It won’t have escaped your notice that summer has arrived – but while much of the cultural calendar is slowing down as the heat soars, in terms of cinema, things are hotting up.
We don’t mean the multiplex mayhem of Hollywood’s summer blockbuster season – we’re talking about a healthy serving of inventive, reflective cinema to look forward to over the sweaty months, largely thanks to a programme of screenings hosted by Cinema Akil and Alserkal Avenue.
The independent cinema platform has launched a three-month programme of interesting, arty and classic films, all of which relate in some way to the sun.
Co-founder and managing director Butheina H Kazim says the Here Comes the Sun screenings aim to provide a “cinematic shelter” during the summer.
“The idea of the sun was our ‘guiding light’ – pun intended – in the selection,” she says, “along with, of course, a desire to showcase some of the most important works of cinema through this programme.”
The programmers have taken the theme and run with it, riffing on the role of the sun, broadening the canvas to include everything from moody documentaries to horror, Westerns, sci-fi, road movies and more.
The programme includes the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu – in which the vampire Count Orlock (aka Dracula) is threatened by the sun – and Roberto Rossellini's The Rise of Louis XIV, which documents a power-hungry leader intent on controlling the sun, as well as Hollywood classics such as Empire in the Sun and Sunset Boulevard.
“We’re inviting people to tuck themselves away from the scorching heat of the UAE summer sun into a world of films inspired by the feared and loved sun,” says Kazim.
Cinema Akil was founded last year with the aim of fostering an interest in the cinematic arts. Defined as an independent cinema platform, it has hosted pop-up screenings across the emirate, including the Market OTB event at Downtown Dubai and outdoor screenings at Meet d3, the launch of Dubai Design District. Last month, Cinema Akil hosted a special fundraising programme of Nepalese cinema.
Here’s the full line-up of films in the summer series Here Comes the Sun:
The Sun (Solntse)
Russian master director Aleksandr Sokurov followed Moloch and Taurus, his portraits of dictators Hitler and Lenin with 2005's The Sun, a film depicting the life of Emperor Hirohito, who led Japan during the Second World War, ultimately surrendering to the United States and denouncing his divine office of "the sun".
Wednesday, June 17, 7pm; June 18 and 19, 9pm
Duel in the Sun
Described by Cinema Akil as "thoroughly enjoyable trash", this hare-brained 1946 Western was writer-producer David O Selznick's fanciful attempt to outdo the success of his own epic, Gone With the Wind. Selznick's wife, Jennifer Jones, plays the heroine, who is torn between the love of two brothers. Notoriously silly.
June 25-27, 9pm
The Quince Tree Sun (El Sol del Membrillo)
This slow, symbolic art-house favourite exposes the compulsion of artist Antonio López García (playing himself) to annually paint the quince tree in his garden. A meditation on nature and the creative process, director Victor Erice won two awards at Cannes in 1992, including the Jury Prize.
July 1-3, 9pm
Little Miss Sunshine
This kooky American indie comedy – about a crumbling family’s cross-country road trip in a VW bus – was a surprise hit at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Charmingly offbeat, the star-studded cast includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin.
July 8-10, 9pm
Sunset Boulevard
Widely regarded as one of the best Hollywood films ever made (it ranked 12th on the American Film Institute’s top 100 list), Billy Wilder’s 1950 noir is essential viewing. Hoping for a break, a budding screenwriter, played by William Holden, moves in with a half-crazed star of the silent-movie era (Gloria Swanson, who was herself a silent movie star). A portrait of broken dreams and the dark side of celebrity, it was a film decades ahead of its time.
July 15-16, 9pm
Burnt by the Sun (Utomlyonnye Solntsem)
Winner of the 1994 Cannes Grand Prize and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Burnt by the Sun is the masterpiece of writer/director/producer/star Nikita Mikhalkov. A tragedy set in 1936 Soviet Union, it depicts a single day in the life of a Red Army officer in Stalin's country. It was released only three years after the collapse and break-up of the Soviet Union.
