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NAAS – Green Reel: Films for a Sustainable Future

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We are excited to announce the film program NAAS – a collaboration of several cultural institutions in the UAE: the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region, the Embassy of France in the United Arab Emirates, the Embassy of Canada to the United Arab Emirates, the Austrian Embassy Abu Dhabi and the Italian Cultural Institute of Abu Dhabi, and in partnership with Manarat Al Saadiyat.

The program will feature independent films that explore relevant social and cultural topics. Its first edition “Green Reel: Films for a Sustainable Future” will focuse environment and sustainability and will present multi-genre films that tackle the burning issues of our planet in entertaining and exciting ways.

The “Green Reel” will open on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, at 7pm with the film “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky (2018, Canada). Book your complementary ticket now on Eventbrite.

Rouge (Belgium 2020, Red Soil), directed by Farid Bentoumi

January 24th, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

Nour has just been hired as a nurse at the chemical plant where her father , a union delegate who has been at the heart of the company for as long as he can remember. While the plant is undergoing health checks, a journalist is investigating waste management. The two young women gradually discover that the plant, a pillar of the local economy, is hiding many secrets. Between lies about pollutant discharges, doctored medical records and hidden accidents, Nour will have to choose: keep quiet or betray her father to bring out the truth. The film is inspired by real events, in particular the red mud affair.

ÖKOZID / ECOCIDE (Germany, 2020), directed by Andres Veiel

February 7th, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

It is the year 2034: the consequences of the climate catastrophe are dramatic. Drought and flooding are destroying the livelihoods of millions of people. After the third storm surge in a row, the seat of the International Court of Justice in The Hague has been evacuated. In a provisional interim building in Berlin, the climate catastrophe becomes the subject of legal proceedings. Two lawyers are representing 31 countries of the Global South, which are doomed without the support of the international community. They are raising the question of responsibility, demanding compensation and a right to the integrity of nature in order to ensure their own survival. High-ranking representatives from politics and industry are summoned as witnesses. The court must decide whether German politicians will be held accountable for their failure to protect the climate and thus set a precedent.

Les Diaboliques

CARTE BLANCHE: Les Diaboliques, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

February 21st, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

This screening is a CARTE BLANCHE of the film program NAAS, given to emirati filmmaker Hana Kazim who will present the film.

For its second screening, IF UAE showcases Les Diaboliques by Henri-Georges Clouzot, a psychological horror thriller film that inspired Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960)! Taking place in an institution for the education of young boys, the film follows Christina and Nicole, wife and mistress respectively of the headmaster Michel Delasalle, who join forces to murder the man they have come to hate. But a few days after their misdeed, Michel’s body disappears…

 

TASTE THE WASTE (Germany, 2011), directed by Valentin Thurn 

March 6th, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

More than half of our food goes to waste. Most of it is already lost on its way from the field to the store before it ever even arrives on our tables. Every other lettuce, every other potato and one out of 5 loafs of bread. The system reaches around the world. Everything needs to be available at all times, supermarkets offer the full range of products year round. Bread needs to be fresh until the evening opening hours and strawberries need to be available any season of the year. In addition everything needs to look perfect. One sagging leaf of lettuce, one cut in a potato, one dent in an apple is reason enough to reject the product. Yoghurt cups are taken off the shelves and tossed out two days before their expiration date. There is, however, another way. All around the world people are trying to find alternatives to this insane wastefulness.

DOUNIA AND THE PRINCESS OF ALEPPO (France, 2023), directed by Marya Zarif, André Kadi

March 20th, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket
A beautiful film that weaves a tale of hope and magic through the eyes of a young girl. The story follows a six-year-old Dounia on her courageous journey from her city of Aleppo in search of a new home. Alongside her grandparents, and guided by the mystical Princess of Aleppo, Dounia’s adventure is filled with the rich stories and music of her culture, painting a vivid picture of her heritage.

The Peppercorns and the Secret of the Sea (Germany, 2020), directed by Christian Theede

April 3rd, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

12-year-old Emily is holidaying with her friend Tarun in Northern Ireland when a simple summer turns into a big adventure! Tarun’s mother Jaswinder, an oceanographer, is attacked by a thief: her top secret files are in danger and she doesn’t seem to be telling the kids the whole truth. Back in Germany, there is a mysterious encounter at the Baltic Sea with a waste handler who seems to know more about her research than she realized. Events escalate when Jaswinder vanishes from the research ship one night.

 

Carte Blanche (France)

April 17th, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

CARTE BLANCHE given to Tim Redford, Executive Director of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, as a part of the film program NAAS.
In the presence of Tim Redford And Wissam Charaf, director of « If the sun drowned into an ocean of clouds ». This screening is curated by the Institut Français in the UAE.

DRY, Siccita’ (Italy, 2022), directed by Paolo Virzi

May 1, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

The lack of water in Rome is overturning rules and habits. Through the city dying of thirst and prohibitions moves a chorus of people, young and old, marginalized and successful, victims and profiteers. Their lives are linked in a single design, while each seeks his or her deliverance.

 

More than honey (Switzerland, 2012), directed by Markus Imhoof

May 29, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket

“If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.” Einstein. The film embarks on a journey to meet with people whose lives depend on bees: to a Swiss beekeeper living on an Alp; to the gigantic almond plantations in California; to a bee brain researcher in Berlin; to a pollen trader in China; and to the killer bees in the Arizona desert. The film tells us about their lives. And about ours.

 

ONE WORD. (Germany, 2020), directed by Viviana Uriona
June 12, 7pm – Manarat Al Saadiyat
RSVP: book your complementary ticket
 

This documentary tells of the effects of climate change on the Republic of the Marshall Islands and its people. The Marshall Islands spread out across 29 coral atolls, which comprise 1156 individual islands and islets. Most parts of the Marshall Islands are less than 5.9 feet above sea level. Even before the era of the Ancient Greeks, the Marshall Islands were inhabited. But now the greenhouse gas emissions of the industrial societies severely harm or might even destroy the ancient culture of the Marshall Islands. The rising sea erodes the low-lying land, salinizes the groundwater and kills the vegetation. Forecasts predict the destruction of the islands as early as 2050.

  • Organized by: IIC Abu Dhabi
  • In collaboration with: Goethe-Institut, Ambasciata di Francia, Ambasciata del Canada, Manarat Al Sadiyyat