A road buddy comedy with a twist or two, wry humour throughout, gorgeous camerawork, and an all-pervading good sense of humanity and absurdity. Two petty crooks, Mehdi and Hamid, drive around the villages of southern Morocco, trying to recover a [ ... ]
Beautiful but troubled, 23-year-old Donya finds her promoted to writing the mantras inside fortune cookies because the wise owner of the factory believes that people with memories write beautifully. Donya, an Afghan refugee with PTSD, Donya already has memories aplenty [ ... ]
The jailed Iranian director Jafar Panahi plays a version of himself, forced to shoot his new film in a village near the Turkish border whose inhabitants are encouraged to be scared of supposed “bears” roaming the countryside – just as [ ... ]
This drama, Gamal’s second feature, is based on a true story: Isra’a and Ahmed and their five children are engaged in a daily struggle against poverty in war-torn Yemen. When they discover that Isra’a is pregnant, they scrape together the [ ... ]
From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, two brothers -- Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad – try to care for thousands of the black kites that struggle in New Delhi's smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest [ ... ]
Fourteen-year-old Zeina lives with her mother and father in Damascus, one of the few remaining families in a devastated neighbourhood. Covert visits from a local boy offer Zeina glimpses of freedom outside the oppressive control of her father – but [ ... ]
Mona is a retired singer in a tense marriage in Northern Sudan. Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, she tries to make amends by taking in the dead man’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel. Mona [ ... ]
An afternoon of films, some full-length and some shorts, for a single price (AED 50) as part of the sixth edition of the Manarat’s CinemaMAS film festival. (Individual films on weekdays are AED 30 per head, and there’s an all-inclusive [ ... ]
The final afternoon of films in the sixth edition of the Manarat’s CinemaMAS film festival; there's a single price (AED 50) for the whole programme. (Individual films on weekdays are AED 30 per head, and there’s an all-inclusive ticket at [ ... ]
The regular Alliance Française ciné-apéro evening (a glass of wine and canapés before the screening) this month features Desclou's psychological/political thriller; a young couple with political aspirations more or less accidentally kill a violent driver on a remote country road. [ ... ]
“If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth," said Albert Einstein, "man would have no more than four years left to live". Well, all over the world bees have been dying for the past few years. Although the [ ... ]
The best ever concert film? Certain one of the best; and one of the best suits, too ... Jonathan Demme captured the energy and artsy groove of David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison at their best. Shot [ ... ]
A newly-restored print of one of Hollywood's classics – romantic, witty, a great director, and full of stars: Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn lead in this Cinderella story of a gauche girl who returns from a trip to [ ... ]
A weekend of films for children and the young, presented by the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region as a taster version of the well established SCHLiNGEL International Film Festival held in Chemnitz, Germany. The Abu Dhabi version runs over the weekend of [ ... ]
Another season of Emirati and Korean short films starts. The programme: Why is my Grandfather's Bed in our Living Room? dir Sarah Alhashimi (2021: 7 mins) An Emirati family recalls the loss of their ancestral house to urban modernisation; it [ ... ]
A film for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and inspired by true events, The Last Rifleman is a moving drama starring Pierce Brosnan in one of his best roles as a WWII veteran living in a care home in Northern [ ... ]
A weekend of films for children and the young, presented by the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region as a taster version of the well established SCHLiNGEL International Film Festival held in Chemnitz, Germany. The Abu Dhabi version runs over the weekend of [ ... ]
Last day of this weekend of films for children and the young, presented by the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region as a taster version of the well established SCHLiNGEL International Film Festival held in Chemnitz, Germany. The Abu Dhabi version runs over [ ... ]
Silver’s entertaining debut was an unexpected hit, achieving instant critical acclaim after a screening at the 1975 Cannes Festival. Carol Kane is outstanding as a Jewish immigrant arriving in late 19th-century New York, to live in a tenement apartment on [ ... ]
Before the Ocean Master met its demise at the Gadani shipbreaking yards in Pakistan, filmmaker and artist Hira Nabi gave it a voice and staged conversations between the vessel and the labourers dismantling it. The stories exchanged between the workers [ ... ]
An incredible, emotional and inspiring true story, one that resonates in our time as we grapple with war, refugee crises, and growing hatred around the world. Anthony Hopkins stars as Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who helped rescue more than [ ... ]
Just how did a group of humble factory workers become a phenomenal sports success story and the pride of an entire nation? Julien Faraut's technically innovative and visually stunning documentary tells the tale of the Japanese women's volleyball team's journey [ ... ]
A documentary about the impacts of climate change on the Republic of the Marshall Islands and its people. The Marshall Islands comprises more than a thousand individual islands and islets, most of them less than 5.9 feet above sea level. [ ... ]
The regular Alliance Française ciné-apéro evening (a glass of wine and canapés before the screening) this month features a drama of restorative justice with a strong storyline and a good cast. Victims of violent crime and perpetrators meet up on [ ... ]
The book designer’s job is not only to come up with the outstanding jacket of a book, but also to carefully choose the papers and the fonts, and layout them to create the unique physical book. This documentary on 75-year-old [ ... ]
Lovably impulsive oldsters Ella and John (Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren) infuriate their uptight children by heading off in their cranky old Winnebago for a last road trip in the sunset of their lives. They are cheerful, gutsy, secretly scared [ ... ]
