THE KINGDOM DIRECTOR URGES TOLERANCE

Director Peter Berg wanted to debunk stereotypes in The Kingdom.

Director Peter Berg spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia, specifically Abu Dhabi scouting locations in preparation to shoot his film The Kingdom there.

Peter talks about his impressions of the people he met and how he hopes the film will show the Arab people in a more tolerant light.

“I believe that the great majority of Arabs and certainly Arabs that I’ve met in Saudi Arabia and I spent a lot of time in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the Arabs I met were not fanatics. They were moral, good, kind loving people as interested in stopping the violence as we are and I wanted to show that in the film.”

In The Kingdom Peter also wanted to show the real threat of terrorism upon the Saudis from Muslim terrorists.

“I’ve been to Saudi Arabia and it is scary. There’s a heavy military presence there designed to protect the Saudis from Muslim terrorists. The religious extremists target the Saudis as much as they target us so when you’re in that country you do get the feeling that something could happen and we wanted to build up this tension and build it and build it and unleash madness upon everyone and I think we’re not entirely unsuccessful in doing that.”

The Kingdom currently number two at the box office is playing in theaters.