The Francofilm Festival returns this weekend to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, celebrating not only French cinema, but films from the wider francophone world. This year’s event, the seventh edition, features movies from France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Senegal and Switzerland.
The screenings will take place simultaneously at Vox cinemas in both cities, at Yas Mall in the capital and Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. This year, the festival runs from Thursday to Saturday, rather than spanning a full week, as was the case with previous events – organisers explain that they have decided to give audiences the chance to watch several films each day, rather than the previous one-per-day approach.
The festival opens at 9pm on Thursday with the regional premiere of Emmanuel Courcol's drama Cessez-Le-Feu (Ceasefire). It tells the story of a First World War veteran's efforts to recover from the trauma of trench warfare by travelling in Africa with an artist, while also trying to mend damaged relationships with family and friends.
Animation is the theme on Friday, with Rémi Chayé's Annecy Award-winning adventure Tout En Haut Du Monde (Long Way North) starting the day at 2pm. The film is a proto-feminist tale of adventure, in which Sacha defies her parents and sets out to track down her explorer grandfather, who has failed to return from an expedition to the North Pole.
Claude Barras's Oscar-nominated Ma Vie De Courgette (My Life as a Zuchinni) follows at 6pm. This stop-motion Swiss comedy drama was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, losing out to Disney's Zootopia, and was also the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but failed to make the final shortlist. It won two Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, and also earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Saturday's closing-day triple bill returns to live-action features. First up, at 2pm, is Moussa Sène Absa's 2002 Senegalese social drama L'Extraordinaire destin De Madame Brouette (Madame Brouette).
Savina Dellicour's Belgian coming-of-age drama Tous Les Chats Sont Gris (All Cats are Grey) follows at 4pm, before Pol Cruchten and Frank Hoffmann's Luxembourgeois film noir, Les Brigands (The Robbers), brings this year's festival to a close at 7pm.
Francofilm is a joint production of the Institut Français des Emirats Arabes Unis, Alliance Française Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the Dubai International Film Festival.
• Tickets for each screening cost Dh25. Pre-booking is possible, but not essential, at www.voxcinemas.com
cnewbould@thenational.ae
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
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Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
More on animal trafficking
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 2.5/5
Coffee: black death or elixir of life?
It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
Rory Reynolds
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