EXCLUSIVE: Saudi romantic comedy A Matter Of Life And Death is set to release theatrically at home on June 25 after its planned spring release was postponed due to the Iran War, and Deadline can reveal a new trailer

Local stars Yaqoub Alfarhan (Scales, Norah) and Sarah Taibah (Mandoob) play an unlikely couple whose love blossoms against the odds in the Jeddah-set feature, one of the quirkiest local romantic comedies to come out of Saudi Arabia since the lifting of its 35-year cinema ban in 2017.

Taibah plays Hayat, a superstitious young woman who is convinced she is cursed, opposite Yaqoub as Youssef, a shy doctor with a heart condition that causes him to suppress his emotions.

The picture world premiered at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah last December and had been set for an April Release.

Regional Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment was forced to put their distribution plans on hold following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel-Iran War at the end of February.

Its new local release date will be followed by a theatrical roll-out across Saudi Arabia’s Gulf neighbors as well as Egypt in July.

First announced at the Red Sea Film Festival in 2024, A Matter Of Life and Death is produced by Cairo-based Film Clinic and Dubai-based Front Row Productions in partnership with Saudi Arabian company Arabia Pictures Group.

The feature is Anas Ba-Tahaf, whose 2021 drama Fay’s Palette, about a girl cloistered in her home by a controlling brother, was one of the first Saudi features to be made following the lifting of the country’s 35-year cinema ban in 2017.