UAE residents' views on the Gulf Film Festival

Dubai: As the Gulf Film Festival kicked off a splendid start in Grand Cinemas at Festival City with a screening of Kuwaiti film Tora Bora on Tuesday night, tabloid! asked a few of the onlookers their views on the film festival. 

Isn't the Gulf Film Festival creating enough awareness for itself and the issues that it movies take up?

Croatian Dino Ivkovic thinks this is a good opportunity to do so. "It's quite rare to watch films dealing with such social issues and concepts that affect us all in some way or the other and this is completely aside from commercial cinema. I am definitely heading here for the public screenings." 

Some are looking forward to the screenings for the mere concept and issues of the films while others are just curious to see the cinema movement in countries around them. "I am Emirati but I have never been outside UAE. So it will be a nice experience for me to explore the world around me through these films," says Ahmed Al Jasmi.

There are still others who look at it as pure entertainment. "Cinema is a medium of entertainment and this will be a nice way to know the Gulf. After a heavy week, I can at least sit back for a few hours and be entertained," gushes Fatima Hassan, a senior executive at an MNC. 

"But it is for a cause," stresses Muhanad Najeeb, a film studies student. "It is important for the layman to know the world around him and what medium can achieve that better than cinemascope?"

"It is the best way to express and address pertinent issues of the middle-east," adds Amer Jagirdar, his friend and classmate. 

While Catherine and Graeme Sims think it would be nice to watch these films to get acquainted with issues that engulf the region, Jennifer Samara feels otherwise. "I would not go even on an off day. I have better things to do such as hang out with friends," says the young entrepreneur.