07/12/2011

The 8th Dubai International Film Festival (December, 7-14) has joined forces with the Goethe Institute of the Gulf Region, the German film funds and German Films to present a focus on Germany. Besides the numerous German productions on the programme, several filmmakers and representatives of the German film industry are participating in order to promote co-operation between Germany and the Arab world.

The section In Focus: Germany features Verena S. Freytag's Burn Out, Christian Zübert's Three Quarter Moon [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo), David Wnendt's Combat Girls [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jella Haase
film profile], Ulrike Ottinger's Under Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Robert Thalheim's Westwind [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and a restored version of the silent classic Pandora's Box by Georg Wilhelm Pabst. With When Santa Fell To Earth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Wickie And The Treasure of the Gods [+see also:
trailer
film profile] screened within the ambit of the focus, Dubai acknowledges the diversity and quality of German children's films, while the success of German co-productions is illustrated by films such as the acclaimed Le Havre [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aki Kaurismäki
film profile]) by Aki Kaurismäki.

Co-productions are also to be discussed at the Dubai Film Market, in the field of fiction and documentary - through a panel organised in collaboration with Claas Danielsen, head of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film.

Volker Schlöndorff, chairman of the international jury, will give a master class to up-and-coming filmmakers and students from the Gulf Region. Germany is also represented in the Muhr Arab Feature Jury by Emily Atef and in the Muhr Arab & Asia Africa Shorts Jury by Andreas Dresen. Furthermore, Werner Herzog is attending to present in person Into The Abyss and Fitzcarraldo and receive the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award.

German Films and several German funding bodies, national and regional, will host a business lunch and networking sessions to develop closer links with the Arab world.