Discoveries from United Arab Emirates World Cinema

A man working at the office late at night stumbles upon a time-travel power that can boost his productivity. But a power so life-changing is nothing to sneeze at.

“Apathy-Rise,” a parody of Coldplay’s Paradise by Niche Trio featuring Pierre Janssen, humorously explores existential themes from The Stranger and Antigone. It contrasts Meursault’s indifference with Antigone’s defiance, highlighting their opposing responses to absurdity and fate. Janssen’s feature adds commentary on their shared tragic outcomes, blending humor with literary insight. “Deadlines,” a parody of Drake’s Headlines, similarly examines existential struggle and inevitability in both works. Through clever wordplay and philosophical reflection, Niche Trio (Tysei Murao, Felix Janssen, Gabriel Reque Cruz) delivers an engaging and concise take on these timeless tragedies.

A short documentary experiment on a trip to Bahrain, exploring nostaglia as a borrowed perspective.

After his parents' separation, 15-year-old Isaac loses his love for music. But with his grandmother's guidance and a chance encounter with retired singer Naomi, he discovers the healing power of music and the importance of human connections.

An artist who decided to fight with art on the canvas of his painting.

The story of a transgender male who struggles to enlist in the military.

Her journey that begins as a personal story, ends up being the story of other women who struggle to realize their dreams in a modern society.

A young working girl, Ayesha, moves in to another apartment to reduce her travel time and to focus on work. Instead, her life takes a dramatic turn when her room-mate behaves weirdly, leaving her totally confused whether it is reality or strange imagination of her exhausted mind.

Excerpt from the documentary Insha'Allah Democracy, which screened at Doc NYC Film Festival.

Emirati women who were raised in very strict traditional families encounter difficulties in making their own decisions and pursuing their ambitions when they begin studying media and participating in various media fields.

Fling your fears to the winds and embark on a journey like no other! It is here that you get to experience the 800 years long battle between Vampires and Lycans with a thrilling touch of multi-sensory 4D! Experience as you never experienced before, experience amazing!

ACA 194: Johnson vs. Aliakbari was a mixed martial arts event that took place on Thursday, October 23, 2025 at the Agenda in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

What starts off as a normal HR exit interview spirals into something deeper and impossible to walk away from.

The events of the movie revolve in a thrilling and exciting framework about Mariam, who gets into a car accident and loses her memory as a result. This is something Faisal tries to fix because he loves her. So, what will he do?

This short documentary follows a mother (Aysha) and daughter (Osha) as they travel through the desert hunting with falcons, the traditional Emirati method that has been passed down through the generations.

Suhail, a young Emirati is going on a date with Leila. While the date seems to be going well, things soon start going pretty bad, the main reason, Suhail’s mother is in his ear and she is taking over controlling every step Suhail should be doing

Join Bhuvan and his team in a game of cricket against the British Raj from the superhit movie Lagaan. Set amidst an idyllic village and surrounded by rocky terrain and farms you get to be in the game with a motion simulator based ride that gives you the best point of view of a moving cricket ball.

An ambitious young Emirati’s dream to pursue an acting career in New York is challenged by the sudden of her father and the opposition of her mother, who wants her to marry.

Follow the life of an ordinary guy whose routine takes top priority amongst everything. He wears the same clothes to work everyday, he frequents the same cafe every single day of the week for his cup of coffee, sitting at the very same table every time. On one particular day, however, an unusual interruption to his routine brings about one of the biggest changes in his life. A change he is not necessarily prepared for, but a change he is ready to accept.

An Emirati engineer vies to become her nation's first female astronaut, balancing selection trials, societal pressure, and family heritage while finding strength in traditional wisdom.

Mark Wright, a private detective, searches for his missing wife. The path takes him to the cemetery, to find an unnamed headstone. Could that be her?

Is an Emirati melodrama that follows Khalid, who disappears for many years and returns to a changed home that's moved on without him. As he experiences feelings of doubt and envy, a secret about his past life unburies itself.

An ambulance worker's night shift takes an unexpected turn when he encounters a supernatural being that changes his life forever.

Yousef Gamal El-Din speaks about the devastating illness in detail for the first time. It’s the untold story of the pain, the struggle and the green shoots of hope. Yousef’s mother was diagnosed with the disease in 2007. Over the years, HD took its toll on the entire family. And now Yousef is at a 50% risk of inheriting Huntington’s disease and seeing the same fate as his mother.

Placed under the auspices of the philosopher Gaston Bachelard whose maxim "The human being has the fate of flowing water", is quoted in the epistle of the film, La Femme qui pleure dans les nuages is a film-poem by Gerard Courant to the glory of nine women engulfed in Alpine and Pyrenean torrents.

A 60-year-old Christian farmer struggles to hold onto the land he has tilled for decades despite mounting tensions in Lebanon's picturesque Akkar District.

During a lonely night shift at a crisis hotline, a volunteer’s wavering empathy is tested by a call that refuses to stay simple.

A 7-year-old child struggles to endure a life marked by three contradicting forces: a domineering father, an ambitious mother and a flamboyant cook.

Queens of Troy follows a group of Syrian Refugee women as they put on their own updated, Arabic version of Euripides' ancient Greek play about refugees in Amman, Jordan.

Bint AlNokhitha, a story told by a grandmother to her grandson. At a stage in his life where he has to grow up, the family prepares to face the unforeseeable event. While Mohamed tries to come together with reality, a piece of the past will soon catch up to him

A man is punished because he cannot remember what he had for lunch.

