WearetheMovies.com Selects
10 Films You Must See
Dubai International Film Festival
(December 9-16, 2009)

Can you see 168 movies in 7 days? You could try and enter the Guinness Book of World Records (and a hospital); or you could read this. Burning with the fever of cinema, we scoured through the very eclectic list of films playing at the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), and chose the finest and most delectable ten films for you. With so many countries and cinematic sensibilities represented at this year’s DIFF, yes, it was terribly complex and insane the process of whittling down the films t0 just 10 films — but at WearetheMovies.com we suffer so you don’t have to!

Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)
Pedro Almodóvar | Spain | 2009
128 min

A beguiling mix of melodrama, noir and pop culture nested within Spanish maverick Almodóvar’s trademark complex narrative style and eye-popping visuals. Broken Embraces is the fourth collaboration between Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar and it simply must not be missed.

City of Life
Ali F. Mostafa | United Arab Emirates | 2009
97 min

What Crash was to Los Angeles, City of Life may be to Dubai. Whatever your personal feelings are towards Crash (okay, personally, we think it’s imbecilic and glib), that film’s influence on writer-director Ali F. Mostafa is clear: cultural melting pot theme and a dramatic exposition of multiple stories taking place within a single city (hey, we even noticed a car crash in the trailer — production value added, Crash-homage paid!). Every UAE resident should be curious to see City of Life, because it seems to be the first real stab at filmmaking by an Emirati.

Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada)
Claudia Llosa | Spain/Peru | 2009
100 min

A politically and emotionally gut-wrenching film that won the 2009 Golden Bear and FIPRESCI awards at the Berlinale. Concerns the abuse of women during the violent Maoist uprising in Peru during the 1980-1992 period. Title refers to the trauma of war passed onto children through breast milk by their mothers.

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Press conferences are obligatory but also a necessary evil to kick up some dust. This was yet another way for the DIFF team to tell the world (but especially you, yes, you,  in Dubai) about what else to expect at the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival: celebrities you are likely to see there, people on the award juries, statistics, that sort of thing. And in keeping with WearetheMovies.com’s “all meat, no potatoes” coverage, here is what we think you absolutely must know:

Celebrities at DIFF 2009

Hollywood:
Gerard Butler (receiving Variety’s International Star of the Year Award; but the most pertinent question is, will he DINE IN HELL?!?)
Matt Dillon (remember him?)
Mandy Moore (party prime rib)
Christopher Lambert (who? okay, we jest; we love this duke of B-cinema!)
…more ‘celebrities’ you’ll need to google to remember!

Indian Cinema:
Amitabh Bachchan (receiving Lifetime Achievement Award)
Other Bachchans (Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan; yup, it’s a family affair)
Ranbir Kapoor (described by DIFF as “teenybopper sensation,” which is *not* a compliment)
Manisha Koirala (she’s judging the Muhr Arab and AsiaAfrica awards)
M.F. Hussain (he too is judging the Muhr Arab and AsiaAfrica awards)
Mammootty (the stalwart of cinema from Kerala)
…more of them will be seen around the city (shopping for clothes and gold, we’re sure)

Arab World:
Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan
Omar Sharif (receiving Lifetime Achievement Award)
Hala Sarhan
Somayya Al Kashab
Mostafa Fahmy
…and more, lost count, there are so many!

Panels & Workshops
Vive Le Cinema: co-producing fiction features with France
Against the Odds: a case study of filmmaking in Palestine
Variety-DIFF Spotlight: for filmmakers and producers in the Arab world
Screenwriting Workshop: in association with TorinoFilmLab
DIFF Young Journalist Award: in association with MBC and Funding in the Middle East

A staggering 168 movies from 55 countries will be playing over the week-long film festival (but then again, this is Dubai, so you only get more of more).  Only 2 days remain until the opening night of the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival. Excited?

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Dubai International Film Festival 2009
Details (all meat, no potatoes)

WearetheMovies.com has been diligently covering the festival since last year (our writers are pretty comprehensive and brutal; see links on the right), and this year we will once again jump into the fray, all guns blazing. Dubai is a city we love and we love it even more during the film festival. (Wait, I think I hear Bloomberg and Financial Times nerds crying foul, screaming “standstill” and “meltdown” — screw ‘em, what do philistines know about art.) The DIFF website has just unveiled the entire roster of films, schedule and price details. The information is a bit dense there, so here is a snapshot summary: continue reading »»