The 11 new titles join a lineup that will take DIFF audiences on a storytelling journey from the idyllic English countryside to the horse lords of Kyrgyzstan and beyond.
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has announced the next slate of cinema from around the globe for its Cinema of the World category. Held during the 14th Festival, the 11 new titles join a lineup that will take DIFF audiences on a storytelling journey from the idyllic English countryside to the horse lords of Kyrgyzstan and the revolutionary sixties, and beyond.
The first addition in the vibrant lineup is critically appraised film Darkest Hour, from festival heavyweight Joe Wright. Having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and already an anticipated entrant into this years Oscar race, Darkest Hour takes place during a tense six-month window in 1940 as the fall of France appears imminent. With the threat of invasion looming, Britain faces its darkest hour as the seemingly unstoppable Nazi forces are advancing and the Allies are cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk.
From British director Dominic Cooke and based on the novel by Ian McEwan comes a unique incisive film on relationships in the early 1960s. On Chesil Beach follows Florence, played by actress Saoirse Ronan, and Edward, played by Billy Howle, on their honeymoon in the tranquil English countryside. Raised in a time where conversations about sexual difficulties were next to impossible, the drama-comedy surveys the newlyweds as they try to consummate their marriage in the face of awkward situations.
Academy Award winner and legendary screenwriter Aaron Sorkin presents Mollys Game. Starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba and Kevin Costner, Sorkins writing prowess turns to the world of poker. Mollys Game tells the true story of Molly Bloom, played by Chastain, a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. The fast-paced thriller takes audiences into the frenetic world of poker and the tough decisions Bloom must face once her game is discovered.
Seven years after his international breakthrough with The Light Thief, acclaimed Kyrgyzstani filmmaker Aktan Arym Kubat comes to DIFF with his latest film, Centaur. Recipient of the prestigious CICAE Art Cinema prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, Centaur is a quiet, modest man, a loving father of a little boy that has never spoken a word and the husband of young, deaf-mute Maripa. Together they lead a simple life in a small village of Kyrgyzstan.
Fresh out of the London Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered to an eight-minute standing ovation, is the British documentary My Generation. Directed by David Batty and produced and narrated by Michael Caine, the documentary is pieced together during the height of 1960s British pop culture. The raw footage includes the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Twiggy, Marianne Faithfull and photographer David Bailey.
From one of Iran’s most prominent filmmakers, Mohammad Rasoulof, comes A Man of Integrity, the winner of the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes earlier this year. An emotional journey into the corruption and injustice in modern day Iran, the film focuses on Reza, a 35-year-old farmer, who lives a simple life with his family in a remote village in northern Iran.
Award winning German-Turkish director Fatih Akin brings his latest feature film In the Fade. Winning Best Actress Award at Cannes Film Festival for Diane Krugers leading performance as Katja, the film watches as her life is shattered by the shocking death of her husband, Nuri, and young son in a bombing. After a difficult funeral and mind-numbing search for the perpetrators, Danilo, a lawyer and Nuri’s best friend, represents Katja in the trial against the two suspects: a young neo-Nazi couple. The trial threatens to push Katja over the edge, but her desire for justice may let her prevail. In the Fade is Germanys official Best Foreign Language film submission to the 2018 Oscars.
Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton presents his latest feature, Sweet Country which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and was named as the Toronto Film Festival’s Platform winner, a prize championing directors from around the world. Inspired by real events, Sweet Country is a period western set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory, Australia. When Aboriginal stockman Sam kills white station owner Harry March in self-defence, Sam and his wife Lizzie go on the run.
Thirteen years after Super Size Me hit the big screens to shock and awe, documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is back with his sequel, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!. Spurlocks latest documentary heads to battle once again against the fast food industry, but this time from behind the counter as he decides to open up his own fast food restaurant.
From Academy Award winning director Alexander Payne comes the much anticipated Downsizing. When scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to overpopulation, Paul (celebrated actor Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (comedic legend Kristen Wiig), decide to abandon their stressed lives in order to get small and move to a new downsized community. Also starring two-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz and beloved actor Jason Sudeikis, Downsizing is a fun and touching story on differing perspectives.
From award winning writers and directors Agnès Varda and JR, comes the enchanting travelogue/road documentary Faces Places which has already accrued a bevy of festival awards, including the Golden Eye for Best Documentary at Cannes and the Peoples Choice Award for documentary at TIFF. Faces Places follows the two directors as they travel through rural France in a van, photographing and interviewing local people, learning their stories, and producing epic-size portraits of them on houses, barns, storefronts and trains.
