ABU DHABI // Taboos, laughs, tears and of course star power will feature prominently at next month's Middle East International Film Festival, which yesterday announced 16 of the movies it would be screening this year. Among the notable entries are: Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire a controversial movie about obesity featuring Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz; and About Elly, the fourth feature film from the award-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, which follows a group of upper-class Tehranis on a seaside trip that goes terribly wrong. Peter Scarlet, the festival's executive director, called the list of films to be screened as part of the festival's World Cinema Showcase "impressive", given that most of them had already earned recognition at other festivals earlier this year. About Elly, for instance, won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival in February and best narrative feature at the Tribeca Film Festival which wrapped up in early May. "It is definitely an important film internationally, and I'm looking forward to seeing it when it comes to Abu Dhabi," said JR Osborn, professor of visual communications at the American University of Dubai. "Films, apart from their stories, share a visual language, so to see acclaimed films from outside the region is extremely useful for those who want to become part of the emerging film industry in the UAE. "The film festival will be wonderful for locally based filmmakers in that way." A Lebanese film by Mohamed Soueid, My Heart Beats Only for Her, will be shown for the first time outside of Lebanon, and films such as Kerala Cafe from India, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea from Japan, Honeymoons from Serbia and Farewell from France will make their regional debuts. Precious, which also includes a turn by the American comedian Mo'Nique, tells the story of a morbidly obese American teenager. The US talk show host Oprah Winfrey is one of the executive producers on the film, which was recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is now finding commercial success in North America. Ghassan Ayoubi, the executive director at Rubicon, an Amman-based animation company, said Precious was an important film for the Middle East. "The storyline is quite controversial," he said. "It is about incest and teenage pregnancy, but these are exactly the kind of taboo things that will shake up Middle East audiences and have them think about things they don't normally think about. "Foreign films are not only there to entertain you with a bucket of popcorn but to enrich your body and the soul and to expand your boundaries. You shouldn't come out of these films wondering where to go for dinner or which coffee shop to sit at with friends, but thinking about issues that are real and affect people's lives. "Choosing to show such a film shows there are some forward thinkers in the UAE. This is the most important thing about such festivals, not the celebrities they can bring to the red carpet." Festival organisers have yet to announce what stars will be coming to the capital to attend the event. Last year, they included Antonio Banderas and his wife, Melanie Griffith, Jane Fonda, Spike Lee, Meg Ryan and Sir Ben Kingsley. Also showing during the 10-day festival will be The Red Riding Trilogy, three films originally made for British television and described by Frieze magazine as "the most striking dramas of this decade"; Burma VJ, a collection of movies filmed by journalists on cell phones and digital cameras in the military dictatorship of Burma; and The September Issue, a documentary about Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue magazine. Variety, the entertainment trade magazine, also announced this week that Elia Suleiman, the Palestinian movie director, will receive Variety's annual Middle East film-maker of the year award at MEIFF. Suleiman has been recognised for his body of work, which includes the loosely autobiographical trilogy about Palestinian dispossession, Chronicle of a Disappearance made in 1996, Divine Intervention from 2002 and this year's The Time That Remains. Tickets for the festival, which will run from October 8-17, will go on sale September 28. They can be purchased online at www.meiff.com or from festival box offices at the Emirates Palace hotel, Cinestar Cinemas in Marina Mall and Grand Cinemas in Abu Dhabi Mall. aseaman@thenational.ae
