Arsenal on Location

Cinema Akil is the first and only independent cinema platform in the United Arab Emirates, presenting films from around the world and from all times to audiences. Founded in 2014 as a nomadic cinema, it opened its first permanent venue in Al Quoz, Dubai, in 2018. In 2023, it opened a seasonal branch at the 25hours Hotel Dubai. The first Arab Cinema Week was launched in the United Arab Emirates in 2022. Cinema Akil is a member of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS).

Cinema Akil 25hours presents a program of early short films by the Sudanese Film Group (Eltayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad, and Suliman Elnour), which have been restored by Arsenal. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of filmmakers who were then working in the film department of the Ministry of Culture published the magazine Cinema. In 1989, they founded the Sudanese Film Group (SFG) in order to operate more independently from the state. Since the outbreak of war in 2023, SFG's members have been living in exile in Cairo, Egypt.

The program was developed in close cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region.

Program:

AL DHAREEH (The Tomb)•Eltayeb Mahdi•Egypt 1977•16'
A man claims to be able to heal people. An alleged tomb of a pious sheikh is the setting of the story. His followers arrive from near and far to get healed and in that process lose a lot of money. Even after the fraud has been exposed his followers are still convinced of his powers.

WA LAKIN ALARDH TADUR (It Still Rotates)• Suliman Elnour•USSR 1978• 18'
Suliman Elnour’s graduation film depicts every-day life at the time in a school in the fifth province in Yemen. There are no formalities, no boundaries between students and teachers, criticism and self-criticism are important means of communication and the support of girls’ education is of high significance.

ARBA’A MARAT LIL ATFAL (Four Times For Children) •Eltayeb Mahdi•Sudan 1979•20'
The film depicts everyday life at the time in facilities and schools for children with physical or mental disabilities. We see children in class being taught art, woodwork, speaking, and other things, but also the hustle and bustle in the schoolyard, as well as physiotherapy and how they learn to use walking aids.

AL HABIL (The Rope)•Ibrahim Shaddad•Sudan 1985• 31'
Two blind men are making their way through the desert accompanied by a donkey. Connected by a rope, sometimes the two men decide where to go, and sometimes the donkey dictates the way.

JAMAL (A Camel) • Ibrahim Shaddad• Sudan 1981• 13'
A report from the life of a camel, most of which plays out in a dreary, small room — a sesame mill. Blindfolded, the camel runs in circles, driven to do so by its owner. For a short while it is allowed to relax in the courtyard before it reluctantly returns to its work in the dark room without any sunlight.

AFRIKA, DŽUNGLI, BARABAN I REVOLJUCIJA (Africa, The Jungle, Drums and Revolution) •Suliman Elnour USSR 1979 •12'
The film examines representations of Africa in Soviet society. Children’s drawings that deal with Africa, interviews with inhabitants of Moscow, and archival material depicting Africa from Soviet archives broach the issue of those representations and the stereotypes connected to them.