Film Screenings - Abu Dhabi Film Festival at The Space in March

Abu Dhabi Film Festival is back at The Space this month with another stellar line up of films. The theme for the second edition of is "youth without youth". 

There are children who will never know childhood because the world will lock them in its schools, teach them its senseless taboos, catch them in its wars, and massacre the innocents. Directors Cate Shortland, Destin Daniel Cretton, Ermek Shinarbaev, and Thomas Alfredson each create stirring portrayals of the kids who are robbed of their youth with startling consequences. 

Here's the line up of films for March. All screenings are free, but you must RSVP in advance. Screening starts at 7pm at The Space in Abu Dhabi. 

Monday, 3rd March 2014 

Lore by Cate Shortland 

15+ | 108 minutes  | German with English Subtitles  

If war is hell, what is post-war? When her father, an officer in the SS, and her Nazi-supporting mother are taken into custody by allied troops at the end of the war, Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) and her siblings must travel across Germany to their grandmother's house in Hamburg.

On their travels, the group encounter a number of fearful and suspicious people, but it is only when they meet a kind-hearted young Jewish refugee, Thomas (Kai-Peter Malina), that Lore begins to reassess the feelings of hatred so deeply instilled in her by her parents. Lyrical, haunting and unforgettable, Lore is a remarkable visual, cinematic and moral journey.  

Monday, 10th March 2014 

Short Term 12 by Destin Daniel Cretton (USA)

18+ | 96 minutes | English 

Short Term 12 is told through the eyes of Grace, a 20-something supervisor at a foster-care home for at-risk teenagers. She’s devoted to her job and to the kids in her charge – so much so that her relationship with long-term boyfriend and co-worker Mason appears to be a secondary concern.

Grace presents herself as a tough, no-nonsense figure but when troubled Jayden comes into her care, she starts to see her own problems reflected back at herself as buried secrets from the past begin to emerge. Director Destin Daniel Cretton creates a unique love story discovering truth and humor in unexpected places.  

Monday, 17th March 2014 

Mest (Revenge) by Ermek Shinarbaev

15+ | 96 minutes | Russian with English Subtitles 

Restored by the World Cinema Foundation director Ermek Shinarbaev spins a rich narrative of revenge from a terrifying premise: a child is conceived for the purpose of avenging the death of another child. A rural schoolteacher, Jan, murders a pupil, the young daughter of a family under whom he had previously been a tenant.

The father, Caj, tracks him to China to exact revenge — but at the moment of vengeance, Caj cannot act. He returns home only to take a concubine, who in turn bears him a son: Sungu, a prodigious composer of verse. At Caj’s deathbed, the boy is informed he has been brought into the world purely for the sake of vengeance; he takes an oath to annihilate Jan.  

Monday, 24th March 2014 

Let the Right One In by Thomas Alfredson 

18+ | 114 minutes | Swedish with English subtitles 

Twelve year old Oskar is an outsider struggling to fit in at school, and left alone to fend for himself at school while his mother works nights. One evening, he meets the mysterious Eli. As a sweet romance blossoms between them, Oskar learns to overcome his tormentors and discover Eli's dark secret and her connections to the gruesome events occurring across town.

A truly original and stunning film Let the Right One In weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing and darkly atmospheric, yet poetic tender tableau of adolescence.

RSVP here.  

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