Inauguration of Dubai Festival: From Global 'Unrest' to the Iranian Man Who Became a Horse

The Dubai International Film Festival opened on Wednesday night, December 9 (18 Azar), at the magnificent Madinat Jumeirah hotel in the United Arab Emirates. Now in its twelfth edition, the Dubai Festival has become the largest film festival in the Middle East following the closure of its rival (the Abu Dhabi Festival), and this year promises a fruitful year with 134 films from 60 different countries. The Dubai Festival, which also hosts a large market simultaneously, has become one of the main centers for buying and selling films in the Middle East while also aiming to become a hub for showcasing films from Arab countries. This year, sixty films from the Arab world will be judged by international juries in three competitive sections: feature films, short films, and Emirati films. This year, two Iranian films will be showcased in the World Cinema section of the Dubai Festival: 'The Man Who Became a Horse' directed by Amir Hossein Ghafouri and 'Wednesday the 19th of Ordibehesht' directed by Vahid Jalilvand. 'The Man Who Became a Horse' tells the story of a father who is devoted to his daughter, and with the death of her mother, the only thing left for them is a horse. However, the father wants to keep his daughter dependent on him at all costs, leading to a bitter ending for the film. 'Wednesday the 19th of Ordibehesht,' which premiered at the Venice Festival this year, tells the story of a man who intends to donate a significant sum of money to someone in need through a newspaper ad. The film attempts to narrate its strange story in several layers, but some of these layers remain underdeveloped and at times become exaggerated. The Dubai Festival opened this year with Abdulhamid Jumaa, the festival president, describing the state of the world as 'unrestful.' Jumaa poetically compared the themes of the various films present at this year's festival to today's political conditions and, without naming the Islamic regime (ISIS), stated that they want to cage us under the guise of our religion, just like in the film 'Room' (the festival's opening film), and blind our eyes to the world, taking away women's rights as depicted in the film 'Defender of Women's Rights.' The president of the Dubai Festival emphasized that cinema is a light under which we can gather and convey and hear messages of peace. The opening film, 'Room' directed by Lenny Abrahamson, was screened and received well. This film, which had successful screenings at festivals such as Toronto and Rome (and was the audience's choice in Toronto), tells the story of a woman who, along with her young son, is trapped in a small room by a psychotic man who only enters this room to have sex and provide them with food. More than half of the film takes place in a strange closed space, and the viewer does not even know for a long time why these two characters are inside this room. The film gradually unravels and successfully engages the viewer in a bitter and dark atmosphere with an unpredictable ending; the joy and energy of a little boy (a very young boy whose polite words before the film began captivated the audience) brings life back. Catherine Deneuve, the renowned French actress who has appeared in over 120 films, including enduring works by Luis Buñuel, Roman Polanski, Jacques Demy, and Arnaud Desplechin, received a lifetime achievement honorary award from the Dubai Festival. Deneuve, who is the special guest of this festival, attended the opening ceremony and regarded her award as significant. Ezzatollah Alayli, an Arab cinema actor, Sami Bouajila, an Arab actor in French cinema, and Nasruddin Shah, an Indian cinema actor, also received other lifetime achievement awards from this festival. Nasruddin Shah, who is sixty-five years old, stated at the opening ceremony that usually receiving this award signifies the end of an artist's career, but he intends to receive this same award again in twenty years.