Last Visit

There has been a lot talk about women's liberation in the otherwise totalitarian state of Saudi Arabia in recent years, both in the news and on film. In Last Visit, however, there are no women driving cars or other forms of feminist imagery – there is actually not a single woman to be seen in the whole film. Instead, we are served a beautiful, low-key father-and-son story.

When Nasser learns that his father is dying, he returns to the village he substituted for metropolitan life in the capital Riyadh many years ago. Together with him on this last visit to his father is his 16-year-old son Waleed. The meetings between Nasser and his brother, and between Waleed and his cousin, reveal a major clash of values along the urban/rural divide, which soon becomes a catalyst for confrontation between the family members. And right in the middle of it all, a boy in the village mysteriously disappears.

Last Visit revolves around stern, patriarchal traditions, and how fathers and sons alike must align themselves with the traditional system. Director and writer Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan manages to create multidimensional characters and highlights themes of class and sexuality in a subtle way in what proves to be a strong feature film debut. If the framework seems somewhat dismal, we can reveal that the story also contains hope. Could the last visit to Nasser and Waleed be the start of something new for both of them?

Johanne Svendsen Rognlien

Director

Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan is an independent filmmaker from Saudi Arabia and co-founder of the production company Talashi Films. He has directed several short films, among them Three Men and a Woman (2009) and The Incomplete Chronicles of a Folk Tale (2010). Last Visit is his feature film debut and was the first Arabic film competing for Karolvy Vary’s East of the West Award. The film also won the jury prize at Marrakech International Film Festival in 2019.

This film is part of