New 20-week programme of free arthouse screenings hosted by Cinema Akil and Alserkal Avenue

THE SEARCHERS John Ford (1956) 119 | English, Navajo, Spanish | Usa | Western, Drama | G. Courtesy of Cinema Akil.

Great news, cinephiles – Cinema Akil is back with another round of screenings showcasing artistically significant, emotionally engaging and hard-to-find cinematic treasures. There’s 20 weeks of film fun ahead – and it’s all for free.

One of the summer lull's artistic highlights was the independent cinema platform's three-month Here Comes the Sun programme, which brought 13 films, all themed on the sun, to Alserkal Avenue three times a week.

The format remains thankfully unchanged for this new programme, which will present 18 feature films, each played three times every week, on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Some features will be paired with a thematically linked short.

The programme is entitled Where We Dwell, addressing the theme of home; where or what does this sanctuary offer us – a time, a place, a feeling? In a city where more than 90 percent of residents are expats, the audience is invited out of their own homes to answers these questions.

Big questions, which are here posed by everything from classic Hollywood musicals to regional ground-breakers, animations to documentaries, and art-house dramas from all over the globe.

Presented in partnership by Cinema Akil and Alserkal Avenue, the season kicks off on October 21-23 with The Searchers, a classic 1956 Western starring John Wayne, about a protagonist returning home from the US Civil War only to find the way of life on his Texas ranch threatened by raid by a native Comanche tribe (screening October 21-23).

A week later contemporary drama Ilo Ilo explores the relationship between a Filipino maid and the family she has moved to work for in Singapore (October 28-30). A similar theme is explored in Black Girl, the story of a Senegalese maid who encounters racism after following her host family to France (December 16-18).

There's another chance to see Mahmoud Kaabour's insightful look behind the doors of Dubai's labour camps, Champ of the Camp (November 25-27), which premiered at DIFF in 2013.

Other Arabic offerings include Rags and Tatters, an Egyptian drama about a fugitive who escapes jail amid the 2011 Tahir Square protests (January 20-22). Abdellatif Kechiche's multi-award winning drama The Secret of the Grain zeros in on an ageing Tunisian shipyard worker, who opens a restaurant in his adopted home of France despite contemptuous opposition (February 24-26).

Novel uses of animation is displayed in works from two distinct directional talents. Live action and CGI mix in fantasy Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze's acclaimed adaptation of Maurice Sendak's children's book (January 6-8). Directed by the legend of Japanese anime Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away et al), Kiki's Delivery Service is an adventure story about the 13-year-old eponymous hero, voiced by Kirsten Dunst, breaking out on her own (February 3-5).

Among the documentaries is The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, which traces evolution of the Movement through archive footage of Stokely Carmichael, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and others, uncovered by Swedish filmmakers three decades later (February 17-19).

Pirates of Salé documents how hundreds of Moroccan teenagers audition every year for a life on the road with Cirque Shems'y (January 13-15).

Displacement also forms the backbone of Man Push Cart, the story of a Pakistani immigrant sleeping rough in New York from fêted American indie auteur Ramin Bahrani (January 27-29), which took the FIPRESCI Prize at the London Film Festival in 2005.

The effect of architecture on our environment will be explored in The Fountainhead, King Vidor's 1949 adaptation of author Ayn Rand's masterpiece (November 11-13), while documentaries will pay tribute to noted architects Rem Koolhaas (Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect; November 4-6) and husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames (Eames: The Architect and the Painter; December 9-11).

Lastly, there's also the rare chance to catch two classic musicals on the big screen; ten-times Oscar-winning love story West Side Story (November 18-19), and Carol Reed's 1958 British adaptation of Broadway spectacle Oliver!, which closes the series (March 2-4).

• For the full programme, head to www.cinemaakil.com. All screenings are free and take place at 7pm at A4 Space in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. No reservation necessary; seats first come, first served.