The second edition of Bayn Al Khaleej is presented as a one day film program part of the 2023 edition of CineMAS Film Festival at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi.

The program is split into 4 different sessions:

Session 1 - Gulf Shorts - Past Present
A program of short films from the Gulf region by filmmakers looking at the past through personal and cultural histories. All the films are rated PG-13, and in Arabic with English subtitles).

VHS Tape Replaced (Maha Al Saati, 2022, 17 min, Saudi Arabia)
Set in 1987, a young Saudi man attempts to impress his crush by mimicking her favourite pop artist. After recording the video tape, it goes to the wrong hands.

And Then They Burn The Sea  (Majid Al-Remaihi 2021, 13 min, Qatar)
The filmmaker ruminates on the experience of bearing witness to his mother’s gradual and terminal memory loss. Weaving through a personal family archive, re-enacted dreams and rituals, the film underlines the promise of cinema as a medium for memories even at their most irretrievable. An elegiac contemplation on familial memory and loss.

Now Showing (Abdullah Al Daihani, 2014, 19 min, Kuwait)
It is 1983 in Kuwait, a young film buff, Mishari introduces his pal Abdulrahman to the magic of the movies at the local Granada Cinema – even though Abdulrahman’s conservative family has forbidden him to go to the cinema. Soon, the boys spend all their time watching movies – and talking about the films they’re going to make someday. There are cruel twists in store for the youngsters, but the bond they share through cinema can never be broken.

Clouds (Muzna Almusafer, 2019, 15 min, Oman)
In 1978, in the south of Oman, Dablan, a widower lives with his children Salma and Amr in a traditional rural village. Dablan faces pressure from his tribe to kill a leopard threatening the village - pressure that increases when he resolves to set the animal free. A journey inside a tribal society undergoing transformation, shot with intimacy and palpable empathy.

Followed by a discussion and Q&A with Muzna Almusafer, director of Clouds.

Session 2 - Feature Film

The Falconer (Adam Sjoberg and Seanne Winslow, 2021, 100 min)
USA, Oman, Arabic and English with English subtitles, PG-13

Inspired by true events, The Falconer is about two best friends, Tariq, the son of a poor beekeeper, and Cai, a privileged Westerner with a passion for endangered animals. They work together at a dilapidated zoo in Oman, blissfully separated from many of the troubles of the outside world.

Their care-free friendship is challenged when Tariq promises to help his sister, Alia, escape from an abusive marriage. Cai’s worldview is pitted against Tariq’s daring plan to steal animals from the zoo and sell them on the black market to help empower Alia to leave her marriage. They are forced to wrestle with morally complex choices that reveal the vast distance between their worlds.

Session 3 - UAE Short Films - Family Matters
A program of short films made in the UAE about various stages of family relations. All the films are rated PG-13.

1-0 (Nada ElAzhary, 2017, 10 min, Arabic with English subtitles)
When a flirty text to her crush accidentally gets sent to her dad’s phone instead, a shy teenager must do whatever it takes to delete the message before her dad finishes watching the match and checks his phone.

Mommy (Ahmed Almulla, 2019, 6 min, Arabic with English subtitles)
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.

Mid-Distance (Hamad Saghran, 2022, 11 min, Arabic with English subtitles)
Ex-fiances Maysaaa and Bader meet in the middle of the road after Maysaa's car breaks down. A dialogue between them begins where their relationship ended.

Bundle of Joy (Majed AlZubaidi, 2023, 7 min, Arabic with English subtitles)
On the eve of his first childbirth, Hamad, a father-to-be, struggles to escape a psychological trip that grows from the idea that his life will go downward spiral once he becomes a father.

Unveiling Selma (Mariam Alserkal and Maaria Sayed, 2022, 14 min, Arabic with English subtitles)
In rural UAE, Selma divides her days between her seven year old daughter, and the daily household chores until she decides to take a stand for herself

Sheikh of Mussafah (Waleed Al Madani, 2015, 10 min, Arabic with English subtitles)
An exploration of a man’s unstable relationship with a father who raised him amidst his mechanic shop and tow truck business in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi’s industrial area.

Ranapakhara (Swapna Kurup, 2018, 10 min, English)
In a community center in Dubai, Indian classical dancer Vonita Singh applies her art form to bring back movement in the lives of people affected by Parkinson’s.

Followed by a discussion and Q&A with the filmmakers.

Session 4 - Documentary

Primary Organs (Michael John Whelan, 2021, 43 min)
UAE, Arabic with English subtitles, PG

Primary Organs intertwines diverse but connected vignettes from historic and contemporary maritime cultures of the Arabian Peninsula: a diver travels to sites once visited by Jacques Cousteau during his 1954 survey for oil, an abandoned pearl diving village built from coral is a site of simultaneous archaeological exploration and restoration, and retired fishermen sing endangered songs once used to add rhythm to their work.

Central to the film is the representation of coral as an eco-marker of our interspecies dependency: the marine biologist keeps samples alive in a laboratory aquarium, a village is built entirely from it, and as a votive gesture a diver brings a piece of it to a former oil survey site.

Through its slow-paced language and choreographed underwater scenes, Primary Organs explores local relationships to the sea, echoes of petro-state neocolonialism, and the roles of complicity and gesture within our climate crisis. Punctuating this journey is the voice of the marine biologist who shares her poetic observations and trepidation for the future.

Courtesy of the artist and Grey Noise, Dubai