Started in 2014, Cinema Space is a fully voluntary and independent initiative to share beautifully restored classics and contemporary world cinema through free community screenings for audiences and enthusiasts in Abu Dhabi. Come one, come all, and bring guests to discover essential cinema! Explore programs below.
All programs are free and open to audiences. RSVP is mandatory due to limited seating.
Please select an upcoming program in the "All Programs" section below and click on the RSVP button to view information about the film and reserve your spot. You will receive an automatic email confirmation after registering on the individual film page.
(Please see full program and details in 'All Programs' section below)
Free Film Screening
Directed by Zhang Yimou
China | 2018 | 116 minutes
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Rating ( 15+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 15 and above
Synopsis: Zhang Yimou's re-imagining of the classic Three Kingdoms – Jingzhou epic, this action-drama tells the story of a powerful king and his people who have been displaced from their homeland and long to win it back. In an empire ruled by a wild and dangerous young king (Zheng Kai) whose court is a hive of politicking and treachery, the monarch’s brave military commander (Deng Chao) has cultivated a secret weapon to aid his survival: a “shadow,” a lookalike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want. With Shadow, director Zhang Yimou once again pushes the boundaries of wuxia (martial arts epic) action to create a stunning film like no other, featuring tightly coiled, pitch-perfect acting by the ensemble cast and stunningly gorgeous sets and cinematography, this is an enthralling and magnificent epic that will both delight and surprise fans of the genre.
Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan
Free Film Screening (Family Friendly)
(1:30pm - 3:45pm) - ENGLISH VERSION
(4:00pm - 6:15pm) - JAPANESE VERSION with English Subtitles
KONO SEKAI NO KATASUMI NI (original title)
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
Japan | 2016 | 129 minutes | In English
Rating ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Based on the award-winning manga by Fumiyo Kouno, In This Corner Of The World tells the emotional story of Suzu, a young girl from Hiroshima, who's just become a bride in the nearby city of Kure during World War II. Living with her husband's family, Suzu has to adjust to her new life, which is made especially difficult by regular air raids. But life must go on, and Suzu — through the help of her new family and neighbors — begins to discover the joys of everyday life in Kure. Much is gained in Kure, but with war, many things cherished are also lost. In This Corner Of The World is brought to life, in stunning animation, by acclaimed filmmaker Sunao Katabuchi (Mai Mai Miracle) and producer Taro Maki.
Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Abu Dhabi
LA PRIMA COSA BELLA (Original Title)
Free Film Screening
Directed by Paolo Virzi
Italy | 2010 | 122 minutes
In Italian with English Subtitles
Rating ( 15+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 15 and above
Synopsis: Summer in Tuscany, 1971. Anna is crowned ‘Queen’ of Livorno’s most famous beauty contest. Beautiful, vivacious and innocent, she’s unaware of arousing attentions of the male population, kindling the unwelcome suspicions of her jealous husband Mario and stoking the hidden embarrassment of her son Bruno. 20 years later, Bruno is persuaded to return to Livorno by his estranged sister Valeria to help Anna, who is still a beautiful object of desire despite a terminal illness, and to confront the childhood memories he has tried to erase at all costs. La prima cosa bella (The First Beautiful Thing) follows a strong and optimistic mother raising her two children against all odds. Throughout grief and pain she teaches her family to remain open and loving and to cherish the little joys in life. This beautiful and touching comedic drama from acclaimed Italian director Paolo Virzi is filled with unforgettable and emotional true-to-life performances.