Two Pills of Ruin is a short Emirati awareness film produced in 2011 by the General Command of Umm Al Quwain Police in collaboration with Layalina Film Production. The film follows the tragic journey of a young man who experiments with ...See more

Petro-Ghareebo: NAUSEA is a CGI animation set within a virtual world populated with objects of material culture and heritage. Manipulated 3D scans of archaeological sites from the UAE create the landscape in which augmented-reality creatures coexist with pre-Islamic artifacts, spaceships, dune-bashing cars, desert tents made of crustacean limbs, and militarized cyber-dogs. Layers of (mis)-translation and defamiliarization, produce this uncanny reality. An excavation site turned abandoned parking lot, becomes a multilayered poke at practices of commercializing history. Ancient artifacts fusing within decaying cars serve as a morphing contemplation between time and material culture. This world oscillates between the familiar and alien, comfort and nausea, rational and absurd. The vertigo-inducing cinematography features alien, endoscopic, rollercoaster, and drone POV shots. Littered with cross-contamination between scenes, the viewer navigates as though playing a video game.

The story of the film revolves around the inheritance struggle of a very old house, where the grandmother asks all her family members to live in this house for a few days before agreeing to sell it.

The life of an expat Nepali woman in the UAE turns upside down when she loses a small amount of money while trying to buy a laptop for her son in Nepal.

On the Damascus Road in Lebanon's beautiful Bekaa Valley, an aging man with late-stage Parkinson's takes one last journey.

Line of The Sun explores the sensory and cultural legacy of snaa, bringing together moments of girlhood, communal inheritance, and tradition, where material, body, and landscape merge into a living archive.

More than 50 years after Billie Jean King’s era-defining victory over Bobby Riggs captivated 90 million viewers, Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios are set to reignite the battle of the sexes concept for a new generation.

Karouma is a Unique gift striving to break through and to leave his parent's nest to live pursue his dreams and live his life in its full potential

The drama of a mother and her children planning a desperate escape from a scary, hungry beast that preys on them is captured in this short animation film.

Shot between days in Southeast Asia and the UAE, exploring the transient moments of life.

Monad, situates webcam footage, projection mapping and texting both within the time space of the film and in the real time space outside, reformulating itself with each screening until Monad becomes fully saturated or until submarine internet cables stop working, whichever comes first.

It's Not About Ketchup is a documentary that delves into the intricate lives of a couple facing a challenge in their relationship. Centered around a seemingly trivial issue – their relationship with ketchup – but it has deeper dimensions. The film captures the essence of their journey, portraying the nuanced dynamics of love and understanding.

Anjali wakes up in a nightmarish scene and is apprehended for a crime that she doesn’t remember committing. Piece by piece, her fragmented memories reveal a harrowing connection that blurs the line between guilt and innocence.

A lesson from the kids for parents who is thinking only for own wife and kids. Fahad's realization dawned upon him through a simple yet profound lesson taught by the innocent eyes of children.

The story of the film revolves around the inheritance struggle of a very old house, where the grandmother asks all her family members to live in this house for a few days before agreeing to sell it.

The Water Station is a film adaptation by playwright, director, and NYU Abu Dhabi professor Abhishek Majumdar of a play by Japanese playwright Ōta Shōgo, written in 1981. It is about our experience of the world and how it is shaped by what we have to leave behind, who we can leave with, and what happens when we meet others in our journeys.

Behind The Scenes produced in Sept 2021, It is a drama, social , romantic film. Dr Mona hard working University teacher, Mr. Rashid compete and envy Dr Mona on her super activities, There is a romantic relationship between two students Ahmad and Rana, Haifa likes Ahmad and envy Rana, Dr Mona will initiates a competition for her students, she struggle for the rights and the truth, There will be unexpected conspiracy at the end, The film send humanity messages through poems and lectures by students.

After 15 years of averting the source of her anxiety, Mariam at last walks the journey of voicing her avoided emotions regarding her non Emirati mother, and the uneasiness she felt about her mixed background in the Emirati society.

The women in a camp for displaced people in Darfur have to make and carry bricks while the men idle the day away. The film ends with a call for equality.

Inspired by the legendary hero Gilgamesh, She Who Saw the Deep reflects on the ancient pursuit of immortality and explores the power of art, landscape and social organisation to transcend the limitations of circumstance.

Set in Abu Shagara, the movie accounts for a week in the life of Razzaq and his new found obsession with smoking, a girl behind a window and her handkerchief.

"Don't Get Too Comfortable" is a heartfelt introspective letter to my deceased grandfather. The letter questions the continuous pattern of movement amongst Yemenis in diaspora. The film fuses archival photographs, sourced footage, parallax animation, abstract videos to create an audio visual body of work that calls attention to the collective feeling of statelessness and sense of being felt by Yemeni (or non-Yemeni) migrants.

Suhail, a young Emirati is going on a date with Leila. While the date seems to be going well, things soon start going pretty bad, the main reason, Suhail’s mother is in his ear and she is taking over controlling every step Suhail should be doing

Join the dangerous world of Interpol agents and chase the slippery mafia boss Don through the spectacular city of Dubai. Let this thrilling and immersive 3D media tunnel ride take you on an epic chase as you rush past iconic skyscrapers and try to catch the ever elusive Don. Always a step ahead he taunts you with cunning moves and precision driving as the entire world follows your every move on the news. Will you be part of the heroic team that ultimately nabs the notorious Don or will he escape again only to emerge and continue his spree of audacious heists.