 Abu Dhabi Announces Film & Production SuThe Abu Dhabi-based media hub, twofour54, and the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (A... Sun, 20 May 2012 |  'Teta, Alf Marra' comes to Al JazeeraOne of our favourite regional productions in recent memory, Teta Alf Marra (Gr... Sun, 20 May 2012 |
 2012: A Year of HeroesIt seems that this year will be a good one for all super-hero movie lovers. Th... Sat, 21 Jan 2012 |  DIFF 2011 Roundup: WeekendThe Dubai International Film Festival in its 8th edition has kicked off to a ... Sat, 10 Dec 2011 |
 Dubai Film Festival 2011The Dubai International Film Festival rounds out the Middle East film festival... Wed, 07 Dec 2011 |  The Kingdom of LaughterThere is a new kind of creative revolution taking the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia... Sat, 19 Nov 2011 |
 The 2011 Doha Tribeca Film FestivalOne of the region’s emerging and most exciting film festivals takes place in D... Tue, 01 Nov 2011 |  2011 ADFF HighlightsThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Sun, 23 Oct 2011 |
 2011 ADFF Day 8 Highlights + Day 9 PreviThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Thu, 20 Oct 2011 |  2011 ADFF Day 8 PreviewThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Wed, 19 Oct 2011 |
 2011 ADFF Day 7 PreviewThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Tue, 18 Oct 2011 |  The 48 Hour Film ProjectAll film-makers and film-making enthusiasts are invited to join a one of a kin... Tue, 18 Oct 2011 |
 2011 ADFF Day 6 PreviewThe Abu Dhabi film festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Mon, 17 Oct 2011 |  2011 ADFF Day 4 Highlights + Day 5 PreviThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Sun, 16 Oct 2011 |
 2011 ADFF Day 1, 2 and 3 HighlightsThe Abu Dhabi film festival is back in full swing this year with an excellent ... Sat, 15 Oct 2011 |  Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011 – PreviewThe 5th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival kicked off today, with a progra... Thu, 13 Oct 2011 |
 Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011 – Bright LiBack for its 5th Edition, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) starts this week ... Sun, 09 Oct 2011 |  Festival Time: Middle East Film FestivalOnce again, it’s time to dust off your comfy trousers/pant-format clothes and ... Sat, 20 Aug 2011 |
 Around the Block: Mahmoud Kaabour IntervIn this film feature we take a glance at the career of one of the champions of... Mon, 15 Aug 2011 |  Film Realities : Interview With Nayla AlNayla Al Khaja has made a name for herself on the regional film-making scene w... Wed, 20 Jul 2011 |
 'Shubbak': Modern Regional FilmsShubbak is the Arabic word for window - A window on Middle Eastern culture fro... Tue, 05 Jul 2011 |  Losing our Creativity: The Dumbing-downThe well recognised need for both the music and film industries to ‘turn a dol... Tue, 07 Jun 2011 |
 A Cinematic Summer: Limited ReleasesIn our last film feature, we took a look at the most anticipated blockbusters ... Tue, 07 Jun 2011 |  Attention Filmmakers! DIFF Call for EntrThe 8th cycle of Dubai International Film Festival will take place between the... Mon, 30 May 2011 |
 A Cinematic Summer: BlockbustersSummertime is knocking on our doors – and that usually means a lot of differen... Sat, 28 May 2011 |  Gulf Film Festival – Fourth EditionStarting from the 14th of April the fourth edition of the Gulf Film Festival w... Wed, 13 Apr 2011 |
 Call for Entries: Abu Dhabi Film FestivaThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival has called for entries for its 5th edition this Oc... Tue, 05 Apr 2011 |  Our Top 10 Films from 2010To conclude our end of the year lists – we decided to come up with one listing... Thu, 30 Dec 2010 |
 10 Documentaries from the Last 10 YearsEven though documentaries revolve around recording real life rather than make ... Sat, 04 Dec 2010 |  Movie Releases We’re Looking Forward ToSo, we're a long way through 2010, but there's still a little bit more to come... Tue, 09 Nov 2010 |
 All Hallows FlicksHalloween is the perfect excuse to do two things: dress up in ridiculous costu... Sat, 30 Oct 2010 |  Abu Dhabi Film Festival – In ReviewAs the Abu Dhabi Film Festival becomes a fading memory, triplew.me looks back ... Tue, 26 Oct 2010 |
It’s the Middle Eastern film festival season again, and triplew.me will bring as much coverage as we possibly can! In this article we take a look at some of the releases for the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, starting October 14 and running until October 23.
An exciting time for anyone remotely interested in cinema, the film festival season presents some of the finest international talent, some highlights of regional cinema and everything in-between. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) this year is no exception.
Spanning several categories, the ADFF this year is sure to be a highlight on this year’s festival calendar, with a number of exciting titles entering the fray.
We’ve picked out some of the main highlights from the different categories, but the full list is available here.
Be still, film lover’s hearts. The ADFF this year includes a Special Program that includes a number of classics that have been restored, including Fritz Lang’s seminal film Metropolis and Shadi Abdesalam’s The Mummy /The Night of Counting the Years. A special mention needs to go to a screening of Chaplin’s The Circus too – making for some great silent films in the line-up and a return to the cinema of yesteryear.
Metropolis is widely regarded as one of the first science-fiction films and, fittingly, perhaps one of the first of its genre. An amazing film, and we’re looking forward to seeing the complete cut of the film for the first time.
Be sure to also check out ‘Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema’ section of the Special Program, with Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention a highlight. It's one of the films in his series that completed last year with The Time That Remains.
Some other highlights, in our opinion, of the program:
A unique part of the programme that looks at a series of environmentally-themed films and documentaries, one of which stands out a little more from a big selection of films - Cane Toads: The Conquest by Mark Lewis, a 3D film about the quest to eradicate cane toads in Australia. Also interesting in this category is Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? with a pretty strong message for all.
A number of great films on offer in this part of the programme. How Bitter My Sweet! (Bahebak Ya Wahsh!) looks like an enchanting tale, and the confronting Tears of Gaza will no doubt be compelling viewing. In a similar, but perhaps less confronting manner, Children of the Stones - Children of the Wall looks another to watch. The Documentary section is always a great eye-opener and get along to as many of these as you can.
Secretariat, is the opening film of the festival and is about the famous US racehorse of the same name. The film’s just opened in the US, and looks a different way to open the festival – should be interesting. Let Me In, already generating significant hype, is a remake of the Swedish film Let the Right One and should get a wider release than just the festival.
It’s also interesting how much Fair Game has a similar, but ultimately very different, plot as Nothing But The Truth from 2008 that recently screened in cinemas in the Middle East. Sure, the latter is about journalism, but the central plot of exposing a CIA agent also rings some minor similarities in.
We’d love to tell you all the highlights for the festival, but we’ve run out of space. There’s the Emirates Competition category, made up of film-makers from the GCC, the amazing ‘Narrative’ stream that includes Olivier Assayas’ Carlos (about Carlos the Jackal), New Horizons (including the Furious Force of Rhymes about global hip hop) and an amazing array of short films.