(Program Details to be announced soon)
Overview: Experience beautiful and extraordinary classics showcasing works from renowned filmmakers around the world. Each film has been gloriously revived as a cinematic revelation for you to discover through the art of preserving and restoring cinema. These revivals celebrate the many joys of cinema featuring selections of outstanding works of world cinema.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by Walther Ruttmann
Germany | 1927 | 65 minutes
In German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: The documentary “Berlin, Symphony of the City” is one of the most famous silent classics from Germany. The film shows a day in the life of the city, from the empty streets in the morning to the hectic pace of the day and the pleasures of the evening, telling of workers, employees and schoolchildren, commercial councillors, mannequins and beggars. Of cars, trams and trains, love, marriage and death, slaughterhouse, Wannsee and zoo. From the rhythm of the big city with all its contrasts. With his colored short film experiments and commercials, Walther Ruttmann created the world's first abstract animated films in the early 1920s. He was a pioneer of modern multimedia art. The travelogue “Melodie der Welt” became the first German sound feature film. With the radio play “Weekend” Ruttmann created the first “In der Nacht” transforms music to images and is a prototype of modern music videos.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by David Dietl
Germany | 2019 | 87 minutes
In German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: In the late 1980s, Frank Künster came from West Germany to Berlin, where Smiley Baldwin, an American G.I., was guarding the border to East Berlin, and Sven Marquardt, a young punk and photographer on the other side of the Wall, was surprised to see it fall. It was not long before all three found themselves caught up in the city’s wild nightlife of the 1990s, where they soon became the legendary ‘guardians’ of the city’s hippest clubs. “Berlin Bouncer” is a real-life story about growing up at the age of 50 and the diversity of our paths through life. Based on the three biographies of Berlin's most legendary bouncers, the film chronicles an exciting piece of the city’s cultural history from the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall up to the pulsating present. We are appropriately accompanied by the extraordinary sound of a city and its clubs that has become a kind of second heartbeat for the three protagonists and partygoers.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Wim Wenders
Germany | 1987 | 128 minutes
In German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Wings of Desire is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts—fears, hopes, dreams—of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. He meets the American actor Peter Falk, who used to be an angel himself and advises Damiel to take the big step and give up his existence as an angel. Ultimately, Damiel determines that he must experience humanity in full, and breaks through into the real world to pursue a life with Marion. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by Jan-Ole Gerster
Germany | 2012 | 82 minutes
In German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Niko Fischer is living from day to day. He has dropped out of law school. He roams through Berlin, observing the people in the city and letting himself drifting around. On this day everything changes: Niko's father stops his monthly payments, a psychologist revokes his driver's license, a neighbour complaints about life and starts crying, an acquaintance from school days admits that she was once madly in love with him at school and in a pub an old man tells him about a traumatic childhood experience. In the end the old man is dead and Niko may have shown something like sympathy and a sense of responsibility for the first time. It's finally time for him to grow up. “A Coffee in Berlin” describes the turbulent 24 hours in the life of a young man in episodes, at the end of which nothing will be as before.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening (Family Friendly)
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA | 1961 | 108 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: One of director Billy Wilder’s most frenetic comedies, the madcap Cold War and corporate politics satire One, Two, Three has to be one of the only films almost capable of making its Wilder predecessors Some Like It Hot and The Apartment seem sedately paced in comparison. Featuring a hilarious lead performance by James Cagney, One, Two, Three is among his best comdies. Cagney is C.R. “Mac” MacNamara, a top Coca-Cola executive shipped off to (then West) Berlin and told to keep an eye on his boss’ 17-year-old Atlanta socialite daughter Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin) while she visits Germany. Scarlett’s tour seems endless, and Mac discovers she’s fallen for a (then East) Berlin communist agitator and the young couple are bound for Moscow! Mac has to bust up the burgeoning romance before his boss learns the truth, all the while dealing with his wife Phyllis (Arlene Francis) and her own impatience with German living. With One, Two, Three, Wilder set out to make “the fastest picture in the world.” Mission accomplished, so hang on and try not to miss too many gags if this is your first viewing of this knockabout comedy penned by Wilder’s long-time screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by Sebastian Schipper
Germany | 2015 | 138 minutes
In English, German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( 18+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 18 and above
Synopsis: Victoria, a young woman from Madrid, meets four local Berliners outside a nightclub. Sonne and his friends promise to show her a good time and the real side of the city. But these lads have gotten themselves into hot water: they owe someone a dangerous favor that requires repaying that evening. As Victoria’s flirtation with Sonne deepens into something more, he convinces her to come along for the ride. And later, when things become more ominous and possibly lethally dangerous for Sonne, she insists on coming along. As the night takes on an ever more menacing character, what started out as a good time, quickly spirals out of control. As dawn approaches, Victoria and Sonne address the inevitable: it’s all or nothing and they abandon themselves to a heart-stopping race into the depths of hell. Exhilarating and astonishingly ambitious, Victoria is an adrenaline-fuelled heist thriller set on the streets of nighttime Berlin that features the staggering technical feat of being shot in a single, unbroken take.
