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Three UAE films to be shown at international film festival

In its 10th year, the festival will be held in Ismailia City, Egypt, between September 15 and 22.

The three films selected for the festival are Mirrors of Silence, directed by Nawaf Al Janahi, Mirage, directed by Abdul Halim Ahmed Qaed and A Roof Over Our Heads, directed by Maitha Ebrahim.

Both Abdul Qaed and Maitha Ebrahim are students of Dubai's Higher College of Technology. Earlier this year, Abdul's Mirage, a documentary feature, won the best student documentary award at Emirates Film Competition in Abu Dhabi.

Maitha Ebrahim is in her final university year, but she already received national acknowledgement. She recently received the prestigious "Young Film Maker of the Year" award from Digital Studio Industry Readership Awards 2006.

This year, so far, she has directed no less than five short films: The Rock, Non-Verbal Language, A Roof Over Our Heads, The Scar and The Adolescent Colours.

Apart from being a film maker, Nawaf Al Janahi is also an actor and a photographer. Mirrors of Silence will see him in two roles - director and actor.

The short fiction film portrays a young man (Janahi) suffering from a distressing loneliness. Nawaf Al Janahi has been involved in UAE's visual arts scene since 2000, participating in various national and international festivals and winning a few awards.

This year will be his second participation at Ismailia International Film Festival, the first time being in 2003.

The Ismailia Festival organisers, in celebration of the UAE cinema, will screen twelve films this year.

Among them are Aushba's Well directed by Waleed Al Shehhi, Wet Tiles by Lamya Hussain Gargash, Amen by Abdullah Hassan Ahmed and Nada Mohamed Alkarimi's Dying for Fun, which has also screened in the Festival of Arab Cinema in Paris last month.

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