Al Owais Foundation celebrates ‘Samson of Arabia’ with red-carpet documentary premiere in Dubai

A night of honours and memories

The screening attracted a distinguished audience, including His Excellency Mohammed Ahmed Al Murr, Chairman of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library Foundation; Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Secretary-General of the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation; Dr Fatma Al Sayegh, a member of the Board of Trustees; and a large gathering of intellectuals, media professionals, filmmakers and heritage enthusiasts.

Before the film began, Abdul Hamid Ahmad presented the Al Owais commemorative shield to Ali bin Hassan and to Nasser Al Dhaheri. The gesture recognised the popular hero’s remarkable career, which put the UAE on the map in the region’s collective memory during the 1960s and 1970s, and acknowledged the director’s work in documenting an exceptional figure for the screen.

Ali bin Hassan, with his characteristic long hair, thick beard and familiar smile, received a warm welcome from the audience. Many attendees lined up to take commemorative photographs with him.

From oral legend to cinematic archive

Before the screening, Nasser Al Dhaheri spoke about the challenges of making the documentary, a project that took nearly two years to complete. The work involved field research, assembling a rare archive of photographs and Arab magazines that once featured Samson on their covers, and interviewing people who had witnessed his performances.

“The greatest challenge was not documenting his extraordinary strength, but finding a way to transform the oral story we heard as children in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, about a man who broke rocks on his stomach and pulled cars with his hair, into a visual narrative that preserved the man’s legend without slipping into fantasy,” Al Dhaheri said.

“I wanted to search for the human being behind the legend, for Ali bin Hassan, who carried the name of the UAE in his suitcase and travelled with it through Arab cities, earning only a few dirhams from his performances, at a time when we did not have institutions to shape our image before the world.”

He added: “Samson was a media force in his own right. He would proclaim the names of the UAE and Dubai on every stage. He was a popular ambassador before the age of ambassadors. The film is an attempt to restore a popular memory that we had almost forgotten, and to honour a man who is now over 80 and lives alone after bidding farewell to Delilah, yet the echoes of the audience’s cheers still ring in his ears.”

Cultural duty and future vision

Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Secretary-General of the foundation, elaborated on the significance of the event. “At the Al Owais Foundation, we believe cinema is the nation’s visual memory. If literature writes history, images preserve it, alive and vibrant. A figure such as ‘Samson of Arabia’ lived in people’s memories as an oral story for 50 years. It was therefore our cultural duty to transform that story from something told into a document that can be seen, ensuring that the legacy of this popular hero remains present for future generations,” he said.

He added: “This screening forms part of an integrated strategy by the Al Owais Cultural Foundation to support Emirati documentary cinema, a form of filmmaking that delves into national memory, documents oral histories and popular narratives, and transforms them into a permanent visual archive. We have revitalised the Film Club to serve as a platform for screening and discussing Emirati, Arab and international films, and as a bridge between creators and audiences, and between the past and the future.”

“By honouring the hero and the director tonight with the Al Owais shield, we are honouring an entire generation that brought joy to people at a time when resources were limited. We are also honouring an Emirati filmmaker of Nasser Al Dhaheri’s stature, who succeeded in capturing this story and giving it cinematic and human depth. The next chapter of the Al Owais Film Club will be broader and more diverse, guided by our conviction that supporting cinema means supporting identity.”

Produced in 2025, the 85-minute documentary has already been featured in several international festivals, drawing attention for its portrayal of one of the most enduring figures in the UAE’s collective memory. The film recounts Samson’s celebrated feats, from breaking rocks and allowing cars to pass over his hands to pulling cars with his hair, lifting weights with his teeth, lying on glass and lifting a donkey with his teeth. It also recalls how King Hussein bin Talal bestowed on him the title “Samson of Arabia”, while President Gamal Abdel Nasser called him “Samson the Mighty”. Ali bin Hassan chose the former, which later became his official name on his identity documents and passport.