Whatever Cinema Akil is up to, you know it’ll be good. And this week, the independent cinema house (the Middle East’s first) is collaborating with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture to bring the seventh edition of AFAC Film Week to the UAE.
The program will see 11 films from five different Arab countries screened throughout the week, some of which will be followed by a Q&A session with the film’s director.
Considering the success of their previous editions in Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, Sudan, Morocco and Algeria, it looks like the Dubai edition will live up to expectations.
Soudade Kaadan’s powerful Syrian drama ‘The Day I Lost My Shadow’, which follows the story of Sana, a woman on a mission to buy a gas cylinder in the midst of the Syrian war, will be screened as part of the program alongside ‘A Kasha’, a romantic drama directed by Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka.
The 2018 Tunisian feature documentary ‘Railway Men’, directed by Erige Sehiri will play today, and will be followed by a Q&A session with Sehiri. The film follows the story of train drivers in Tunisia, in particular an assistant train driver’s mission to become a professional rapper. The first ever female train driver, Afef, fights against her family to turn her job into a career, and a former art director-turned-train driver plots his resignation.
‘What Comes Around’, a documentary by Lebanese-Egyptian director Reem Saleh highlights the strength in community support in one of Cairo’s poorest neighbourhoods.
Also playing throughout the week is the Libyan documentary ‘Freedom Fields’ by Naziha Arebi, which follows the journey of a group of women who, in spite of the political climate and their differences, join together to form Libya’s first female football team. A Q&A session will follow.
The program also includes screenings of ‘Twenty Eight Nights And a Poem’ by Lebanese Director Akram Zaatari, a documentary on photography, memory and culture as well as five Lebanese short films,
AFAC Film Week will run until October 5 at Cinema Akil, Dubai.
