Behind The Mountains: dir Mohamed ben Attia (2023)

In this quite surprising supernatural drama, a man fed up with the chains of his humdrum life lashes out only to discover he possesses a logic-defying gift – the power to fly. The film departs from the director’s previous social realism, but retains his well-established interest in emotionally intricate protagonists and the complications of parent-child relationships; for the son, the flying is a literal leap of faith and validation that his father is more than the negative stories he’s heard all his young life. Arabic with English subtitles; recommended.

This film screens in the sixth edition of the Manarat’s CinemaMAS film festival, curated this time by filmmaker and visual artist Scandar Copti – head of the Film and New Media program at NYU Abu Dhabi from 2014 to 2017. Currently, he is still teaching filmmaking at NYUAD while working on an upcoming feature film.

Individual films on weekdays are AED 30 per head, weekends are AED 50 per day, and there’s an all-inclusive ticket at AED 150.