Free Film Screening
Presented by Italian Cultural Institute of Abu Dhabi
LO CHIAMAVANO JEEG ROBOT (original title)
Directed by Gabriele Mainetti
Italy | 2015 | 112 minutes
In Italian with English Subtitles
RATING: ( 18+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 18 and above
Synopsis: After a plunge into Rome’s toxic Tiber River, Enzo (Claudio Santamaria), an ex-con from the poor outskirts of the city, finds himself transformed into an indestructible, superhuman strongman, a fact which makes the local crime bosses far from happy. When he falls in love with Alessia, an unstable girl who brightens her dark world with elements from a Japanese anime and believes him to be the robot hero of the 1970s manga series Steel Jeeg, Enzo learns the value of helping others. Against his own instincts, he becomes something of an avenging angel: the protector of this emotionally fragile, anime-obsessed young woman and the nemesis of a sadistic, germophobic gangster (Luca Marinelli). But what price must he pay to become a hero? Gabriele Mainetti's feature film debut They Call Me Jeeg Robot is a gritty, grimy take on the superhero film and the antidote to Hollywood-slick blockbusters with its vibrant new take on the genre.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
With an introduction by Dr Alexander Schwarz (film historian and curator, Munich) on the significance, background and contemporary relevance of the film.
Free Film Screening
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by D.W. Griffith
USA | 1916 | 167 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: After shaking the world with his hugely controversial epic The Birth of a Nation, pioneer filmmaker D. W. Griffith spared no expense in putting together his next project: a powerful examination of intolerance as it has persisted throughout civilization, set across four parallel storylines that span 2500 years. There is the Babylonian story, depicting nothing less than the fall of Babylon; the Judean story, which revolves around the crucifixion of Christ; the French story, which presents the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in all its horror; and a modern American story of class struggle, crime, and the plight of life in the early 20th century set within urban slums and the prison system. Starring such luminaries as Lillian Gish, Constance Talmadge, and Miriam Cooper, who share screentime with an enormous main cast and some 3,000 extras, Griffith’s film — the most expensive motion picture ever produced at the time — went on to become a critical success whose influence has only grown in the decades since. Presented here is the 2013 restoration of Kevin Brownlow’s and David Gill’s preserved Intolerance, featuring Carl Davis’s orchestral score.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by Wolfgang Fischer
Germany | 2018 | 94 minutes
In German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Rike, a busy doctor, is educated, confident, determined and committed. She fulfils a long-held dream to spend her annual vacation sailing from Gibraltar to the small island of Ascension in the Atlantic Ocean. But her dream holiday is quickly broken off on the high seas, when, after a storm, she finds herself near a stricken fishing boat. Around a hundred people are about to drown. Rike follows maritime law and radios for help. As her request is going nowhere, she is forced to make a momentous decision. What happens if a solo sailor (a yachtswoman alone on a boat) finds herself in this situation? Inspired by true events, “Styx” pursues this question in a fictional fashion, illustrating how economic interests compete with humanitarian principles, and how indifference destroys all hope.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by Karen Winther
Germany, Norway, Sweden | 2018 | 80 minutes
In German with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: In her film “Exit”, the director recounts her own past as a supporter of a right-wing extremist organisation in Norway. The plot doesn't remain restricted on her own structure. Karen Winther travels to the USA, among other places, and meets women who were also active in right-wing extremist circles. She shows her encounters with a former left-wing extremist activist and an ex-jihadist who served a sentence in a Paris prison. Besides surprisingly similar motivations and experiences, all share difficulties connected with their "exits" such as feelings of guilt, but also threats of still active members.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
Directed by Nadine Labaki
Lebanon | 2011 | 110 minutes
In Arabic with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Set in a remote village where the church and the mosque stand side by side, Where Do We Go Now? follows the antics of the town's women to keep their blowhard men from starting a religious war. Women heartsick over sons, husbands and fathers lost to previous flare-ups unite to take a stand and prevent all out conflict by distracting their men with clever ruses, from faking a miracle to hiring a troop of Ukrainian dancers. Bringing the village back together was never going to be easy but no-one could have imagined it would be this much fun. Inspiring, hilarious and heartfelt, Where Do We Go Now? is an uplifting and vibrant tale of love, family and humanity.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening (Family Friendly)
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Robert Mulligan
USA | 1962 | 128 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defense of a wrongfully accused black man Tom Robinson (Brock Peters). While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbor Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film remains powerfully resonant with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity, and loving, responsible parenthood.
