Dubai’s Cinema Akil to screen ‘1982’ and ‘Pinocchio’ throughout October

Nadine Labaki stars in ‘1982’, the first feature film by Oualid Mouaness. Abbout Productions; Tricycle Logic; Mad Dog Films

Cinema Akil will be screening Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio and 1982 by Oualid Mouaness next month, as part of a partnership between the arthouse cinema and Front Row Filmed Entertainment.

The two critically acclaimed films will be showing at the Al Quoz venue from Friday, October 2, to Thursday, October 29. The screenings signal a return to Cinema Akil's regular programming after  its Traveller series, which ran throughout the summer, after the venue reopened in mid-June.

"We're celebrating a return to release programming post-lockdown with this special film by Mouaness," Butheina Kazim, the founder of Cinema Akil, said. "We're also thrilled to be the only cinema in the UAE to screen Pinocchio in its original Italian language."

Set in a private school outside Beirut and taking place over a single day, 1982 tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who is anxious to win over a school crush. The film, which stars Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nadine Labaki as a schoolteacher, is based on Mouaness's childhood memories of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 1982.

The film’s premiere was at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Netpac award. It was also awarded the Fipresci International Critics Prize at El Gouna Film Festival, in Egypt, as well as the Golden Coconut at Hainan International Film Festival.

"1982 is a very poignant film that, at its very core, reflects not only Lebanon's past but its present too," said Front Row chief executive Gianluca Chakra said. "We're very pleased to be showing 1982 at Cinema Akil and very happy to be working again with Butheina on this special title."

Garrone's Pinocchio will also be screening at the venue next month.

The film is a compassionate retelling of the 1883 novel by Carlo Collodi and stars Roberto Benigni – who won the 1999 Best Actor Oscar for his role in La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful) – as Geppetto.

Pinocchio is the second feature by Garrone to be screened at Cinema Akil. In its second month after opening in 2018, the cinema exclusively released Palme d'Or contender Dogman, which earned lead actor Marcello Fonte the award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

Pinocchio and 1982, which are also screening in theatres across the UAE starting this week, are the latest releases to come as a result of the partnership between Front Row and Cinema Akil.

In the past, the two have partnered to release classic, indie and exclusive titles including The Farewell, which earned star Awkwafina a Golden Globe, the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland, and Federico Fellini's Italian classic 1960 film La Dolce Vita.