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New Filmmakers from the United Arab Emirates 

During the months of February and March, Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba is showing this film series again, after a successful run when they were first screened in Madrid.

These films made in the United Arab Emirates are a reflection of a cosmopolitan society in which more than two hundred nationalities have co-existed in recent decades, where just ten percent of the country’s inhabitants are locals. Its history is recent. Abr Sabeel by Ali Al Abdul (1989) is considered the first feature film to have been made in the country, though it was never premiered in commercial theaters.

In recent years, the number of movies, short-subject films and documentaries made by Emiratis has increased exponentially. Among the pioneering directors is Nujoom Alghanem (2010). The poet and filmmaker began making movies in the late nineties, and in all of her documentaries she introduces characters who allow us to imagine what society was like in the Emirates just a few years ago, with Between Two Banks (1999) on the last living ferry boatman in Dubai; Hamama (2010), a documentary which tells the life story of a wise old healer woman, and Nearby Sky (2015), in which she describes the steps taken by the only woman to compete in beauty competitions for camels. In her latest work, Honey / Rain / Dust (2016), Alghanem uses her skill to examine a local theme with great global significance: the age-old tradition of beekeeping and the disappearance of bees and other forms of life.

Over the last ten years, a new generation of Emirati directors  has come to life, most educated and trained in their country and abroad. They are changing the audiovisual map of the Emirates. This is what has happened with Ali F. Mostafa (1981) and his first feature film, City of Life (2009), which creates a mosaic to introduce the stories of different lives in which the starring role is played by the city of Dubai itself. Mostafa began filming Under the Sun (2005), the television series Classified (2011), From A to B (2014) and more recently The Worthy (2016), all huge commercial successes.

With a similar profile but a more intimate tone, Nawaf Al-Janahi (1977) went to a small town in the region of Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the seven emirates with its border along Oman, to film Sea Shadow (2011), in which the director highlights the complex relations between two teenage youths, Mansoor and Kaltham, and the difficulties they encounter staying friends in a traditional environment. Prior to this film, Al-Janahi directed the short-subject films Obsession (2002), On the Road (2003), Mirrors of Silence (2006), and the feature film The Circle (2009).

Film from the Emirates reflects the great linguistic and cultural variety and diversity in the country and is a clear example of the changes, advancements and metamorphoses being experienced in the region. The Tainted Veil by Nahla Al Fahad, Mazen el Khayrat and Ovidio Salazar lends further evidence to these phenomena. This documentary, filmed in nine countries, shows different viewpoints and opinions on a modern-day topic as controversial as the hijab.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are currently two of the most important focal points for creation, production and co-production in all of the Middle East, where Arab directors, though not Arab directors alone, come to make movies and complete post-production, as has occurred with the films Star Trek Beyond (2016) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), as well as some popular Bollywood movies like ¡Happy New Year (2014), and Welcome Back (2015).

Film series curated by Alejandra Val Cubero
College of Communication and Media Science, Zayed University (UAE).

New Filmmakers from the United Arab Emirates 
  • The Tainted Veil 

    January 12, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    First screening in Cordoba of the film series which Casa Árabe has put on about new filmmakers from the Emirates, with this documentary film by Nahla Al Fahad, Mazen al Khayrat and Ovidio Salazar, filmed in nine countries.
    Produced in the United Arab Emirates, France, Egypt, Denmark, Morocco, Turkey, Syria and the United Kingdom in 2015 (78 min.), the movie provides a voice for different opinions about use of the hijab through interviews with women and well-known personages from the religious and political worlds, who discuss the reasons why or why not to choose wearing the veil. Examined in the documentary are the origins of the hijab, the place it holds in today’s societies and its implications and effects throughout the centuries.
  • Hamama  

    January 26, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Nujoom Alghanem is the director of this documentary shown by Casa Árabe as part of its film series devoted to new filmmakers from the United Arab Emirates. The movie explores the life of a Bedouin healer and her abilities based on tradition.
    Documentary (United Arab Emirates, 2010, 64 min.) 

    Hamama is a 90 year-old Bedouin woman healer whose reputation has spread throughout the Emirates because she possesses the innate gift of curing diseases and working the most unimaginable miracles. Her healing powers are incredibly valuable to huge numbers of patients, who still come to see her en masse every day at her home, in search of remedies for their illnesses. The most unbelievable part is that Hamama is neither a doctor nor a physical therapist. She does not use the latest technological advancements, but rather archaic methods from age-old tradition, such as moxibustion, massages, herbs and natural spices, to work her magic.
  • Nanny Culture

    February 09, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Have you ever wondered what happens behind the front doors of houses where families depend on the work of foreign nannies? The film’s director, Paul James Driscoll, will be showing us in this documentary.
    (United Arab Emirates, 2016, 60 min.) Documentary

    Nanny Culture provides an entertaining look at the learning process of a nanny from the United Kingdom who finds herself at the heart of a lively family from the Emirates. A bit Mary Poppins perhaps, but with quite a different soundtrack.
  • City of Life

    February 23, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A new film screening is arriving in Cordoba as part of the film series devoted to the Emirates, this time with a fictional movie directed by Ali F. Mostafa.
    The city of Dubai, filled with opportunities, is the stage for this fiction feature directed by Ali F. Mostafa (United Arab Emirates, 2009, 119 min.).
     
    A privileged young Arab ill at ease with his cultural identity, and his less fortunate friend, a disillusioned taxi driver who bears an odd resemblance to a Bollywood star, and a former Romanian dancer looking for love... all these stories take place in Dubai, a city filled with opportunities where dreams can still come true.
  • Nearby Sky / Samma qarribah 

    March 09, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    This documentary by Nujoom Alghanem closes off the film screenings in the series which Casa Árabe has devoted to new filmmakers from the Emirates in the months of January and February at its headquarters in Cordoba.
    Nujoom Alghamen was the director of this documentary (United Arab Emirates, 2014, 95 min.).
     
    Fatima Alhameli was the first Emirati women who owns camels to get her camel signed up for a contest and take part in camel auctions in the United Arab Emirates. Despite all the difficulties and challenges encountered when attempting to demonstrate that she could compete in one of the most male-dominated fields, Fatima’s desire to win a race or contest remains the only way to make up for her failures and overcome them. Fatima’s story is reflected in a unique way in this film, which shows the path she has chosen and the challenges she has faced both socially and personally. Right when Fatima begins to lose hope, an unexpected reward comes into her life.