Dubai // Three nights of free movies and music will begin at Dubai International Film Festival's (Diff) new outdoor venue from this evening.
Rhythm & Reels, a subsidiary event of the festival, has been a hit with music-loving cinematic fans for the past four years.
This year, three feature films have been paired with concerts as part of a lively outdoor series taking place at an open-air theatre set up at The Walk, Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR).
Masoud Amralla al Ali, the artistic director of Diff, said: "Rhythm & Reels is aimed at integrating two vibrant art forms [of] films and music in addition to paying cinematic tribute to some of the world's legendary musicians."
Tonight, a traditional Mariachi band from Mexico will play after the screening of 1947 Latino classic Enamorada, the story of guerrilla general Jose Juan Reyes and his love for a rich man's daughter.
Tomorrow night, My Wife's Husband, an Egyptian comedy from 1961 about a woman torn between two husbands, will be followed by a performance from the Lebanese singer Rima Khcheich.
Another Egyptian film, Microphone, from Ahmed Abdallah el Sayed - the director of the popular film, Heliopolis, which had its premier in Abu Dhabi last year - will be shown on the last of the performance evenings. Microphone will be followed by performances from the Arab rock-fusion band, Massar Egbari, and the underground hip-hop duo, Y-Crew.
Mariam Mohammed, 28, a music fan from Syria, said she was looking forward to the Rhythm & Reels events. "I think it's really fun that some of the films will be followed by concerts - it brings another dimension to cinema and brings the films to life."
Aside from the concert-screening combinations, a series of musical documentaries is also being shown this year.
On Monday, Tom DiCillo's When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors was screened at the outdoor venue, and Michael Epstein's LENNONNYC was screened in JBR last night. The documentary follows the life of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1970s New York.
On Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, The Piano in a Factory, a Chinese film by Zhang Mang about a father who makes a piano for his daughter, will also be screened at Mall of the Emirates.
Tickets to the screenings of the documentary films at Mall of the Emirates cost Dh25, and can be purchased at the Diff Box Office.
