4th Dubai International Film Festival
by Andre Soares
The 4th Dubai International Film Festival, which runs from December 9–16, will offer several world premieres, mostly in its Arabian Nights and Celebration of Indian Cinema sidebars.
Among the premieres are the Arabian Nights program gala, Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch’s Whatever Lola Wants, which stars Carmen Lebbos and Laura Ramsey (left) as, respectively, a legendary Egyptian dancer and a New York dance student; Amin Matalqa’s Captain Abu Raed, starring Nadim Sawalha, and reportedly the first Jordanian feature in decades; and Borhane Alaouié’s Khalass, about four characters struggling in post-civil war Beirut.
The premieres in the Celebration of Indian Cinema sidebar are: Jag Mundhra’s political thriller Shoot-on-Sight, starring Naseeruddin Shah, and which follows a Scotland Yard Inspector investigating the police shooting of an alleged Muslim terrorist (inspired by the 2005 murder of a Brazilian man by London police); Remo D’Souza’s Story of the Red Hills, about a broken-hearted dancer; and the director’s cut of Akbar Khan’s expensive Bollywood romantic epic Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (top photo), starring Kabir Bedi, Zulfikar Syed, and Sonya Jehan.
Also, the Cinema of Africa sidebar will screen the premiere of Rayda Jacobs‘ comedy Confessions of a Gambler, the story of a devout Muslim whose moral compass goes awry following his jackpot win at a casino.
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Hi. I’ve been going to the fourth DIFF edition this year, almost every day. I like the new things that they’ve started as it makes the festival seem more geared towards people who like to watch all kinds of films from commercial stuff to the artsy kind also. I especially like the Dubai First people’s Choice Award which lets us vote 1 to 5 for movies that we watch. I think the winning film might get a prize at the closing ceremony.