Soaked festival-goers were still trying to bypass confused security guards when lauded American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky unexpectedly entered Cinema 1 at the Red Sea Film Festival home of Culture Square on Tuesday afternoon to give an update on his scheduled career talk: the event was going ahead, despite the festival’s several warnings that the audience might “need to evacuate at any minute.” “You’ve got to get better sewers,” he joked.

This feeling of confusion and urgency permeated the early afternoon at the Saudi festival as emails piled in announcing cancelled events, suspended shuttles and last-minute safeguarding measures due to the rainstorm hitting Jeddah. “Due to the unstable weather and heavy rainfall in Jeddah today, Culture Square and the Red Sea Souk will be closed for

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