Mare Nostrum showing at the On Arab Geographies Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy of Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Cinema Akil
Ahead of Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Cinema Akil’s opening of the On Arab Geographies Film Festival, which kickstarts on May 4-6 at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi. The festival explores inner journeys and social geography centered around Arab identity, beginning with an early evening screening of the award-winning Egyptian feature film In The Last Days of the City (2016), directed by Tamer El Said. The doors are open to all, with no charge for tickets. The festival’s wider aim is to cultivate a community hunger for Arab cinema, and one look at the event’s hashtag makes that manifestly clear: #SupportArabCinema. It’s “an opportunity for local audiences to discover the breadth and depth of Arab films and support their local filmmakers,” says Gehad Darwish of Image Nation Abu Dhabi.
To celebrate the new initiative, Vogue Arabia speak to program curator Rabih El Khoury, a leading light in the curation of Arab cinema, to get the download on what to expect from the back-to-back screenings.
What do you look for in a film in order for it to make the shortlist?
“We wanted to take the viewers on a journey into the four corners of our region, from the Gulf and all the way to the Maghreb and beyond. So we considered films from different geographic entities, selecting films from the UAE, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, and Tunisia. It is not only shaped by physical geography. We wanted to include topics that tackle internal wanderings and personal struggles, such as societal inequalities as in the documentary Nearby Sky in which a woman faces patriarchy to prove she also belongs. Our aim is to see how filmmakers deal with their geographic surroundings and how they portray it on film.
Zaineb Hates The Snow showing at On Arab Geographies Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy of Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Cinema Akil
Our opening film, In the Last Days of the City, has screened at the Forum section of the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, winning the prestigious Caligari Film Award. Another film in the program is the Tunisian documentary Zaineb Hates the Snow by Kaouther Ben Hania, which premiered at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival before touring worldwide. Ben Hania’s newest film, Beauty and the Dogs, is set to premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. This proves that established film festivals around the globe are also following Arab filmmakers and the cinema in the Arab World.”
What message do you want festivalgoers to take home?
Every film is different and so every spectator can assess each film differently. As a curator, I would only hope that a certain film would resonate with the audience, either by raising questions, helping them see a particular issue under a different light, getting moved by a story, or just enjoying the ride.
In the Last Days of the City showing at On Arab Geographies Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy of Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Cinema Akil
It’s important that viewers make up their own minds about the films. We also make sure they meet the filmmakers behind them. That’s why we are inviting representatives of these films to present their own works and discuss them with the public in Abu Dhabi after their screenings and during panel sessions. Filmgoers can get further insights into the making of these films.
What initiatives do you have in the pipeline?
With the Metropolis Association in Lebanon, we’ve kicked off the preparations for the fourth edition of Talents Beirut, a program linked to the Berlinale Talents of the Berlin Film Festival, which supports film talent all over the world. Our Beirut initiative brings Arab film talent in the fields of cinematography, sound design, score composition, and film editing together to get to know each other, think together, and establish potential collaborations. This coming edition takes place between September 21 and 25 this year.
Image Nation Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Cinema Akil presents the On Arab Geographies Film Program, May 4-6 in Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi.
6 Vogue-approved places to do brunch in the Middle East
