There was a moment in Cannes, under the sometimes intense heat of the Mediterranean sun, where you could easily have thought you were in the UAE. It wasn’t so much the cars, bumper-to-bumper on the Croisette and easily rivalling Dubai’s Marina for flashy Italian badges, but a room in the Carlton hotel where teams from the Dubai International Film Festival (DSIFF) and Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) came together with representatives from the region to talk cinema.
Despite a relatively poor showing of Arab films in the competition at this year’s festival, there was a huge presence from the local scene centred around the UAE Pavilion at Cannes. Their chatter suggested the recent resurgence of regional filmmaking would continue.
Mohamed Hefzy, a prolific producer on Egypt's independent film scene, spoke about From A to B, the long-awaited follow-up to City of Life from the UAE's own Ali F Mostafa, which recently wrapped up shooting in Abu Dhabi.
“I’ve seen some of the rushes and it looks great,” he said, adding that it would likely be ready in time for ADFF. Hefzy revealed he is also behind a new film from Mohamed Diab, the director of former DIFF-premièring Cairo 678, which will be set entirely inside an overcrowded police truck packed with demonstrators following the July uprisings in Egypt last year.
Not quite as close as From A to B is Nothing Doing In Baghdad, the Iraqi feature from Maysoon Pachachi that won the first IWC Filmmakers Award at DIFF in 2012. "We're getting there, it's slowly happening," says Pachachi on her quest for funding. "We're in the producers network here in Cannes."
On the topic of funding, SANAD — the development fund of ADFF — celebrated its fifth anniversary at Cannes just days after announcing its next batch of grantees.
“I think we’ve exceeded and have a really excellent product,” said SANAD head — and ADFF’s head of Arabic programming — Intishal Al Timimi.
The UAE also landed a new entertainment event in Cannes, announced during a press conference. The International Showbiz Expo — a three-day event covering all sectors of the global entertainment industry — is set to take place in Abu Dhabi’s ADNEC from October 20 to 22, ending just a day before the next ADFF.
Exciting news came from Adam Bakri, the newcomer and titular star of Palestinian thriller Omar, which opened last year's DIFF (the festival also supported the film financially, too) before going on to receive an Oscar nomination. The New York-based Palestinian actor revealed from Cannes that his second feature would be an adaptation of classic Azerbaijani novel Ali and Nino — about an Muslim boy who falls in love with a Christian girl — to be directed by Asif Kapadia, who won international acclaim for his documentary Senna.
Speaking of Omar, audiences in the UAE who missed it in Dubai last December will be given another chance later this summer when it finally gets a release. The film is one of a number of award-winning regional titles being distributed over the coming year by Egypt-based Mad Solution, including previous DIFF and ADFF alumni Coming Forth By Day and The Mice Room.
On Monday, the Dubai Film and TV Commission (DFTC) released the first Film Dubai Production Guide. It is being billed as the first guide of its type in an emirate that has hosted more than 7,000 productions including the forthcoming Bollywood film Welcome Back and a string of episodes for the famous American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, due to screen in the UAE later this year.
“DFTC is committed to simplifying the filming process in Dubai, while also providing as much exposure for local, regional and international filmmakers,” said Jamal Al Sharif, the commission chairman, in Cannes. “By providing a one-stop resource of information about where, how and who to film with in Dubai, the guide will help filmmakers to connect easily with fellow professionals.”
Also, Omar El Zohairy, the young Egyptian director of the superb, Chekhov-inspired short The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet At Kilometer 375 — which competed in Cannes' Cinéfondation competition for student shorts — said that his next film would be a full length feature.
“I really want to take advantage of coming to Cannes to get my short into many other film festivals,” he said.
While the Arab world might not have troubled Cannes’ scheduling over much this year around, the news from the festival indicates that regional cinema is still very much in an upwards trajectory.
artslife@thenational.ae