Bokra the Film starring Quincy Jones and Arab singers will get its world premiere at Diff

Directed by the Emirati filmmaker Ahmed Abdulqader, Bokra the Film is a feature-length documentary profiling both the all-star recording sessions that spawned the hit, and the positive impact the song has had on the region’s young people.

Children who sang for the charity song Tomorrow/Bokra, with Quincy Jones, centre right, and Badr Jafar, centre left, and Ali F Mostafa, top left. Courtesy Clint McLean / FIFF

A documentary starring Quincy Jones and 24 of the region’s musical stars will have its world premiere at Diff.

In November 2011, the charity single Tomorrow/Bokra, produced by Jones and starring guest vocalists from across the Arab world, was released to raise funds for youth charities around the world. The song went on to top regional download charts and the video has been viewed more than 11 million times on YouTube.

Directed by the Emirati filmmaker Ahmed Abdulqader, Bokra the Film is a feature-length documentary about the all-star recording sessions that spawned the hit and the effect the song has had on young people in the region.

"I am enormously proud that the people of the Middle East and North Africa so warmly embraced the themes expressed in Tomorrow/Bokra and I can think of no better place to premiere the film of the making of this historic recording than the Dubai International Film Festival," says Jones, who is a frequent visitor to the UAE.

The film was co-produced by Jones, the Emirati social entrepreneur Badr Jafar and Ali F Mostafa, the Emirati director of From A to B, which opened the Abu Dhabi Film Festival last month.

Bokra the Film will screen on the closing night of Diff, December 17, at Madinat Jumeirah. For more information, visit www.dubaifilmfest.com