Gulf Film Festival takes UAE produced cinematography to the international stage in Sweden

Celebrated works by regional filmmakers to highlight the growth and vibrancy of the Gulf film industry at Malmo Arab Film Festival

Dubai, September 13, 2012 –The Gulf Film Festival (GFF) announced today that a selection of films from the GCC, UAE and Iraq will showcase the diversity and vibrancy of the Gulf film industry at the Malmo Arab Film Festival (MAFF) in Sweden, set to run from September 28th – October 5th, 2012. This year marks the second time that GFF-supported films have been showcased at MAFF, with 25 of the 37 films screening from the region endorsed by the GFF, an increase from 15 films last year.

The selected films, which range from shorts to features and documentaries, will take audiences at this year’s edition of MAFF on a journey of enthralling cinematic discoveries, celebrating the vast strides filmmakers from the Gulf have made in creating a vibrant and inspiring regional film scene.

Of the 37 films participating in MAFF this year, which are produced or co-produced in the UAE, the rest of the GCC and Iraq, 5 co-produced Emirati films and ten films produced by the UAE and the Gulf region including Iraq, will participate in various categories, 7 films will be showcased at the “Emirates Films” program outside MAFF film competition and fifteen films will be presented in the program “Cherries of Kiarostami’” outside the competition as well.

GFF Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali commented: “The Gulf Film Festival (GFF) is delighted to continue its collaboration with the Malmo Arab Film Festival (MAFF). One of GFF’s founding objectives is to cultivate opportunities for the region’s filmmakers to showcase their films internationally, and our partnership with MAFF enables us to realise this vision.”

“We are screening twenty-five GFF supported films at MAFF this year, compared with fifteen films last year, which is a testament to the growing list of locally produced films and the large pool of talented up-and-coming filmmakers in the region. We hope that visitors of MAFF enjoy the inspirational line-up from the Gulf,” he added.

MAFF Director, Mohamad Kablawi said: “MAFF is thrilled to screen an even bigger line-up of films from the Gulf this year. Our aim is to educate, inspire and entertain audiences with films from the Arab world and we are excited to showcase the incredible creativity from Gulf filmmakers and discover the next gems in Arab film”.

The list of guests of honor for this year’s MAFF includes the Emirati directors Nujoom Alghanem and Nayla Al Khaja, in addition to a number of directors, producers and actors who are shapping the industry of the region.

Films in the GFF showcase include Nujoom Alghanem’s “Amal”, winner of the Official Gulf Competition, a feature about a woman who arrives in the UAE full of hopes but finds herself struggling to achieve the bare minimum of her plans and, as part of the UAE Programme, Mariam Al Sarkal’s “London in a Headscarf”, a documentary that follows the journey of an Emirati girl studying abroad will be shown. Mariam Al Sarkal’s “The Figure” will also be screened as part of The Cherries of Kiarostami program, which consists of 15 films in total. It will showcase films produced and directed in the UAE such as Cyril Eberle’s “Runman”, Sebastian Funke’s “Do Not Disturb” and Nujoom Alghanem’s “Salma’s Dinner” to name a few.

A number of Emirati co-productions will also be screened throughout the Festival, include “Studio” – co-produced with Sudan, “Lonliness” and “After All” both co-produced with Iraq, Iranian co-productions “The Hole” and “While Marguerite” and Bahraini collaborations “Under The Sky” and “Game”. “Home Sweet Home” and “The Waves Will Carry Us” are Emirati co-productions with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait respectively.
Emirati director Nayla Al Khaja is a member of the short and documentary films committee alongside theater professor Majdoline Al-Alami from Morocco and Iraqi director Samir Zaidan

AMAL

Nujoom Alghanem
Amal arrives in the UAE full of homes and dreams. After her first year in the country, she finds herself struggling to achieve and implement the bare minimum of her plans. She slowly finds herself coming to terms with the realization that despite her rich artistic background in her home country, she is restricted to the margins of the cultural landscape in the Emirates.

