Film Screenings at The Theatre - September 2020
Last month, Art for All re-launched its film screenings at The Theatre, and I’m helping them out with a line up of films to screen over the next few months.
This month we will screen two films made by directors based in the UAE and an opportunity to shed a spotlight on their work. The schedule, film information and links to buy tickets are added below.
The Theatre is following the required government regulations with regards to cleanliness and social distancing, including reduced seating capacity with vacant seats next to the booked seats. Guests will be expected to wear masks as well.
Saturday, September 19 at 8.00pm (doors open at 7.30pm)
Musk
Director: Humaid Alsuwaidi
2018 | 108 min | UAE | PG-13 | Drama | Arabic with English subtitles
Musk is Humaid Alsuwaidi’s second feature film, an in-depth portrayal of tragedy and sacrifice in a family household. Ahmed gives up a promising career in museum management to attend to his ailing father and spends his days managing the family’s dying perfume business. This sacrifice and his divorce have made him cynical about human nature and this manifest itself in his relationship with Abdulrahman, his aloof 12-year old son. They do not see eye to eye and it is as though they speak in different languages.
The film had its world premiere at the 15th Festival International du Film Transsaharien de Zagora in Morocco in 2018 and won Best Film at Al Ain Film Festival 2019. It received a production grant in 2017 from the Doha Film Institute and a post-production grant from ADMAF in 2017.
About Humaid Alsuwaidi:
Born in Abu Dhabi in 1984, Humaid Alsuwaidi is an independent writer/director. After working in an office job for a few years, he enrolled at the New York Film Academy in 2010. Upon graduating, he worked on a number of short films, both on set and in post-production. Abdullah (2015), his directorial debut, had its premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Ticket price:
AED 45 - Row A–F (Regular stalls)
AED 75 - Row G–H (VIP stalls)
AED 55 - Row J–N (Gold stalls)
AED 45 - Row P–W (Balcony)
Buy tickets from Virgin Tickets or Platinumlist.
Saturday, September 26 at 8.00pm (doors open at 7.30pm)
The Golden Harvest
Director: Alia Yunis
2019 | 85 min | Jordan - UAE - Palestine - Spain - Greece - Italy | PG-15 | Documentary | English and Arabic with English subtitles
The Golden Harvest is a 6,000-year old love story in which director Alia Yunis tries to understand the profound, often troubled, relationship between olive oil and the people of Mediterranean, including her own father. Her journey of food, love and heartache takes her to unexpected places as an increasingly diverse cast of characters get involved in unraveling this tale. It is a complicated romance, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic that is constantly evolving in a region that includes some of the poorest and most conflicted areas of Europe and the Middle East. This started as a film about olive oil, it also evolved into a story about finding our place in the world with a little bit of help from the keeper of our hearts and secrets, the olive tree.
The film was shown in several film festivals including Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greece), DOCUTAH International Documentary Film Festival, BIFED - Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary (Turkey), Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (USA) and Palestine Cinema Days (Palestine).
It won Best of Fest at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and the SunBird Documentary Award at the Palestine Cinema Days.
The screening at The Theatre will be its UAE premiere.
About Alia Yunis
Alia Yunis is a filmmaker, screenwriter, author and journalist and has worked on projects involving film, writing and photography. She spent many years in Los Angeles as a screenwriter and script analyst for companies such as Village Roadshow Pictures and Miramax. Yunis is a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow, a top 10 finalist in the Zoetrope Screenwriting Awards and the recipient of a comedy-writing award from Warner Bros. Her novel, The Night Counter (Random House 2010), was critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. Her writings have appeared in numerous books, magazines and anthologies.
Ticket price:
AED 45 - Row A–F (Regular stalls)
AED 75 - Row G–H (VIP stalls)
AED 55 - Row J–N (Gold stalls)
AED 45 - Row P–W (Balcony)
Buy tickets from Virgin Tickets or Platinumlist.