Read our report from the 7th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), 12. - 19. december 2010
Dubai is perhaps best known for its extravagant architecture and wealthy oil sheiks, but lately this small emirate has also realized that to invest in cultural events is good not only for tourism, but also for improving their image abroad. So despite that the Dubai International Film Festival is only seven years old, it has already grown to be the leading film festival in the Arab world, ahead of much older festivals like Cairo International Film Festival. In its 2010 edition DIFF screened around 200 films (45 world premieres) including feature, documentary and short films, with a special focus on the Middle East and the Arab world.
The slogan of the festival is “Bridging cultures, Meeting minds”, meaning that they have a special focus on film dealing with globalization and multicultural issues throughout the program and different categories. The most important and biggest category in the festival is the “Muhr Arabic feature competition” featuring films from all over the Arab world (“muhr” is an Arabic word meaning something close to the English word “accomplishment.”)
The biggest film industry in the Arab world is, and always have been, Egypt. It does not come as a surprise then, that Egypt is the Arab country with most and some of the best entries. A highlight was Cairo Exit (Al-Khoroug), a Romeo and Juliet story set in Cairo 2010. We follow Amal and Tareq, two 19-year olds who are deeply in love with each other. The problem is that Amal is Christian while Tareq is Muslim, meaning that both their families despite the relationship. To further complicate things, Tareq wants to leave Egypt for Italy but Amal discovers in the beginning of the film that she is pregnant, and gives Tareq an ultimatum. Either she takes an abortion and goes with him, or he travels alone. Cairo Exit is a beautifully shot film with an engaging story. It is also a part of the very exiting independent cinema-wave in Egypt, which has produced many high quality films on a low budget.
As a homage to the long history of the Egyptian film industry DIFF also screened some of Sabah`s best films. Sabah was an Egyptian actor-singer superstar, starring in over 100 Egyptian movies. Of the films chosen by DIFF My Wife`s Husband from 1961 stands out. A delightful comedy about a married couple who gets a divorce but regret their action and want to remarry. This is however, the third time they get divorced, meaning that they cannot remarry by law. The solution is to bring in an intermediary husband who is supposed to be married to Sabah for one day and then divorce her again, allowing her to once again remarry her first husband. The situation becomes tricky when the intermediary husband rejects to divorce Sabah after one day. This film is from the golden age of Egyptian cinema or the “Hollywood on the Nile”-era as it is called, and a must see for all movie lovers!
The best Arab film at DIFF was however not Egyptian, but Lebanese. Stray Bullet is a psychological family drama set in Beirut during the civil war. Many will recognize the main character Noha, played by Nadine Labaki, the star and director of Caramel. In Stray Bullet, Noha is about to get married but has no feelings for her fiancé. Only days before the wedding, she meets up with an old lover in the forest. There they witness an execution performed by a Christian guerilla. Noha manages to escape but her secret lover is kidnapped. Given the circumstances she cannot tell anyone, and is forced to continue her wedding plans as if nothing happened. With this outset we follow Noha for one day, and witness the collapse of her family’s façade not unlike a Henrik Ibsen play. Stray Bullet also won the award for best Arab film in Dubai.
Beside the Arab films there were some other interesting categories. The “Arabian Nights” category featured films about different Arab Diasporas around the world, form Switzerland to Chile. The festival also featured a children’s program, where the only Norwegian entry was to be found, Julenatt i Blåfjell.
Film festivals in the Arabic world have historically had a reputation of being poorly organized and suffer from a lot of technical problems. In Dubai, the situation was the complete opposite. We did not experience any troubles what so ever, and everything went as planned. In addition to this the headquarters of the festival was located at a luxury resort with free food and drinks, making the stay a very comfortable experience. So if you consider travelling to Dubai in 2011, you should definitely go in December when the Film Festival is being held. Before that however, we look forward to screening many of the best films of the 2010 edition in FFS`s new project, “Arabian film days” being held 30th of April and 1st of May at Cinemateket, arranged in co-operation with MØNA Filmklubb. So mark your calendars and keep eyes and ears open for more information on this mini-festival the next few months.
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