Presented by Goethe-Institut Gulf Region
Free Film Screening
DAS HERZ VON JENIN (original title)
Directed by Leon Geller, Marcus Vetter
Germany | 2009 | 89 minutes
In Arabic, Hebrew with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: The Heart of Jenin takes us to Israel, into Palestine and the occupied territories, to the people who have learnt to live with everyday conflict and violence, and who, even so, have not given up their hope for peace. On 5 November 2005 in the Jenin refugee camp, 12-year-old Ahmed Khatib was shot by an Israeli soldier whilst playing with a plastic gun. Despite his grief, the father, Ismael Khatib, decides to donate his son‘s organs to Israeli children. Four of those, each from a different part of Israel‘s diverse society, are alive today thanks to his courageous act. Ismael travels from Jenin to the northern hills on the Lebanese border, passing through the Holy City of Jerusalem, down to the edge of the Negev Desert in the south to visit the children who received his son's organs. The Heart of Jenin tells this story of a unique gesture of peace and a journey which not only leads to the recipient families, but also attempts to reconstruct the events that took place in Jenin in 2005.
Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan
Free Film Screening
OKURIBITO (original title)
Directed by Yojiro Takita
Japan | 2008 | 131 minutes
In Japanese with English Subtitles
RATING: ( PG-13 ) - Parental Guidance is advised
Synopsis: Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, DEPARTURES is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage. Returning to his hometown after his orchestra disbands, cellist Daigo is in search of a new life, a new job and a new direction. To his surprise—and despite the protests of those close to him—he soon finds himself working in a mortuary. Daily, as Daigo prepares the departed for the afterlife with delicate ritualistic care, he begins to find the balance he has been searching for. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.
Free Film Screening
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan
United Kingdom | 1940 | 106 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Legendary producer Alexander Korda's marvel The Thief of Bagdad, inspired by The Arabian Nights, is one of the most spectacular fantasy films ever made, an eye-popping effects pioneer brimming with imagination and technical wizardry. When Prince Ahmad (John Justin) is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu (the incomparable Sabu, in his definitive role) to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess (June Duprez). With its luscious Technicolor, vivid sets, and unprecedented visual wonders, The Thief of Bagdad has charmed viewers of all ages for decades.
Free Film Screening
MUERTE DE UN CICLISTA (original title)
Presented by the Embassy of Spain in Abu Dhabi
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem
Spain | 1955 | 87 minutes
In Spanish with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Upper-class geometry professor Juan and his wealthy, married mistress, Maria José, driving back from a late-night rendezvous, accidentally hit a cyclist, and run. The resulting, exquisitely shot tale of guilt, infidelity, and blackmail reveals the wide gap between the rich and the poor in Spain, and surveys the corrupt ethics of a society seduced by decadence. Juan Antonio Bardem's charged melodrama Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un ciclista) was a direct attack on 1950s Spanish society under Franco’s rule. Though it was affected by the dictates of censorship, its sting could never be dulled.
