A goat’s life… How an Indian film threatens Saudi Arabia’s new image in the world’s eyes?

Contrary to the general Arab perception of Indian films with exaggerated, repetitive scenes and stories, this Indian film, “The Life of a Goat”, was able to mobilize international and Arab public opinion, especially about what is happening in Saudi Arabia against foreign workers, especially Asians, under the “sponsor” system, which lasted for more than 70 years until it was modified in Saudi Arabia in 2021. The sponsorship system is that the employer brings in the worker and becomes his sponsor. , but the system is a “slavery system” in which the worker is a slave to his sponsor and “cannot do anything unless approved by the sponsor.”

The Indian-produced film “The Life of a Goat” tells the true story of a young Indian man named Najeeb who got a sponsor and therefore sold his house in India in order to be able to get a travel visa to Saudi Arabia. To work there, when he arrived at the airport and did not understand the language, he was looking for his sponsor until his sponsor came and he… took him to a difficult place, in the middle of nowhere. He was held in the Saudi desert for three years, treated harshly, with little food, and with the permission of his sponsor, his hair and beard grew long and black until he forgot how to speak and began to make goat-like sounds.

His life and the slavery he faced at the hands of his sponsors, as well as the film’s description, angles, aspects and emotional moments, were able to attract viewers in large numbers and create negative emotions towards Saudi Arabia and the regime known as its sponsors. , until the film first released in March last year became a theatrical release, and then on Netflix last July, and became the most watched film on the platform in recent times.

The huge interaction with the film was divided into two categories: on the one hand, there was integration with the story in response to the message that the film wanted to convey, and on the other hand, there was great anger in Saudi Arabia, both at the level of the people and the government, accusing the film of trying to insult Saudi Arabia, when the chairman of the board of directors of the General Entertainment Authority was a Turkish, and the sheikh made great efforts to change and export the new image of Saudi Arabia to the world, so the film “The Life of a Goat” came into being. It threatened all this.