Turkish actress Neslihan Atagül in a scene from “Araf/ Somewhere in Between.” (credit: Today's Zaman)[/caption]
Film festival season in the Gulf has arrived.
Major award winners in the Black Pearl category at the recently-closed Abu Dhabi Film Festival included the Turkish film, Araf/Somewhere in Between, which deals with growing up and maturing in a small town in Turkey facing boredom, loneliness, and desire; A Respectable Family, by Iranian filmmaker Massoud Bakshi, about the Iranian Revolution and the changing fortune and dynamics of a corrupt family experiencing it; and A World Not Ours, Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel’s "meditation about growing up in a refugee camp in Lebanon."
The festival screened an extensive and diverse group of films from both the Arab World and beyond, including an impressive range of feature films and documentaries.
Alongside the Cairo International Film Festival (which is tentatively planned but with no clear details if it will definitely be taking place) and the Jerusalem and Haifa Film Festivals, the Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Doha Tribeca Film festivals are key opportunities for filmmakers and cinephiles in the Middle East to celebrate, share, and explore film.
Abu Dhabi’s films varied widely from romance to documentary, comedy to drama.
As well as the light-hearted American indie rom-com Ruby Sparks, the festival included films such as Perfumes of Algiers, which deals with a family addressing memories, repressions, violence, and dysfunction, set in the context of Algeria’s tumultuous history and the various ways Algerians have sought to reclaim life and liberty in the context of repression, war, and ongoing insecurity and injustice.
Also showing was the Indian film I.D., raising challenging questions about class, poverty, inequality, and social marginalization in India as well as the rapid social changes and urbanization the country is currently experiencing. The film explores how one Indian woman living in Mumbai responds when aspects of Indian society—particularly impoverished migrant workers—enter her life and invite her to see and pay attention to the individuals and realities that do not form an immediate part of her life and economic situation, and which it is easy and all to common to turn away from and ignore.
As If We Were Catching a Cobra examines how caricature artists in the Arab World attempt to critique society and government and face violence and repression as a result. Set in the context of the emerging Arab Spring, it explores the risks these artists take, their philosophies, self-censorship and rejections of censorship, and increasingly precarious efforts to speak truth to power in societies where freedom of expression is not only not protected, but often actively denigrated and denied with often-lethal consequences.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival has grown considerably in the past few years and these are but a small selection of the films that were on offer. Readers who wish to learn more about films screened, awards given, and the biographies of producers and directors as well as the ongoing work of the film festival in promoting Arab cinema can visit the festival's website.
The Gulf film festival season will continue with the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from November 17–24, and the Dubai International Film Festival, which will be held from December 9–16.