Free Film Screening
LA SOURCE DES FEMMES (original title)
Directed by Radu Mihăileanu
France, Belgium, Italy | 2011 | 135 minutes
In Arabic with English Subtitles
RATING: ( 15+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 15 and above
Synopsis: Nestled in the mountains somewhere between North Africa and the Middle East, the women of one village are on strike. Fed up of trekking miles every single day to the nearest well, newly wed Leila (Leïla Bekhti) with the support of her husband Sami (Saleh Bakri) suggest they all go on strike and leads a campaign to force the men to share the duty of bringing water to the village. A love strike until the men pipe water to the village. The men's amused disdain turns to dismay then despair as the women's apparently hopeless cause gathers support, making the village a laughing stock. Tensions within the family also escalate when Sami's mother, Fatima (Hiam Abbass), refuses to join in the love stike, and tries to convince her son to remarry. When national newspaper journalist Sofiane arrives, the men of the village fear even greater humiliation but Sofiane hasn't come to report on the strike. He wants to win back his first love, Leila. Overcoming the wrath of the village elders and an unexpected visit from an old flame, Leila brings the colorful local traditions face-to-face with the modern world. Fun, lively and unforgettable, this is an entertaining journey through the African mountains to the heart of one vibrant community.
Free Film Screening
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
USA | 1959 | 136 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Is there a more entertaining and richly satisfying Hitchcock film than North by Northwest? From the spiffy Saul Bass title sequence to the cliff-hanger climax on Mount Rushmore, with a zillion breathless, bizarre, and Freudian twists and turns in between, this quintessential suspense thriller is the largest and most lavish of the director’s works. Hollywood icon Cary Grant is the screen’s supreme man-on-the-run in his fourth and final teaming with Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock. This insanely thrilling entertainment stars Grant as Roger Thornhill, a New York City advertising executive who, in a classic case of mistaken identity, finds himself on the run from a group of spies who have mistaken him for a government agent. He is plunged into the realm of spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint) and variously abducted, framed for murder, chased, and in a signature set-piece, crop-dusted. Shot in Technicolor North by Northwest is Hitchcock at his most dizzyingly huge in this breathtaking chase.
Free Film Screening
Presented by the Embassy of Sweden in Abu Dhabi
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Smultronstället (Original Title)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Sweden | 1957 | 92 minutes
In Swedish with English Subtitles
RATING: G (General Audiences - all ages admitted)
Synopsis: One of Ingmar Bergman’s pinnacle works, Wild Strawberries is an intensely moving, highly lyrical drama of affirmation and reconciliation. Victor Sjöström, Sweden’s pre-eminent director before Bergman, gives a memorable performance as Isak Borg, a distinguished professor travelling by car from Stockholm to Lund, where he is to receive an honorary degree. Accompanying him is daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), whose marriage to Borg’s son Evald (Gunnar Björnstrand) is troubled. A flood of memories, daydreams, and nightmares assails the aging protagonist along the way, forcing him to take stock of his life, confront his shortcomings, and accept his mortality. In tandem with The Seventh Seal, released the same year, Wild Strawberries established the international vogue for Bergman’s cinema.
Free Film Screening
NAMHANSANSEONG (original title)
Presented by the Korean Cultural Center in the UAE
Directed by Dong-hyuk Hwang
South Korea | 2017 | 140 minutes
In Korean with English Subtitles
RATING: ( 15+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 15 and above
Synopsis: During the Qing Invasion of Korea, the king and the court take refuge in a mountain fortress, where they find themselves stranded in the cold and surrounded by the enemy. The king’s dilemma deepens as his people in the fortress start dying from cold and hunger. In 1636, Qing China invades Korea with 150,000 troops. The Korean court flees the capital to take shelter in the Namhan Fortress, located in treacherous mountains outside the city. The Qing army, led by General Yong Gol Dae, quickly surrounds the fortress, leaving the king and the court stranded in a prolonged standoff. For a truce, the Qing general makes a humiliating proposal of sending the Crown Prince out as hostage. Unable to move forward or fight the outnumbering enemy, the people of the fortress start dying from cold and hunger. Between the interior minister, who emphasizes the king’s duty to protect the lives of his subjects regardless of humiliation, and the minister of rites, who maintains that they must fight to death for the greater cause, the king must make a grave choice.
Free Film Screening (Family Friendly)
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Jean Cocteau
France | 1946 | 93 minutes
In French with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: A hapless merchant, lost in a dark forest, seeks refuge in the castle of a hideous monster who threatens to kill him unless one of his three daughters will agree to take his place. But when Beauty appears, the Beast falls deeply in love with her. Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy-tale masterpiece—in which the pure love of a beautiful girl melts the heart of a feral but gentle beast—is a landmark of motion picture fantasy, with unforgettably romantic performances by Josette Day, as the luminous yet feisty Beauty, and Jean Marais as the Beast, at once brutal and gentle, rapacious and vulnerable, shamed and repelled by his own bloodlust. Henri Alekan’s subtle black and white cinematography combine with Christian Bérard’s masterly costumes and set designs to create a magical piece of cinema, a children’s fairy tale refashioned into a stylized and highly sophisticated dream. The spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death in Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) have become timeless icons of cinematic wonder.