WHEELBARROW

Nayla Al Khaja
Arabana, eight, is bored and totally neglected by her parents. She wanders off in front of her mother and the maid, yet neither pays attention as she goes into the wilderness to give her life some excitement. This open-ended story strongly conveys the message that children should be loved and watched over.

STUCK FACE

Manal Ali Bin Amro
Inner hunches, accompanied by old memories of a girl who hasn’t yet recovered from the first grim moments of
panic.

WET TILES

Lamya Hussain Gargash
An examination of a relationship between a man and a woman: is it an arranged marriage or an intimate rendezvous? Lamya Hussain Gargash’s film had its debut at the Emirates Film Competition and went on to screen at the Biennale des Cinemas Arabes in Paris 2004.

STUCK FACE

Manal Ali Bin Amro
Inner hunches, accompanied by old memories of a girl who hasn’t yet recovered from the first grim moments of panic.

WET TILES

Lamya Hussain Gargash
An examination of a relationship between a man and a woman: is it an arranged marriage or an intimate rendezvous? Lamya Hussain Gargash’s film had its debut at the Emirates Film Competition and went on to screen at the Biennale des Cinemas Arabes in Paris 2004.

AMAL’S CLOUD

Rawia Abdullah
Amal waits in the middle of the yard shifting between patience and hope; waiting for the jinx to melt and disappear.

THE GOAT’S HEAD

Juma Al Sahli
To some, there is little difference between women and goats…!

WHITE COLORED ELEPHANT

Waleed Al Shehhi
A story that begins at the end. A child comes close to death more than once…

SMALLER THAN THE SKY

Abdulla Hassan Ahmed
A story develops between a bird and a girl… We come closer to a crammed mother in a car after an accident in the mountains.

STUDIO
Amjad Abu Al Ala

LONELINESS
Sarmad Al-Zoubidy

RUMAN
Cyril Eberle

DO NOT DISTURB
Sebastian Funke

UNDER THE SKY
Mohammed Rashed BuAli

THE HOLE
Sina Zarei

THE FIGURE
Mariam Al Sarkal

DRIVE
Ananya Sundararajan

WHITE MARGUERITE
Nahid Emami

HOME SWEET HOME
Abdullah Al-Eyaf

GAME
Saleh Nass

THE WAVES WILL CARRY US
Abdullah Boushahri

SALMA’S DINNER
Nujoom Alghanem

AFTER ALL
Oday Rasheed

ALMOST DONE, A TRILOGY
Rola Shamas

About The Gulf Film Festival:
The Gulf Film Festival (GFF) is an annual non-profit cultural event that aims to celebrate the highest standards of Gulf Cinema. Since its inception in 2008, the festival has served as a platform to develop the local and regional film culture in the Gulf creating greater opportunities for filmmakers to screen their films and develop future film projects. In addition, the Gulf Film Festival is home to the International Shorts competition honouring talent from around the world.  In presenting the best of Arab cinema from the Gulf countries, the GFF will become a destination festival for the international film community to discover state of the art cinema in the region.

The Gulf Film Festival is supported by the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and held in association with Dubai Studio City. Emirates Airline, Dubai’s flag carrier, is the presenting sponsor of the festival. For more information, please visit www.gulffilmfest.com, or keep in touch with the festival on Twitter @gulffilmfest or at www.facebook.com/gulffilmfestival.

About Malmo Arab Film Festival:
Malmo Arab Film Festival is a mere cultural event that has no economic benefit purposes. It is held every September in Malmo – Sweden.
The festival’s main objective is to promote understanding and cultural exchange between the Arabic-speaking and other ethnic groups who share living in Sweden, especially in Malmo and Skane . With a cross-cultural understanding it has become a necessity for a positive and successful common life between different communities. We are committed to the festival program which will include other elements and themes that create spaces for cultural dialogue between Arab and Western world. Malmo Arab Film Festival sees that there are great opportunities for the festival to provide a platform for meetings between people, Arabic speaking as well as the Swedish-speaking, both within and between groups.
The festival’s purpose is extended to minimize bias and contribute to a positive integration. The festival is dependent on funding from various governmental and nongovernmental grants and donations, both in and outside Scandinavia.