DUBAI: Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen’s inter-generational road movie had a glittering premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah.

The red carpet saw celebrities like Egyptian-British star Amir El-Masry, Egyptian actress Asmaa Galal and US actress Emily Ashby attend.

“Hijra” follows a grandmother and her two granddaughters as they journey from Taif to Makkah. When the eldest granddaughter vanishes, the two remaining women travel north to find her, with their search highlighting the deep cultural and generational bonds between Saudi women.

Set against the backdrop of the Hajj pilgrimage, “Hijra” portrays the intimate and emotional odyssey of these women, which evolves into a spiritual quest. Shot across eight Saudi cities, the film provides a deep dive into the Kingdom’s rich cultural tapestry.

“I had this missing girl idea that I had been playing around with for years. I had a script about a younger sister looking for her older sister with her father in Jeddah. The whole script was ready to go … And then, all of a sudden, I hated it. I outgrew it. I thought it was childish. I threw it out,” said director Ameen in an interview with Variety.

“Then, years later, I was talking to my producer Mohamed Al-Daradji — we really collaborate a lot on writing — and he said: ‘Aren’t you tired of the (patriarchal) father story that you already did in “Scales”? What if you make a woman’s story with a grandmother in a multi-generational context?’ So that’s how it restarted.”

Speaking about her personal connection to the story, Ameen said, “Well, my family — it’s not something I say a lot — but my father’s family are immigrants from China, fifth generation. So, I thought: ‘What if the missing girl is an immigrant?’ That became an exciting thread. Then, I went back to the earlier script, and the best scene in that was when they passed a checkpoint through Makkah with all the pilgrims and all of that during Hajj. And suddenly everything was connected, and it became a story about immigration. It’s a story about a girl trying to escape from her grandmother to a different country.”