The programme, which will run from 13-20 May at Cinema Akil, will also screen three other feature films, including Haider Rashed’s debut 'Europa', 'The Tale of King Crab' and 'In A Chiara'.
Indie cinema art house Cinema Akil will host the second edition of the Italian Film Week, two years after its first run in Dubai. Taking place from May 13-20, Italian Film Week pays homage to the late Monica Vitti (1931-2022) and presents three of her most iconic performances in collaboration with Michelangelo Antonioni that launched a career that would dub her the “Queen of Italian Cinema”.
Solitude, alienation and aloofness characterise the classic trifecta and the four contemporary films in the programme, which brings together stories of characters in exile – heroes, heroines, pariahs, proclaimed geniuses, subjects of political violence, mavericks and tragic royals; a spectrum of individuals vying for survival and pursuit by taking matters into their own bodies or windmills of their minds.
Speaking about the programme, Cinema Akil’s founder Butheina Kazim commented: “There is a special quality to the resumption of the Italian Film Week after it was suspended during the 2020-2021 hiatus due to the pandemic – one that is defiant, collaborative and celebratory. The return of the festival after continued collaborations with the Italian Cultural Institute over the years is testament to the importance of our shared commitment to presenting challenging and powerful Italian cinema to the UAE audience.”
Presented in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute Abu Dhabi, Italian Film Week 2022 presents Monica Vitti in three separate roles – as a woman exiled to her interior longings in L’Avventura (1960), La Notte (Night, 1961), Deserto Rosso (1964) and yet another tribute with Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio (2021) on the late Ennio Morricone – a maestro beholden to his craft.
Commenting on the partnership with Cinema Akil, Director of Italian Cultural Institute Ida Zilio-Grandi said, “We are delighted and honoured to resume our collaboration with Cinema Akil in this programme that cleverly combines history and the contemporary, adventure and drama. It is a tribute to our most recent cinema and also to the impressive figure of Monica Vitti, one of the greatest talents of international cinema.”
The programme also premieres in the UAE three influential feature films, including Haider Rashed’s debut Europa (2021) – a young refugee’s attempt to flee the violence of borders inflicted upon him; the 19th-century outcast adventure The Tale of King Crab (2021) – the second collaboration between Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis; and In A Chiara (2021) – a teenage girl’s run with the mafia in a determined solo investigation through Calabria’s underbelly in Jonas Carpignano’s latest feature film.
The programme will run from 13-20 May at Cinema Akil.
