Sarah Taibah’s Hoba Hits UAE Cinemas, Ushering Gulf’s Female-Led Horror Era
The Saudi actor–writer Sarah Taibah has slipped back onto United Arab Emirates cinema screens through the Emirati horror feature Hoba, a development that quietly cements the Gulf’s growing taste for female-authored genre stories and opens fresh space for cross-border collaboration.
Why This Matters
• Immediate access: Hoba is playing at VOX, Roxy and Reel theatres across the Emirates this week—tickets start at AED 45.
• Streaming to follow: Shahid, already popular in UAE households, is expected to add the title in the spring window, broadening home-viewing options.
• Funding cues: Taibah’s path from illustration to screen underlines how UAE’s new AED 30 M Abu Dhabi Creative Hub fund can be tapped by multi-disciplinary artists.
• Regional hiring: Front Row Filmed Entertainment—handling Hoba and Taibah’s upcoming rom-com A Matter of Life and Death—is scouting Emirati crew for 2026 shoots.
From Sketchbooks to Shock Cinema
Long before Cannes invitations or Shahid trending lists, Taibah filled children’s books with mischievous ink drawings. That habit of cataloguing emotions still drives her screen work. Friends say her Jeddah apartment looks like a stationery store—walls papered with handwritten prompts such as “Nothing to wait for—it’s happening now.” Those same words, she tells The National, pushed her through a devastating double cancellation of a TV series and into the arms of Hoba, where she plays Zahra, a second wife whose sweetness curdles into dread.
Why UAE Cinephiles Are Watching
A Gulf milestone: Hoba is the rare horror film shot in Abu Dhabi’s empty-quarter borderland yet steered by a Saudi lead—evidence the regional talent pool is finally knitting together.
Female complexity on screen: Zahra isn’t objectified as a jump-scare prop; critics praise Taibah for "weaponising vulnerability"—an approach missing in many imported horror titles.
Festival buzz you can feel: After Fantastic Fest named the picture Best Horror Feature, UAE distributors slotted it for the lucrative National Day corridor, a marketing window usually reserved for Hollywood blockbusters.
What This Means for Residents
• Viewers: Expect wider genre choices at your local cineplex. If Hoba holds box-office legs, theatres will prioritise more Arabic-language thrillers.• Filmmakers: Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s 30% cash rebate already covers foreign shoots; Taibah’s success could nudge the authority to extend similar incentives to Gulf co-productions led by women.• Investors: Front Row’s pre-sale of MENA rights shows a workable revenue model—private capital in Dubai and Sharjah can now enter development slates confident of multi-territory recoupment.• Students & creatives: Taibah’s trajectory—from fine-arts graduate to festival regular—mirrors the interdisciplinary path UAE universities now encourage through joint media-design degrees.
Inside the Notebook: Taibah’s Craft Rules
Taibah laughs that she is a “high-functioning introvert with an extrovert’s job.” On set she flips between two rituals:
• Ink on skin: shopping lists and character tics scrawled on her palms; the mess reminds her not to polish the life out of a scene.
• Dialogue autopsy: each night she strips dialogue by 10%—a trick she credits to British sitcom Fleabag. "Comedy lives in negative space," she insists, an ethic visible in Jameel Jeddan, still in Shahid’s Saudi Top 10 after four years.
The Next Chapter: ‘A Matter of Life and Death’
Taibah’s 2025 festival darling pairs her with Yaqoub Alfarhan, another name familiar to UAE viewers from The Devil’s Promise. The quirky rom-com follows Hayat, a woman convinced she’s cursed, and Youssef, a heart-conditioned surgeon addicted to risk. After its Red Sea bow, Front Row is negotiating a late-2026 Gulf theatrical roll-out—likely to include a Dubai première timed for the Dubai International Film Festival’s planned relaunch.
Industry Signals to Watch
Bold regional distribution—Front Row’s success with Hoba could embolden VOX or Novo to schedule longer runs for Arabic indies.
Women behind camera—Taibah’s writer-producer credit aligns with the UAE Ministry of Culture’s 2024 mandate aiming for 30% female crew on funded projects.
Cross-city writers’ rooms—Taibah already Zoom-workshops drafts with Abu Dhabi-based scribes, a workflow likely to intensify as Gulf visas for creative freelancers relax further this summer.
The Bottom Line for the Emirates
Sarah Taibah’s rise is not merely a Saudi success story; it hints at a shared Gulf ecosystem where talent, capital and stories circulate more freely than ever. For UAE residents, that means more Arabic-language content in local cinemas, new training schemes to join, and—perhaps most importantly—proof that a sketchbook crammed with personal scribbles can, with the right partnerships, end up lighting the silver screen from Abu Dhabi to Austin.