Free Film Screening
Presented by the Embassy of Spain in Abu Dhabi
Directed by Alberto Rodríguez
Spain | 2014 | 105 minutes
In Spanish with English Subtitles
RATING: ( 18+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 18 and above
Synopsis: The Spanish Deep South, 1980. A series of brutal murders of adolescent girls in a remote and forgotten town bring together two disparate characters - both detectives in the homicide division - to investigate the cases. With deep divisions in their ideology, detectives Juan and Pedro must put aside their differences if they are to successfully hunt down a killer who for years has terrorized a community in the shadow of a general disregard for women rooted in a misogynistic past. Marshland swept Spain's Goya Awards, winning 10 prizes including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
monday, october 14 (7:30pm - 9:30pm)
Venue: NYUAD ARTS CENTER
Free Film Screening (plus Q&A with the director!)
CinemaNA Series at NYUAD Arts Center
Directed by Reem Saleh
Lebanon, Egypt | 2018 | 79 minutes
In Arabic with English Subtitles
Synopsis: ‘One big family’ is how protagonist Um Ghareeb describes the ‘al Gami’yas’ in Rod El Farag, one of Cairo’s poorest districts. In these communities, which comprise several members of the quarter's inhabitants, everyone regularly contributes a small amount of money into a pot. At weekly meetings, a collective decision is made as to who is currently the neediest, or who will receive some cash in order to purchase something they really need. Reem Saleh spent six years following the members of one such community with her camera. (Curated by the NYUAD Film and New Media Program and presented in collaboration with Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, the monthly series showcases groundbreaking films alongside discussions with the filmmakers and faculty of NYUAD and Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi.)
Free Film Screening
Presented by the Norwegian Embassy in Abu Dhabi
Directed by Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg
Norway | 2012 | 119 minutes
In Norwegian with English Subtitles
RATING: ( 18+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 18 and above
Synopsis: Based on the amazing true adventure of Thor Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen), Kon-Tiki is the tale of Norwegian explorer in 1947 who embarks on the voyage of a lifetime to prove a point. When the scientific community rejects his theory that South Americans were the first to settle in the Polynesian Islands, Heyerdahl resolves to prove its validity - and save his reputation - by embarking on the voyage himself. Recruiting a group of five men who are just bold enough to tackle the seemingly impossible trip, he builds a simple raft to original pre-Columbian specifications and sets off on the epic 101 day-long journey across the treacherous ocean to meet his fate, while the world watches.
Free Film Screening
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Japan | 1965 | 183 minutes
In Japanese with English Subtitles
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Four Japanese folk tales were adapted for this rapturously stylized anthology of ghost stories from the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi, which received an Academy Award nomination for Foreign Language Film. In the tradition of classic multi-story supernatural films, Kwaidan tells four ghost stories (including one cut from the original U.S. release but later restored), with Kobayashi using luminous cinematography, colorfully surreal sets and the eerie, electronic-flecked music of Toru Takemitsu to create a visually and aurally imaginative work of fantasy that called upon Kobayashi’s painterly roots. These haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted. Decades before “J-horror” became an influential movement in international genre cinema, Kwaidan chilled audiences around the world and is presented in the original three-hour cut, never before released.
Free Film Screening - (Family Friendly)
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Charles Barton
USA | 1948 | 83 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Comedy meets horror when Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter Universal's classic monsters in the frightfully funny Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The world of baggage handlers Chick Young (Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Costello) is turned upside down when they receive the remains of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein (Glenn Strange) bound for the House of Horrors museum. When Dracula and Frankenstein escape, complete chaos ensues as Chick and Wilbur get mixed up in an evil plot to switch Wilbur's brain with Frankenstein's and are aided by Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.), who turns into The Wolf Man when the moon is full! Featuring a perfect blend of laughs and thrills, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is one the all-time great horror comedies.
