his family and relatives.