​Opening Programme at Cinema Akil: In Syria

Cinema Akil's permanent theater opened at Warehouse 68, Al Serkal Avenue in Dubai last weekend, and it will open at 4pm daily, showing two to three screenings every night of the week.

The independent cinema’s opening program is a mixture of highlights from this year’s most sought after films. Including film festival winners, exclusive regional film premieres, cult classics and quirky independent titles, for a unique and electric cinema experience.

‘Insyriated’ which will be screened on 10th October and 13th October is set inside an apartment in war-torn Damascus, this lean thriller feels more like a play than a film. Winner of the 2017 Berlinale Panorama Audience award, Belgian filmmaker Philippe Van Leeuw’s ‘IN SYRIA’ is a gripping tale of an everyday family’s struggle to survive in one of the world’s top crisis zones – where a quick trip to the store can mean your last. It tells the story of a mother of three, trapped inside her house in a city under siege, and with a sniper outside her door. She turns her flat into a safe harbour for both her family and neighbours, in an attempt to protect them from the war raging on the streets of Damascus.

In charge is Oum Yazan (Hiam Abbas), a stern matriarch who protects her ageing father, young children and maid, as well as a neighbour, Halima, and her newborn baby, with the fierceness of a lioness. The apartment is her home and “no one will force me out of it”, she declares. ‘IN SYRIA’ is arguably the single-most important narrative feature on the topic of the Syrian conflict to date. By way of tight interior framings informed by a natural light aesthetic, Van Leeuw crafts an intimate, albeit, claustrophonic rendering of life under siege.

The cinema walls are covered in dark-red paper and some of the seats have been salvaged from the balcony of the Plaza (later Golden) Cinema in Bur Dubai – the oldest single-screen standalone cinema in the city, which was knocked down three years ago to make way for a hotel. Seats are unassigned and Tickets are available at the cinema and at the Cinema Akil website for purchase from September 28 onwards,

The full film programme can be seen on www.cinemaakil.com/calendar. Cinema Akil is also home to Project Chaiwala, a tea concept that will feed and water you to keep you satisfied throughout the films.

Timings:
10 October: 7:30pm
13 October: 5pm