A beautifully shot, beautifully acted account of the friendship between Queen Victoria and a young Indian civil servant who became a powerful and influential figure in her court. Stephen Frears explores questions of race, religion, power, and the farce of [ ... ]
The French-Turkish couple Çagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti have directed several films together, and Sibel – their third feature – is a film festival favourite. Sibel is a mute, but she communicates by using the ancestral whistled language of the [ ... ]
Classic Kurosawa, a gripping police thriller (based on an Ed McBain story) starring the ineffable Toshiro Mifune. Kidnapping goes wrong, moral dilemmas ensue, and Kurosawa uses the film noir to anatomise the inequalities in modern Japanese society. "Kurosawa's virtuoso direction [ ... ]
Classic feelgood Hollywood of the 50s: a Paris-set musical with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire at their most charming, directed by the legendary Stanley Donen, gowns by de Givenchy, songs by George and Ira Gershwin ... No wonder it was [ ... ]
A warm tale of life and relationships, embedded in Indian culture and Hindu rituals. Daya decides he wants to die in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. Rajiv, his over-worked accountant son, struggles with anxieties about his responsibilities back home [ ... ]
A gorgeously restored print for the 30th anniversary of the family friendly classic. With help from his long-lost friend, Nala (Moira Kelly), and a curious pair of newfound friends, Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) and Timon (Nathan Lane), Simba (Matthew Broderick) must [ ... ]
A compelling contemporary love story about two fundamentally lonely people – classroom assistant Ava and landlord/failed DJ Ali – who bond over a love of music and their shared affection for the child of Ali’s Slovakian tenants. But even as [ ... ]
An evening of short documentary films from the region, works by artists taking part in Image Nation Abu Dhabi's Arab Film Studios programme: Luminary: dir Nada Jahed Arabic, 9.5 mins A poetic portrait of a blind father who is strongly [ ... ]
David Lean’s lush love letter to Venice was his personal favourite among his own films. A sublimely bittersweet tale of romantic longing, it also has Katharine Hepburn at her best, portraying the conflicting emotions in a lonely, middle-aged American tourist [ ... ]
An excellent Irish animation that combines history and myth in a compelling narrative that explores friendship and difference. A young apprentice hunter journeys to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last wolf pack and befriends Mebh, a free-spirited [ ... ]
A poignant action-comedy featuring veteran Oscar nominee June Squibb in her first leading role and featuring the final performance of trailblazing blaxploitation legend Richard Roundtree. Squibb is Thelma Post, a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer [ ... ]
Formulaic but neatly done. Adventurer Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) teams up with librarian Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and a motley archaeological crew to conquer the vengeful reincarnation of Egyptian priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) for 124 minutes of non-stop action with some [ ... ]
One of the best loved films of its time, this sumptuous adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway show gets renewed punch from a newly restored print of the film. Julie Andrews is of course Maria, the spirited young governess [ ... ]
Sometimes Ken Loach films can seem a bit of a constant battering of messages about social incohesion and unfairness. At their best, though, they are suffused with empathy and idealism along with the anger and the black-and-white morality; and The [ ... ]
Harrison Ford is on top form as the Chicago surgeon framed for the murder of his wife who aims to prove his innocence by leading his pursuers (led by Tommy Lee Jones, playing Tommy Lee Jones) to the man who [ ... ]
Based on a true story – the discovery of the remains of Richard III under a Leicester car park in 2021 – this is the story of amateur historian Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins at her best), whose passion and research [ ... ]
Pasolini's audacious second feature is a tale of doomed maternal love set against a stark backdrop of ancient ruins and prefab apartment blocks on the desolate outskirts of Rome. Anna Magnani is superb as a middle-aged streetwalker who attempts to [ ... ]
Yoon’s confident debut feature picked up numerous nominations and awards both in his native South Korea and abroad. An award-winning coming of age tale, with simple, unadorned storytelling that immerses us in the world of two primary school girls. Their [ ... ]
An occupational nurse in a chemical plant turns whistleblower over toxic discharges but has to balance fighting for the truth against the risk of alienating her entire family – many of whom work for the giant chemical works, an ominous [ ... ]
An evening of five short films, all subtitled in both Arabic and English: 12 Drawings a Day: dir Denis Chapon (Denmark, 2011: 5 mins) Experimental animation created on the reverse of used A4 sheets. Each day for three years drew [ ... ]
A newly restored print of the multiple Academy Award winner, starring Julie Andrews as the magical nanny and Dick Van Dyke as a most unlikely chimney sweep. Fantastical adventures follow as the spirited nanny turns every chore into a game [ ... ]
James Gray’s deeply personal coming-of-age tale, set in 1980s New York, boasts fine performances from Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong as the parents and Anthony Hopkins dispensing twinkly grandfatherly wisdom – and, as a sixth-grader making his way through school [ ... ]
It is the year 2034: drought and flooding are destroying the livelihoods of millions of people. The International Court of Justice has had to evacuate from The Hague to Berlin, where the climate catastrophe becomes the subject of legal proceedings. [ ... ]
The Beatles before they became a studio-only band and got fed up with fame, fortune and each other: Richard Lester's anything-goes direction and a decent lots-of-laughs script plus some good acting from British stalwarts of the time (like Wilfrid Brambell [ ... ]
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