Dubai international film festival to display best of Arabic cinema
The Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) has unveiled the final eight films to complete the Muhr Short competition.
The lineup displays the best of Arabic cinema.
Palestinian director and previous Muhr winner Nasri Hajjaj, presents his latest short film 'The Purple Field' which follows a young refugee as he flees a war-torn Syria in search of a better life. A journey that takes the young Palestinian-Syrian child through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria, the film raises awareness of current affairs and the effects of the refugee crisis on all who are affected.
'Stranded'. Supplied
Tunisian director Jamil Najjar latest film 'Stranded' is one of adventure and mystery as he portrays a day-in-the-life of Arbi, a taxi driver whose sudden urge to go to toilet throws him into the unexpected.
Jordanian director, producer, writer and literary critic, Yahya Alabdallah, is an acclaimed filmmaker whose talents awarded him the Special Jury, Best Actor, and Best Composer Awards at DIFF in 2012. His latest feature '5th Floor Room 52' is a silent but poignant take on the troubles of a young woman searching for room 52 to meet a construction worker.
'Ave Maria'. Supplied
Multiple award-winning short 'Ave Maria' directed by Basil Khalil will also appear at DIFF following being in competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and winner of the Grenoble Short Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2015. 'Ave Maria' begins somewhere in the West Bank wilderness in a Palestinian convent. The routine of five nuns is suddenly disturbed when a stray Israeli family shows up at its doorstep, with no hope of leaving without their help.
In keeping with the theme of addressing real-world problems through the medium of cinema, the programme also welcomes Saudi director Faiza Ambah and her short film 'Mariam'. Set in France in 2004, just as the country passed a law banning religious symbols in public schools. Mariam, born in France to Arab parents, recently began to wear the hijab after performing the hajj with her grandmother. At the start of the academic year, she pretends the new law does not exist, as she does not want to acknowledge it and is forced to make a decision. To complicate matters, Kairm, a popular young Arab boy in school, starts paying attention to her and she develops a powerful crush on him.
'Dry Hot Summers'. Supplied
Previous Muhr winner Egyptian director Sherif El Bendary returns to Diff with 'Dry Hot Summers'. The short encapsulates the audience in a romantic journey of self-discovery that takes place when two lonely people accidentally meet one summer's day in Cairo. In two very different places in life, the pair are trapped in their routines and it is their journey through the city that ends up bringing them closer together.
'In The Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain'. Supplied
Futuristic sci-fi short, 'In The Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain', directed by Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind, utilizes video art and photography to tackle issues relating to the complexity of life in Palestine. The short film tells the tale of a resistance group that buries elaborate porcelain – suggested to belong to a lost civilization of hi-tech Palestinians – for future archaeologists to excavate, and the ensuing narrative once it is discovered.
Director Maryam Touzani brings her second short film to DIFF 2015. After garnering acclaim for her previous film 'When They Slept', her latest short 'Aya Goes to the Beach' is about 10-year-old Aya, who is forced to take on the responsibilities of an adult through her work as a maid in Casablanca. This doesn’t stop the roguish and intelligent little Aya from dreaming of a going back home as Eid fast approaches.
'Aya Goes to the Beach'. Supplied
With a host of spectacular and diverse short films set to appear at Diff in the Muhr Short Category, Diff's artistic director Masoud Amralla Al Ali, remarks that cultural diversity is an incipient part of the Festival's success. "Every year the Muhr Short Category attracts more and more talented filmmakers with fresh and exciting concepts that give a whole new perspective to the filmmaking industry."
Now entering its ninth year at Diff, the Muhr short competition provides an exclusive platform for Arab filmmakers to gain global recognition and support. The winning short film will qualify for consideration at the world-renowned 2017 Academy Awards.
The festival organisers also announced the shortlist for the prestigious IWC filmmaker award which supports directors from the Gulf region to take up project from script to the big screen. The nominees are: Qatari director Khalifa Al Muraikhi for his project ‘Sahaab’; Saudi director Shahad Ameen for her feature ‘Scales’; and Emirati director Layla Kaylif for 'The Letter Writer'. The winner, will walk away with cash prize of USD 100,000. The award will be announced at an IWC gala event held during the festival on December 10.
The 12th Edition of Diff will run from December 9-16.