Top movies to be screened at Mideast film fest

Abu Dhabi: Several award-winning films will be screened at the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) here from October 10 to 19, organisers said.

"It will enable cinema lovers to catch up what they missed," said Mohammad Khalaf Al Mazrouei, MEIFF vice-chairman.

All films screened have been made by directors who didn't feel constrained by their countries' borders. They cover a variety of different themes, but social issues have taken the lion's share.

Environmental films

Among the films to be shown are: Two-Legged Horse, an Iranian production about a wealthy boy in Afghanistan who hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse; The Smell of Apples, about a group of people in Iraqi Kurdistan suffering from the consequences of a poison gas attack 20 years earlier; Standard Operating Procedure, the controversial American film by director Errol Morris centering around the photographs that were taken in Abu Ghraib prison and their consequences.

There will also be "Environmental Films" at the event in conjunction with the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.

This year there will be a Muhr Asia/Africa competition to give a fillip to local and regional film-making at the Dubai International Film Festival from December 11 to 18.

Animation will also be added as a special category in the Out-of-Competition offerings.