Cinema Akil, Dubai: Sudanese Film Group

Cinema Akil is the first and only independent cinema platform in the United Arab Emirates, presenting films from around the world and from all times to audiences. Founded in 2014 as a nomadic cinema, it opened its first permanent venue in Al Quoz, Dubai, in 2018. In 2023, it opened a seasonal branch at the 25hours Hotel Dubai. The first Arab Cinema Week was launched in the United Arab Emirates in 2022. Cinema Akil is a member of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS).

Cinema Akil 25hours presents a program of early short films by the Sudanese Film Group (Eltayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad, and Suliman Elnour), which have been restored by Arsenal. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of filmmakers who were then working in the film department of the Ministry of Culture published the magazine Cinema. In 1989, they founded the Sudanese Film Group (SFG) in order to operate more independently from the state. Since the outbreak of war in 2023, SFG's members have been living in exile in Cairo, Egypt. (Stefanie Schulte Strathaus) (22.11.)