Yallah French Cinéma

From December 9 to 11, 2022

The Institut Français in the United Arab Emirates and Vox Cinemas announce the launch on December 9, 2022 of the first edition of the Yallah French Cinema Festival at 8pm at VOX Cinema – The Galleria – Al Maryah Island. The festival, which will run until December 11, aims to celebrate cinema, the French language and creativity. The main theme this year will be music.
The festival will feature regional premieres in all genres and for all audiences, including a drama, a comedy, documentaries and an animated film. It will open with the film Divertimento by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, and will include in its program Ténor by Claude Zidy, Ernest and in Winter by Julien Cheng and Jean-Christophe Roger, Indes Galantes by Philippe Béziat and Salam by Houda Benyamina

SCREENING FILMS – VOX CINEMA GALLERIA MALL

Divertimento

Screening: Friday, December 9th – 8pm – Vox Cinemas Galleria Mall

Directed by: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar |2022 | French| 110′ | Social Drama

Synopsis: At the age of 17, Zahia Ziouani dreams of becoming an orchestra conductor alongside her twin sister, Fettouma, a professional cellist. Lulled by classical symphonic music since their childhood, they wish to make it accessible to all and in all territories, with determination, passion, courage and especially the incredible project of creating their own orchestra: Divertimento.

Tenor

Screening: Saturday, December 10th – 7pm – Vox Cinemas Galleria Mall

Directed by: Claude Junior Zidy |2022 | French| 101′ | Social Comedy

Synopsis: Antoine is a young Parisian from the suburbs, who studies accounting without much conviction and divides his time between rap battles and his job as a sushi delivery boy. During an errand at the Garnier Opera, his path crosses that of Mrs. Loyseau, a singing teacher at the venerable institution, who detects in Antoine a raw talent to be developed. Despite his lack of operatic culture, Antoine is fascinated by this form of expression and is convinced to follow Mrs. Loyseau’s teaching. Antoine has no choice but to lie to his family, his friends and the whole city for whom opera is far from their world

Ernest & Celestine in Winter

Screening : Saturday December 10th – 1pm and 3pm / Sunday December 11th – 1pm and 3pm – Vox Cinemas Galleria Mall

Directed by Julien Cheng and Jean-Christophe Roger|2017 | French| 45′ | Animation for young audiences

Ernest is a big bear from Charabie. He likes to play music and eat jam. He has taken in Celestine, a little orphaned mouse, and they now share a house. The two companions are never bored! As the first snowflakes approach, they prepare for Ernest’s hibernation: they have to take care of Bibi, their wild goose, who will fly away before the cold weather sets in, and they have to go to the Mouse Ball to celebrate the first day of winter. Finally, they must not forget to bake good cakes so that Ernest falls asleep with a full stomach.

Indes Galantes

Screening: Saturday, December 10 – 5pm – Vox Cinemas Galleria Mall

Directed by Phillippe Béziat |2021 | French| 108′ | Documentary

It’s a first for 30 dancers of hip-hop, krump, break, voguing… It’s a first for the director Clément Cogitore and the choreographer Bintou Dembélé. And a first for the Paris Opera. By bringing together urban dance and opera singing, they reinvent together Jean-Philippe Rameau’s baroque masterpiece, Les Indes Galantes. From rehearsals to public performances, we follow a human adventure and an encounter with political stakes: can a new generation of artists take over the Bastille today?

Salam

Screening: Sunday, December 11 – 7pm – Vox Cinemas Galleria Mall

Directed by Houda Benyamina, Anne Cissé & Mélanie ‘Diam’s’ Giorgiades |2022 | French| | 80′ | Documentary

After 10 years of silence, Mélanie, known as “Diam’s”, returns with a powerful and moving documentary film in which she tells her story with an open heart. For the first time on camera, she confides in us about her fame as a rap star, her time in psychiatry, her search for meaning and her conversion to Islam. She leads us on the tracks of Diam’s and reveals in this intimate and modest story the secrets of her history, showing the difficulties of existing in the eyes of others and addressing the issue of mental health.

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