The only Saudi entry in this year’s Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) was a short animated movie dealing with the impact of terrorism on children. ‘Attention’ (Intabih) is a three-minute film which was written, produced and directed by first-time Syrian director Akram Agha. The short film is classified as a Saudi Arabian entry as it was produced and funded there.
“The film is simply a gloomy vision of what could happen if terrorism and radicalism ruled the world,” the Saudi-based Syrian filmmaker said. “Terrorists would raise new generations of bullets in the form of children and use them as fuel for their wars against civilization. There are too many innocents suffering from terrorism all over the world, and I wanted to say to these people to take their dirty hands off the children.”
Although the film was screened at the Fantoche International Animation Film Festival in Switzerland and the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film in Germany, Agha said the Dubai Film Festival was a great opportunity to show the film to Arab audiences for the first time.
“This film could have come from any country, but it is important that it comes from Saudi Arabia because we too have suffered terrorist attacks in the last three years,” Agha said.
The movie was shown in the Arabian Shorts programs. Arabian Shorts chief programmer, Mohammed Maklouf, said the film represented a universal statement on the horrors of war, and should not be interpreted in any other way. “I wanted to screen this film primarily because it was made by a young Arab filmmaker, and that is the crux of this section and of the Dubai Film Festival: To encourage and support young Arab filmmakers,” Maklouf explained. “It’s also a creative and powerful first film with a keen insight, the kind of film that helps to change damaging stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims.”
The Arabian Shorts program this year includes 13 short and documentary films from across the Arab world. Among the shorts is “Alliance” (Tahalof), regarded as the first sci-fi movie from an Arab producer. In the 24th century, galactic battles rage, but this story features positive Arab characters, not the stereotypes often projected by the US film industry. The documentaries include one on the struggles of illegal Arab immigrants to Europe, another on Algerian women during the war of liberation against France and a third presenting testimonials from former Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli jails.
The second Dubai International Film Festival began Dec. 11 and ended on Dec. 17. The programming it builds on the foundation established in the inaugural festival, with the "Cultural Bridge" theme once more the defining cornerstone of the whole event. It featured 98 films including features, retrospectives and short films. DIFF 2005 was divided into 12 distinct programs — including five brand new sections — each focusing on a particular category of film. The two new Arab sections, Dubai Discoveries and Emerging Emiratis, were meant to focus on undiscovered Arab talent from around the region and within the UAE community. The three new international sections — Cafe Europe, Insights From Asia and In Honor of Africa — are a reflection of Dubai’s increasingly cosmopolitan culture.
