Orientation: A New Arab Cinema
See any two films in the series and save when you create your own Double Feature Package!
Among the effects of the recent Arab Spring has been a welcome focus on the emerging cinemas throughout the Arab world. New filmmakers, often educated outside the region and well aware of contemporary international film styles, have begun to create a new Arab cinema that fearlessly engages in a dialogue with their respective societies, broaching subjects unthinkable even a decade ago. Among the most important forces in this cinematic renaissance has been the Dubai International Film Festival, which offers a number of programs to develop and support new talents. We are pleased to present this series of recent feature films and shorts, all supported by DIFF, as an introduction to a new film movement about which we will surely be hearing much more in the years to come. Series programmed by Richard Peña and Isa Cucinotta.
Amreeka
A Palestinian mother and son arrive in Middle America just as the US is entering Baghdad, charging their welcome to their new homeland with suspicion and hostility.
Arab Filmmaking after the Arab Spring
In a panel discussion moderated by Richard Peña, three contemporary filmmakers will discuss the challenges and prospects facing the new Arab cinema.
Beirut Hotel
A sultry nightclub singer escapes from a messy divorce into the arms of a French lawyer visiting Beirut, who may just be the spy some people claim he is, in Daniele Arbid’s taut romantic thriller.
Cairo Exit
Through a series of interlocking stories involving characters each pushed to their limits, Hesham Issawi powerfully captures the national mood that led thousands to Tahrir Square.
City of Life
Director Ali Mostafa in person!
A groundbreaking first feature film from the Emirates offers a kaleidoscopic tour of contemporary Dubai, tracing the delicate social conventions and expectations that define life for both natives and expats.
Every Day is a Holiday
Traveling to visit their jailed husbands, three women are left to make their own way through mine-laden mountains, throngs of refugees and rumors of massacres.
Habibi
Director Susan Yousef in person!
Lyrical and passionate, Susan Youssef’s widely-acclaimed first feature follows star-crossed lovers who must weight their love and desire against society’s expectations.
The Last Friday
Faced with the urgent need for an operation he can’t afford, a cab driver tries to re-establish contact with those he once loved in Yahya Al-Abdallah’s award-winning debut feature.
The Rif Lover
Director Narjiss Nejjar and producer Lamia Chraibi in person on August 24!
The dreams of a free-spirited young woman in a tranquil seaside village are shattered when she’s betrayed by her own brother, in Narjiss Nejjar’s ravishing modern fable.
Shorts Program 1
In these diverse films, spanning the poetic to the realistic, the protagonists engage in a daily struggle for a better life: Sabeel (Khalid Al Mahmood), Land of Heroes (Sahim Omar Kalifa), The Salt Fisherman (Ziad Bakri), The Road to Paradise (Uda Benyamina).
Shorts Program 2
Nothing is affected more than the relationship between people when societies shift and change. These five films explore how men and women have to renegotiate traditional roles in modern times, and how those without power find ways to coexist with those in power: Garagouz (Abdenour Zahzah), Samir's Room (Osama Qashoo), The Masseur (Anouar Lahoua), Cheers to You (Soleen Yusef), Fatin Drives Me Crazy (Mohammed Sendi).
Zelal
Hard-hitting journalism, as well as a reflection on how we care for those deemed different or difficult, Khoury and Hasnaoui’s prize-wining film explores the world of Egypt’s psychiatric hospitals
Zindeeq
A Palestinian filmmaker, long settled abroad, returns to his native Nazareth to confront the ghosts of his nation’s as well as his family’s past.