July 22-24, 7pm
The Rise of Louis XIV (La Prise de Pouvoir Par Louis XIV)
Italian neorealist pioneer Roberto Rossellini shifted operations to Versailles for this 1966 historical drama, which tells how the 22-year-old French monarch audaciously styled himself as “The Sun King” to maintain an unprecedented 72-year reign – unbeaten to this day.
July 29-31, 7pm
Nosferatu
Renowned as the first "proper" vampire film – earlier portrayals, such as 1913's The Vampire, didn't feature an undead bloodsucking fiend – F W Murnau's influential silent classic was nearly lost. Even though the word "vampire" is never used in the film, the estate of author Bram Stoker sued over its appropriation of his 1897 novel Dracula and a court ordered all copies of the movie to be destroyed. A few prints survived and this screening will include an the original orchestral score, composed by Hans Erdmann for the film's initial German release
August 5-7, 7pm
Empire of the Sun
Steven Spielberg’s classic movie adaptation of J G Ballard’s novel tells the semi-autobiographical story of the British author’s childhood in Shanghai during the Second World War. Christian Bale, who was 13 when the film was made, plays Jim, who finds himself facing the horrors of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
August 12-14, 7pm
Sans Soleil (Sunless)
An acclaimed documentary from France's principal essayist of cinema, Chris Marker, Sans Soleil is meditation on memory. Letters written by freelance cameraman Sandor Krasna are read by an unknown woman, reflecting on the representations of the world he encounters while travelling the globe. The film will be preceded by a screening of the director's celebrated 1962 short La Jetée, which was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 1995 film 12 Monkeys.
August 19-21, 7pm
The Runner (Davandeh)
Perhaps the best-known film from the renowned Iranian director Amir Naderi, The Runner was shot in and around the filmmaker's hometown of Abadan. It tells the story of Amiro, an orphan raging against the injustices life has dealt him.
August 26-28, 7pm
• Here Comes the Sun runs until August 28 at the A4 Screening Room, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. Free entry, on a first-come basis. For more information, go to www.cinemaakil.com
rgarratt@thenational.ae
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.5-litre supercharged V6
Power: 416hp at 7,000rpm
Torque: 410Nm at 3,500rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Fuel consumption: 10.2 l/100km
Price: Dh375,000
On sale: now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Honeymoonish
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RESULTS
Bantamweight
Victor Nunes (BRA) beat Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK)
(Split decision)
Featherweight
Hussein Salim (IRQ) beat Shakhriyor Juraev (UZB)
(Round 1 submission, armbar)
Catchweight 80kg
Rashed Dawood (UAE) beat Otabek Kadirov (UZB)
(Round-1 submission, rear naked choke)
Lightweight
Ho Taek-oh (KOR) beat Ronald Girones (CUB)
(Round 3 submission, triangle choke)
Lightweight
Arthur Zaynukov (RUS) beat Damien Lapilus (FRA)
(Unanimous points)
Bantamweight
Vinicius de Oliveira (BRA) beat Furkatbek Yokubov (RUS)
(Round 1 TKO)
Featherweight
Movlid Khaybulaev (RUS) v Zaka Fatullazade (AZE)
(Round 1 rear naked choke)
Flyweight
Shannon Ross (TUR) beat Donovon Freelow (USA)
(Unanimous decision)
Lightweight
Dan Collins (GBR) beat Mohammad Yahya (UAE)
(Round 2 submission D’arce choke)
Catchweight 73kg
Martun Mezhulmyan (ARM) beat Islam Mamedov (RUS)
(Round 3 submission, kneebar)
Bantamweight world title
Xavier Alaoui (MAR) beat Jaures Dea (CAM)
(Unanimous points 48-46, 49-45, 49-45)
Flyweight world title
Manon Fiorot (FRA) v Gabriela Campo (ARG)
(Round 1 RSC)
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
The low down
Producers: Uniglobe Entertainment & Vision Films
Director: Namrata Singh Gujral
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Nargis Fakhri, Bo Derek, Candy Clark
Rating: 2/5
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
The%20specs
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company%20Profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
FIXTURES
UAE’s remaining fixtures in World Cup qualification R2
Oct 8: Malaysia (h)
Oct 13: Indonesia (a)
Nov 12: Thailand (h)
Nov 17: Vietnam (h)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000