US entrepreneur and "Aramco Brat" born in Saudi Arabia

PROTAGONISTS AND EXPERTS

Written and directed by

DIRK VAN DEN BERG

Produced by

PASCAL VERROUST

K2 Productions, Paris

and

DIRK VAN DEN BERG

OutreMer Film, Berlin

Camera

HENRIK SAUER bvk

JULIA LOHMANN

AHMED FOUAD

OLIVIA FURTWÄNGLER

Sound Recordist

MATHIEU DESCAMPS

Editor

ANNE RIEGEL

Associate Producer Saudi Arabia - TAREQ ALDAKHILALLAH

Service Producer Saudi Arabia - MOHAMMED SENDI

DIT, Production Assistant Saudi Arabia - KHALED ALDAKHILALLAH

Field Producer Jordan - IHAB MUHTASEB

Production Manager France - NICO DI BIASE

Production Assistant France - SIHAM BEL

Administrators - OUMAR SAKHO, SAMUEL ATTIA, MARGITTA HEINECKE

Additional Camera USA - SINJUN BALABANOFF

Additional Sound Recordists - GAUTIER ISEM, JÖRG KRIEGER

Commissioning Editors

MARK EDWARDS - ARTE France

BARBARA BIEMANN - NDR Germany

and

CHRISTIANE HINZ - WDR Germany

RENÉ ALTHAMMER - RBB Germany

ESTHER SCHAPIRA - HR Germany

CHRISTOPH GUGGENBERGER - ORF Austria

Produced with the support of

ANNE GÈNEVAUX, Associate Producer INA

FFHSH Filmförderung Hamburg-Schleswig-Holstein

PROCIREP - Société des Producteurs

The Regional Council of Ile-de-France, together with the CNC

RTS Radio Télévision Suisse - IRÈNE CHALLAND, GASPARD LAMUNIÈRE

Special Production Consultant

CHRISTINE REISEN

World Sales

TOM KOCH, GERMAINE DEAGAN, PBS DISTRIBUTION

Technical supervisor - LAURENT LINDEBRINGS

Sound design and mix - DELPHINE THELLIEZ

Color Correction - CHRISTOPHE GAUTHIER

Video Supervisor - FLORIAN BARRAL

Production Supervision Arte Germany - PETER GOTTSCHALK

Producer German Version - RALPH SIEKAU

Research - JULIA CLAUSS, SIMONE SCHELK, CLARY MONAQUE

Translations - OHOUD ALADANI, IMEN BOUALI, RANA DIAB, OUSSAMA KHALBOUSS

Editing Trainees - GEOFFREY DINE, MARGAUX NUSSBAUMER

FILMMAKERS

Paul Barril

Leader of the French G.I.G.N. mission to Saudi Arabia

Abdulaziz Al Dhahri

Former member of the Saudi Military Forces

Faleh Al Dhahri

Saudi Commanding Military Officer of the operations in Mecca

Turki Al Faisal

Member of the Royal family and Saudi Intelligence chief in 1979

Rashed Al Shashai

Artist and Teacher whose grandfather was in Mecca

Juhayman Al Utaybi

Bedouin preacher and

head of the Mecca insurgents

Ignace Wodecki

Weapons Officer of the French G.I.G.N. mission to Saudi Arabia

Abdulrahman Al Yamani

Historian, London School of Economics

Pascal Menoret

Historian and anthropologist

Boston University

Mark Hambley

Political-Military Officer at the US embassy in Jeddah

Nasser Al Huzaymi

Former member of Juhayman's group and journalist

Pierre Lafrance

First Secretary of the French Embassy in Jeddah

Christian Lambert

Explosives Specialist of the French G.I.G.N. mission to Saudi Arabia

Khaled Al Maeena

Journalist and Editor who

in 1979 began his career

Mohammed Al Maqdisi

Ideologue and theorist of Militancy and Jihad

Christian Prouteau

Commander in Chief of French Special Forces G.I.G.N.

CONTACTS

OUTREMER FILM GmbH

DIRK VAN DEN BERG

email info [at] outremerfilm.com

K2 PRODUCTIONS S.A.R.L.

PASCAL VERROUST

phone +33 (0)1 74 64 00 53

email info [at] k2productions.fr

Creating this film has taken 5 years of tireless work by many talented people

in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Egypt, the USA, the UK, France and Germany.

While some prefer to remain unknown, here are the ones we can proudly call by name:

The producers wish to express their special gratitude to

HIS EXCELLENCY DR AWWAD AL ALAWWAD, SAMI ANGAWI, AWAD AL BADI, FRANK BÖSCH, FALEH AL DHAHRI, SAMAR FATANY, HERBERT GEHR, QASWRA HAFEZ, PATRICIA HAMBLEY, KHALED AL MOTTAIN, MUHAMMAD ALMUZAYNI, MICHAEL OHNMACHT, FLORIAN PEIL, SOWEYAN SAAD, BASMA BINT SAUD, ANDREAS SCHARDT and FRANZISKA SCHIRMER

Thanks to

JULIE BERTUCCELLI, HÉLÈNE BOISSON, BASILE BORKENHAGEN, KARIM DAGHBOUCHE, JEAN-LOUIS ESQUIVIE, FRÉDÉRIC D'HAUTHUILLE, JOSEPH A. KECHICHIAN, ROBERT LACEY, SOPHIE LECHEVALIER, DAVID W. LESCH, WOLFGANG LORENZ, SUHA MAAYEH, AHMED MATER, THING NGUYEN, DIDIER PECHEUR, PIERRE PRIER, LUC RONAT, ANTIONE SANTANA, GUIDO STEINBERG and JIHAN TAHRI

and to

ROXANA NADIM - LUDMILLA AND SYRINE VERROUST

STORY

On November 20th 1979, at 05:30 in the morning, hundreds of heavily armed men take over the Grand Mosque of Mecca and transform the holiest shrine of Islam into a fortress.

The next 15 days of occupation, the siege and battle for the holy mosque would cost hundreds if not thousands of lives, shake Saudi Arabia to its foundations, push the global balance of power to the brink of collapse, and mark the beginning of religiously motivated terrorism. They have been kept under a veil of almost complete secrecy until today.

Director Dirk van den Berg and his international team obtained exclusive access to first hand accounts and never-before-seen private archives from Arab, French and American military, intelligence and civilian sources. Eyewitness protagonists from all sides narrate the harrowing days of November 1979.

For the first time, THE SIEGE OF MECCA reveals the intricate links between one of the most sinister events of recent history and the birth of the violent strain of militant Islamism that holds the world firmly in its grip ever since.

Produced by Pascal Verroust (K2 Productions, Paris) and Dirk van den Berg (OutreMer Film, Berlin), and supported by multiple European broadcasters and institutions, this political thriller documentary sheds light on an event that since 1979 continues to send its ripples through history.