Cinema in Kuwait officially began to take root in the mid-20th century, heavily influenced by the importation of foreign films and the establishment of the Kuwait National Cinema Company in 1954. For decades, theater screens were dominated largely by Hollywood blockbusters and Egyptian cinema. A massive cultural turning point occurred in the early 1970s when pioneering local filmmaker Khalid Al-Siddiq directed Bas ya Bahr (The Cruel Sea) in 1972, marking the very first authentic Kuwaiti feature film. This masterpiece vividly depicted pre-oil pearl diving heritage and earned international acclaim, establishing Kuwait as a visionary creative leader in Gulf cinema history.