Three short films by the acclaimed Emirati filmmaker Abdulrahman Al Madani will be streaming exclusively on March 8.
Tickets are free of charge, but must be booked in advance. The virtual event will begin at 7:30, and will run for approximately 75 minutes.
The films, Laymoon, Beshkara, and Nagafa, are being shown as part of the fourth season of the Art Center at NYU Abu Dhabi’s CinemaNa Contemporary Arab Cinema Series. They will show in Arabic with English subtitles.
The long-standing series is curated by Bill Bragin, Executive Artistic Director of the Center.
Al Madani, who was born in Dubai, started making films as a student in 2012 with the documentary The Gamboo3a Revolution (2012), which won numerous awards.
Al Madani then switched to narrative filmmaking, starting with a silent film called Guilt (2013) and the anti-bullying drama Nagafa (2014), the latter of which will be part of the retrospective.
Al Madani graduated from the New York Film Academy in 2015 with his thesis film Beshkara (2015), following it up with the film Laymoon (2019) with the support of the Sharjah Art Foundation.
There will be a post-screening conversation after the film stream, featuring Al Madani, Dr. Doris Hambuch, Associate Professor of Literature and Film studies, United Arab Emirates University, and moderator Dr. Clio Chaveneau, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.
The event will be run in partnership with the NYUAD Film and New Media Program and Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.
The Art Center also offers a half-year membership for all its upcoming online events, talks and conversations, which you can join here.
Official descriptions of the films can be found below:
Nagafa: Known as Nagafa (aka Booger) among his classmates, 10-year-old Ahmad tries to overcome peer intimidation caused by the class bully, Omar. In spite of the supportive vibes around him, only Ahmad can save himself when he lands in a troubled situation.
Beshkara: After the beloved child of a Filipino caretaker is diagnosed with a terminal illness, her only desire is to return to her native country to spend what little time she has left with her dying daughter, but will her employer allow her to leave?
Laymoon: Maitha is a middle-aged housewife who is trying to rekindle life back into her marriage but her husband, Abdulaziz, is a dour man who thwarts all her attempts of trying to get close to him. Maitha tries her best to spark the interest of Abdulaziz but without success. She finds out the secret behind her husband’s lack of interest. This leads her to take an unprecedented step that will have far reaching consequences.
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