Sharjah Film Platform 2020
The third edition of Sharjah Film Platform, the annual film festival organised by Sharjah Art Foundation takes place between November 14 and 21, in physical venues as well as online (the online screenings will be available to stream on demand the day after they are screened in cinemas).
The line up includes a film programme of over 60 short and feature-length films, many of which are award winning and/or critically acclaimed films and a rare opportunity to watch many of them on the big screen in the UAE. There’s also a series of talks and workshops, an industry-focused professional programme that supports the creation and production of films called SFP Industry Hub, plus awards for Best Narrative, Best Documentary and Best Experimental Film.
The film screenings are ticketed and will take place in physical venues and streamed online. The talks and workshops will be online and are free to attend but pre-registration is necessary.
The screenings will take place in the following venues in Sharjah:
- Cinemacity IMAX, Zero 6 Mall
- The Flying Saucer
- Mirage City Cinema, Al Mureijah Art Spaces (outdoor cinema)
Ticket price:
- In-Cinema ticket: AED 20 and can be bought online or at the box office in all the screening venues.
- Online: AED 10 per film or AED 50 for an online all-access festival pass
Tickets can be bought here.
Whilst I’m glad there’s an option to watch the films in a cinema (my preferred choice), I’m surprised there’s no information on the Sharjah Film Platform’s website highlighting the safety measures that will be taken for the in-cinema screenings with regards to social distancing and face mask rules, and the maximum tickets per venue. It would help assure people that it’s safe to watch films in cinemas as many people are still feeling hesitant about going to the cinema.
One stand-out improvement compared to the last two editions is the standalone film programme website (powered by Eventbrite) where you can easily browse to find information about the films and the talks and to book online.
The festival will open with Once Upon a Revolution by Soha Shukayr, one of the winners of this year’s Sharjah Art Foundation’s Short Film Production Grant, followed by two other films that also won grants; Hajja by Nadira Amrani and She Who Saw the Deep by Pelin Tan and Anton Vidokle. The opening night is on November 14 at Mirage City Cinema and the filmmakers will be there to present their films.
The following is a list of my top 10 picks of the feature length films to see this year. Careless Crime by Shahram Mokri is one of my favourites this year, I watched it online during the Venice Film Festival, so I am very happy to get a chance to see it on the big screen, especially since it is about cinema. This is a quote I read by Shahram Mokri describing the film, "...this movie does not try to re-enact history; rather it’s about Cinema itself."
I’ve not had a chance to go through the details of the short film programmes, but I am looking forward to a few new discoveries next week. See you there, with a face mask on.
Between Two Seas
Director: Anas Tolba
2019 | Egypt | 87 min | Arabic with English subtitles
While on a short visit to her hometown, a small rural island near Cairo, an unexpected incident turns Zahra’s life upside down. Deciding not to give up, Zahra fights to build a better life for herself and her community.
November 21 at 2.00pm: Cinemacity IMAX, Zero 6 Mall
Book tickets here.
Careless Crime / Jenayat-e bi deghat
Director: Shahram Mokri
2020 | Iran | 134 min | Farsi with English and Arabic subtitles
Forty years ago, during the uprising to overthrow the Shah's regime in Iran, protestors set fire to movie theatres to show opposition to Western culture. In one tragic case, a theatre was set on fire with four hundred people inside, most were burned alive. Forty years later, in contemporary Iran, four individuals decide to burn a cinema down. Their target is a theatre showing a film about an unexploded missile. Will past and present meet?
November 21 at 10.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
November 22 between 12.00am-11.59pm: Online
Book tickets here.
Epicentro
Director: Hubert Sauper
2020 | Austria, France | 110 min | Spanish with Arabic and English subtitles | 18+
Directed by Academy Award nominee Hubert Sauper, Epicentro is a metaphorical portrait of postcolonial, ‘utopian’ Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates. This ‘Big Bang’ ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of American empire. Together with the extraordinary people of Havana, particularly its children, the director explores a century of interventionism and myth-making to interrogate time, imperialism and cinema itself.
November 14 at 9.30pm: Mirage City Cinema
Book tickets here.
