Mosaic Rooms collaborates on film programme with Dubai Film Festival

             

19–23 July 2011

The Mosaic Rooms, 226 Cromwell Road, London, SW5 0SW

The Mosaic Rooms will present a selection of award-winning Emirati and Arab films in London this month in collaboration with the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) as part of Shubbak, London’s first-ever celebration of contemporary Arab culture.

Over 5 nights, the Mosaic Rooms will screen a series of new Arab films and shorts from DIFF 2010 and the fourth edition of the Gulf Film Festival, giving audiences in London an insight into evolving Arab cinema and the Arab world through the eyes of its filmmakers. 

The programme will kick off on Tuesday 19 July with Sabeel, the work of Emirati director Kha lid Al Mahmood (which scooped first prize at the fourth Gulf Film Festival) and which will run before Palestinian filmmaker Dahna Abourahme’s documentary/animation The Kingdom of Women. Other films to be shown during the week include Emirati director Nayla Al Khaja’s short Malal (Bored), Mohammed Al Hushki’s Jordanian feature Transit Cities, Palestinian-Netherlands co-productionThis Is My Picture When I was Dead by Mahmoud Al Massad and finally Syrian-Qatari co-production Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise by Soudade Kaadan.

Both Transit Cities and Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise made their world premiere at DIFF 2010; This is My Picture When I Was Dead is one of the many successful projects driven by the Dubai Film Connection, the co-production market of the Dubai International Film Festival.

The Shubbak festival features a wide-range of programmes including visual arts, film, music, theatre, dance, literature, architecture, lectures and discussions themed to the Arab world. Contemporary Arab artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, choreographers and architects based in London and around the world will participate in the event. Other DIFF films featured in the festival include Egyptian drama Microphone, screening on Friday 8 July and two evenings of screenings and debate atIniva (Institute of International Visual Arts).