Intimate sketch of Monroe at DIFF

With one day to go for the eighth Dubai International Film Festival to conclude, film lovers have several visual treats in store on Tuesday (December 13) including an intimate portrait of the Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe; a live jig of an all-female Parisian band; and a series of award-winning films drawn from all over the world.

The magical week that aspiring filmmaker Colin Clark spent with Marilyn Monroe, offering an uncommonly intimate look into the unseen facets of one of the world’s most famous celebrities is the theme of My Week with Marilyn. The film’s director Simon Curtis will walk the red carpet along with a bevy of stars from international cinema from 7 pm.

The excitement shifts to The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence, where the Rhythm & Reels screening of the American biopic The Girls in The Band will be held, open for free to the public. Directed by Judy Chaikin, the film, making its international premiere at DIFF, is an inspiring story

about female jazz musicians and big band instrumentalists from the 1930s jazz era. Accompanying the screening is a special performance by Parisian band Certains L’Aiment Chaud (Some Like It Hot), an all-female French band, comprising Kiki Desplat, Sylvette Claudet, Shona Taylor, Nathalie Renault, and Claude Jeantet, that celebrate the sound of early jazz.

Another international premiere that will appeal to young and old alike is The 99 Unbound, the first time ever that the superheroes famously created by Kuwaiti Dr Naif Al-Mutawa appear on the big screen. The film, directed by Dave Osborne, will be screened at 5.30 pm at First Group Theatre. Screening in the Arabian Nights programme of the festival, the animated film is the result of years of campaigning by Al-Mutawa, and aims to take the Islamic tradition to children around the world in the most accessible and compelling way.

On Tuesday, audiences can also revel in two of the master-works by German director Werner Herzog, who is the Lifetime Achievement Honouree at DIFF this year. These include the classic Fitzcarraldo (Mall of the Emirates Vox Cinemas 9 at 2.30 pm) about an obsessed opera lover who wants to build an opera house in the jungle; and Herzog’s new documentary Into the Abyss (First Group Theatre, 9 pm), where the director uses a triple homicide that took place in Texas as a springboard to explore capital punishment.

A project supported by DIFF’s post-production funding programme, Enjaaz, the Lebanese documentary Yamo by director Rami Nihawi will be screened at 6.15 pm at MoE 4. In Yamo, the protagonist lives with his mother, sister and brother in a house that resembles the community they live in. They communicate through silences, unspoken words, furious clashes and repeated negotiations.

A Lebanese film that made its world premiere at DIFF, Nice to Meet You by directors Rodrigue Sleiman and Tarek El Bacha will screen at 10.15 pm at MoE 7. An Arabian Nights selection at DIFF, the film is about Eddy who has been delivering and installing gas cylinders for 12 years. As he makes his delivery rounds, he conjures up stories about his life, lifestyle and Lebanon, some involving his equally sardonic and witty friends.

The Mexican film Carriere 250 Metres (4 pm) by director Juan Carlos Rulfo is a portrait documentary and poetic travelogue inspired by the intellect and imagination of the renowned French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere. The title refers to Carriere’s visit, with his six-year-old daughter to the cemetery where he will be buried, which is roughly 250 metres from where he was born.

Among other must-watch films is the Vietnamese film, Mother’s Soul (9.45 pm) which made its world premiere at DIFF. Directed by Nhue Giang Pham, the film looks at the effect of capitalism on a former communist economy through the life of a young girl who suffers from lack of maternal affection.

The DIFF box office is open online at www.dubaifilmfest.com and at the DIFF box offices in Dubai Media City, JBR The Walk, Mall of the Emirates and Madinat Jumeirah. Additional information is also available through the Festival’s dedicated customer care number, 363 FILM

(3456).