La Dolce Vita is a Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival 1960 winner while La Grande Bellezza was awarded Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the Oscars in 2014.
This summer Dubai’s independent cinema house Cinema Akil promises a journey through the big screen with Cinema Akil Traveller, which will run from 26 June to September end, 2020. In collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Cinema Akil Traveller kicks off in Italy through a series of four films starting with Frederico Fellini classic masterpiece La Dolce Vita (1960) and Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty).
Commenting on the programme, Butheina Kazim, Founder and Managing Director, of Cinema Akil said: “An ode to travel and wanderlust, Cinema Akil Traveller is taking a bet on the power of cinema to transport us into new landscapes. We’re proud to join forces with the newly opened Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Abu Dhabi and our long time partners Front Row Filmed Entertainment to bring to Dubai a programme of dreams, a programme of adventure and a programme of films that truly capture Italy through the beauty of the big screen.”
La Dolce Vita is a Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival 1960 winner. Also a 1962 Oscar’s Best Costume Design, La Dolce Vita featured Marcello Mastrioanni as Fellini’s alter ego as he depicts a columnist. Having left his dreary provincial existence behind, Mastrioanni wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome. Throughout his adventures, Mastrioanni’s dreams, fantasies, nightmares, and fears are mirrored by the hedonism all around him.
La Grande Bellezza was awarded Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the Oscars. The story revolved around a Jep Gambardella, a journalist, who has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
Gianluca Chacra, Managing Director of Front Row Filmed Entertainment, added: “We’re delighted to partner with Cinema Akil to bring the Journey to Italy series. There’s no better way to celebrate the human spirit than through the shared experience of cinema. The Journey to Italy series allows us to travel to the great country and share its wonderful tradition, basking in nostalgia. Italy has been one of the hardest-hit places during this pandemic so this is a very fitting tribute to an amazing country that, despite everything, will always persevere.”
Cinema Akil’s full Traveller programme will be revealed on Cinema Akil’s website and social media channels throughout the series.
