European Film Screenings previews

Pick of the films at the upcoming European Film Screenings programme.

The European Film Screenings programme begins tonight with Paolo Sorrento's 2014 Oscar winner La Grade Bellezza. Here are five less well-known movies worth checking out.

Isdraken (The Ice Dragon)

Dir: Martin Hogdahl, Sweden, 2012,

September 19, 6pm

Hogdahl’s adventure is based on Mikael Engström’s young-adult (YA) novel but don’t let the YA tag put you off. Mik moves to stay with a aunt and makes new friends, who talk of building an ice-dragon raft to sail the world. When he is taken in by a wicked foster family, he has to escape and boards the raft with his friends.

Paris, Je T’Aime

Dir: Various, France, 2006,

September 19, 8pm

Eighteen shorts, each set in a different part of Paris, from directors including Gus Van Sant, the Coen brothers and Wes Craven, with an equally impressive ensemble cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Natalie Portman and Nick Nolte. The biggest star, though, is Paris itself.

Soof

Dir: Antoinette Beumer, Holland, 2013,

September 21, 8pm

Soof is a housewife who runs a small catering business on the side. When a celebrity chef tastes her food and loves it, she becomes Holland’s most in-demand chef. It’s a bit of silly fun, with a host of cameos from Dutch celebrities, and a reminder that European cinema isn’t all about brooding Scandinavian detectives, heavily-smoking French beauties or British gangsters.

London: The New Babylon

Dir: Julien Temple, UK, 2012,

September 23, 6pm

Temple’s high octane homage to his city is a stunning cinematic collage, transporting the visitor through time as punk rock rubs shoulders with Victorian London, and Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill share the screen in a relentless visual collage. An excellent soundtrack spans a century of London music, from Vera Lynn to Siouxsie and the Banshees and beyond.

Good Bye Lenin!

Dir: Wolfbang Becker, Germany, 2003,

September 24, 8pm

Alex’s mother, a member of the East German Communist Party, falls into a coma just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall. When she awakens eight months later, doctors warn Alex and his sister that she must avoid shock. So Alex and his family build an elaborate fake communist state around the bedroom of his recuperating mother. The film is simultaneously a love letter to a bygone era, a plea of hope for a new one, a heart-warming family drama and a biting political satire.

• Timings are for Vox Cinemas screenings at Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi. All films also screen at Mercato Mall, Dubai, the next day at the same time. For full listings, see the European Cinema Screenings on Facebook.