Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival
The fifth edition of the Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival, presented with Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, is themed Mend, or رَمِّم in Arabic. In this context, the word considers environmental restoration, from habitat and species recovery to water stewardship and the transmission of ecological knowledge; the three-day festival, curated by filmmaker, writer, and curator Nezar Andary, features international documentaries and short films, alongside discussions, panels, and guided ecological activities.
Friday 9 October free, but pre-register
7pm Welcome
7.20pm Conservation Diaries Pt 1 and 2 The Conservation Diaries are a five-part documentary series produced by Connect with Nature, the youth environmental movement of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi and Emirates Nature–WWF. Shot across the wadis, coastlines, mangrove forests and rural communities of the UAE, each episode follows scientists, volunteers and local custodians at work.
7.40pm Ghost Elephants dir Werner Herzog (2025) Herzog follows conservation biologist Steve Boyes and a team of Khoisan trackers into the highlands of Angola, in search of a herd of elephants long thought lost to decades of civil war. A National Geographic Documentary Films production that premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Saturday 1o October: Mushrooms and animation AED 31.50
2pm Fungi: Web of Life dir Gisela Kaufmann and Joseph Nizeti (2023) Narrated by Björk and led by biologist Merlin Sheldrake, this 45-min giant-screen documentary travels into Tasmania’s ancient Tarkine rainforest in search of a rare blue mushroom – and the vast underground network that keeps the forest alive.
2.45pm Animated shorts from France, Mauritius, Belgium and Czechoslovakia
Saturday 1o October: Mending Science with Love AED 31.50
5pm Chuuraa dir Evgenia Arbugaeva (2026) In the Siberian Arctic, indigenous Sakha palaeontologist Aisen Klimovskii descends into caves in the melting permafrost in search of an ancient creature. From the director of the Oscar-nominated Haulout.
5.20pm Conservation Diaries Pt 3 and 4 Documentary series produced by Connect with Nature, the youth environmental movement of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi and Emirates Nature–WWF.
5.40pm Fire of Love dir Sara Dosa (2022) Katia and Maurice Krafft spent 20 years filming volcanoes from closer than anyone should, and died together at Mount Unzen in 1991. Sara Dosa assembles their story from the extraordinary 16mm archive they left behind. An Academy Award nominated film.
Saturday 1o October: Mending Food Systems in the UAE and the World AED 31.50
7pm Conversation on food, land, and structural repair speakers to be announced
8pm Manthan dir Shyam Benegal (1976) A landmark of Indian parallel cinema, financed by 500,000 Gujarati dairy farmers contributing two rupees apiece. A veterinarian arrives in a village to organise a milk cooperative and collides with caste, money and entrenched power. Newly restored.
Sunday 11 October: Mending the Ecology in the UAE free
2pm Panel speakers to be announced
Sunday 11 October: From Water to Repair AED 31.50
5pm Seeds of Dignity dir Ali Al Sheikh (2025) 30-min documentary following Buzuruna Juzuruna, a collective of farmers and seed activists in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley who gather, multiply, and distribute heirloom seeds, reviving ancient wheat varieties and putting food back into the hands of small farmers.
5.30pm Apple Cider Vinegar dir Sofie Benoot (2024) What connects a kidney stone, a volcano in Cape Verde, and an English geologist? Sofie Benoot’s playful essay follows the question outward from a single stone into quarries, lava fields and laboratories.
Sunday 11 October: Mending with Water AED 31.50
7.30pm Talk: Water and the UAE Ahmed al Maazmi assistant professor of history at NYUAD. His research examines the intersections of science, empire, law, and society across Arabia and the wider Indian Ocean world.
8pm Ice Merchants dir João Gonzalez (2022, still below) Wordless, hand-drawn, and unforgettable animated short. A father and son live in a house nailed to a vertical cliff. Each day they jump, parachuting down to the village below to sell the ice they froze overnight.
8.20pm Time and Water dir Sara Dosa (2026) Asked to write the eulogy for the first glacier declared dead by climate change, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his family archive into a time capsule.