Eyimofe (This is my Desire)
Directors: Arie Isiri and Chuko Isiri
2020 | 110 min | Nigeria | English with Arabic and English subtitles
Tragedy and fate intervene as two Nigerians try to better the lives of their families. Eyimofe is a film about the quest of two individuals for what they believe will be a better life on foreign shores. After Mofe loses his family and Rosa fails to deliver on a promise, their travel plans collapse, forcing them to reconsider living abroad. As time passes and wounds heal, they realise that the future they desperately seek can be built at home.
November 19 at 10.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
November 20 between 12.00am-11.50pm: Online
Book tickets here.
Looking for the Man with a Camera
Director: Boutheyna Bouslama
2019 | France | 76 min | Arabic and English with English subtitles
This film takes the filmmaker on a journey from Geneva to the Syrian border as she relentlessly looks for her childhood friend, a missing Syrian media activist. She experiences hope, fear and despair as her three-year search for her loved one transcends political and military chaos. The film is a self-reflective questioning of the images of war and the role of filmmaking in memory and as a witness against war crimes.
November 20 at 6.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
November 21 between 12.00am-11.59pm: Online
Book tickets here.
Mothers Of the Land
Directors: Alvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento
2019 | Peru | 74 min | Quechua and Spanish with English subtitles
This film follows five women from the Andean highlands in their struggle to maintain a traditional and organic way of working the land. In the Andean worldview, women and earth are strongly interrelated as both are capable of giving and nurturing life. In the context of the ever-growing industrialisation of agriculture, the use of chemical pesticides and genetically modified seeds, it is women, through the bonds of sisterhood, who become the protectors.
November 16 at 8.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
November 17 between 12.00am-11.59pm: Online
Book tickets here.
The Names of the Flowers
Director: Bahman Tavoosi
2019 | Bolivia, Canada, Qatar, USA | 79 min | Spanish with English subtitles
As Bolivia prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s death, Julia, an elderly countryside teacher, is invited to share her extraordinary story. Hours before Guevara’s death, she gave a bowl of soup to the captured guerrilla in her classroom while he recited a poem about flowers. The invitation to Julia is soon withdrawn, however, when another woman claims the story of ‘the soup and the flowers’ as her own.
November 16 at 10.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
November 17 between 12.00am-11.59pm: Online
Book tickets here.
Noah Land
Director: Cenk Ertürk
2019 | Turkey | 109 min | Turkish with Arabic and English subtitles
In order to fulfil his estranged and terminally ill father's wish to be buried under the ‘Noah Tree’, which his father swears he planted, Omer, a quick-tempered man going through a mid-life crisis, has to confront villagers who believe that the ‘holy’ tree was the first tree planted by prophet Noah after the Great Flood and that it has the power to answer prayers immediately.
November 18 at 10.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
November 19 between 12.00am-11.59pm: Online
Book tickets here.
The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs
Director: Pushpendra Singh
2020 | India | 110 min | Gojri and Hindi with Arabic and English subtitles | 18+
Laila, a young Bakarwal woman from politically fraught Jammu and Kashmir, moves with her new husband, the shepherd Tanvir, to a home in the forest, where her beauty and strength captivate forest guard Mushtaq. Laila cleverly thwarts his attentions as she tries to figure out her new identity. With folk songs and poetic interludes that function as Laila’s interior monologues, this feminist tale depicts a woman who wants to make her own decisions while staying connected to age-old traditions.
November 20 at 10.00pm: Mirage City Cinema
Book tickets here.
Sunless Shadows
Director: Mehrdad Oskouei
2019 | Iran, Norway | 74 min | Farsi with English and Arabic subtitles
In an Iranian juvenile detention center, a group of adolescent girls are serving time for having murdered their father, husband or another male family member. Filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei managed to build up a remarkable relationship with these inmates, whose frank conversations and playful interactions he observes, and who gradually open up about the consequences of, and sometimes the reasons for, their terrible act.
November 20th at 2.00pm: Cinemacity IMAX, Zero 6 Mall
November 21st between 12.00am-11.59pm: Online
Book tickets here.