Free Film Screening
Presented by the Korean Cultural Center in the UAE
GOK-SEONG (original title)
Directed by Na Hong Jin
South Korea | 2016 | 157 minutes
In Korean with English Subtitles
Rating ( 18+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 18 and above
Synopsis: In this unbelievably tense supernatural thriller, a foreigner’s mysterious appearance in a quiet, rural village causes suspicion among the locals - suspicion which quickly turns to hysteria as the townspeople begin attacking each other in brutal outbursts for seemingly no reason. As the investigating officer Jong-goo watches his daughter fall under the same savage spell, he agrees to consult a shaman for answers - unknowingly escalating the situation into something far more dangerous. Over six years in the making, director Na Hong-jin’s meticulously crafted follow-up to his globally acclaimed films The Yellow Sea and The Chaser paints a frightening picture of superstition, with its pagan rituals and shamanistic devil exorcisms, smashing box office records upon its debut in South Korea and leading fans to make return viewings and catch new clues about what is one of the most talked-about endings in Korean cinema.
Free Film Screening
Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Abu Dhabi
TITO E GLI ALIENI (original title)
Directed by Paola Randi
Italy | 2017 | 92 minutes
In Italian with English Subtitles
Rating ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Inside a shipping container cluttered with electronics in the middle of the desert, a widowed Italian scientist known only "the Professor" (Valerio Mastandrea) has been fiddling mysteriously with knobs, headphones, and antennae for years. Some say he's contacting alien lifeforms, which is understandable given that he lives near Nevada's infamous "Area 51." The only conduit he has to the outside world is Stella (Clemence Poesy), a nearby French ex-pat who entertains sci-fi enthusiasts with alien-themed weddings. The Professor's extreme isolation is pierced when he receives a video from his brother in Naples, saying that he has died and is sending his two children, teenager Anita (Chiara Stella Riccio) and seven-year-old "Little Tito" (Luca Esposito), to live with the Professor. When the kids show up, expecting the glitz of Las Vegas and Lady Gaga, they are disappointed to find a crazy uncle in a lunar landscape. While Anita bonds with Stella and seeks escape, Tito is fascinated by his uncle's gadgets and discovers that the Professor is obsessed not with contacting aliens, but with something closer to home—the spirits of the dead. With Spain's otherworldly Tabernas Desert standing in for Nevada, director Paola Randi's Little Tito reveals poignant truths about humanity's need for contact right here on Earth.
Free Film Screening - (Family Friendly)
Directed by Nick Park, Steve Box
U.K. | 2005 | 85 minutes | In English
RATING: ( G ) - General Audiences (all ages admitted)
Synopsis: Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a hair-raising adventure from the creators of Chicken Run. Wallace and Gromit start a pest control business to clean up people's gardens in preparation of Tottington Hall's annual giant vegetable competition. When their town's prized produce starts disappearing, our cheese-loving inventor (Wallace) and his savvy canine companion (Gromit) are tasked by Lady Tottington to uncover the mystery and find out what's happening by using all of their wildly imaginative inventions to try and capture a mysterious beast of epic and fluffy proportions. Hailed as a terrific family film and whimsical, funny and endlessly inventive, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is an unforgettable film for the whole family!
Free Film Screening
(NEW FILM RESTORATION!)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
USA | 1960 | 109 minutes | In English
RATING: ( 15+ ) - Suitable for viewers ages 15 and above
Synopsis: One of the most shocking films of all time, director Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a landmark masterpiece of the macabre from the Master of Suspense. Janet Leigh stars as Phoenix secretary Marion Crane, absconding with a small fortune of her employer’s money. Anthony Perkins is nervous Norman Bates, proprietor of the Bates Motel where Miss Crane makes the unfortunate mistake of stopping for the night. At first a private detective, then Marion's sister (Vera Miles) searches for her, the horror and the suspense mount to a terrifying climax where the mysterious killer is finally revealed. Hitchcock’s film has become a cultural phenomenon and remains a mind-blowingly thrilling experience creating one of cinema's most notorious psychopaths.
