5th Gulf Film Festival to open with Kuwaiti Feature "Tora Bora".

The fifth Gulf Film Festival, the home of contemporary and experimental cinema from the Arabian Peninsula, will open in Dubai on 10 April and Abu Dhabi on 12 April with the screening of "Tora Bora", a Kuwaiti feature film which is about a brainwashed young man who decides to join extremist forces in Afghanistan, and his parents’ search journey of agony and pain to find him."Tora Bora" is directed by Walid Al Awady that debuted in the Cannes Film Market and received good critic and viewers reviews when it premiered in Kuwait. It will make its world premier in the festival and its competing in the feature film category with five other films from Kuwait and 7 from Oman. Eight of those 13 films are making their world premier at the festival. As for the Official Gulf Shorts category, it includes Kuwaiti films "Al Salhiya" directed by Sadeq Behbehani and multi-award winning "Wonderland: True Story" which is directed by Dana Al Mojil which is adapted from Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. Another Kuwaiti Short is "I Wish We Were Dancers" by Mohammad Walid Ayyad. And the Omani-Kuwaiti co-production "Panda" also competes in the same category where its making its world premier at the festival and it is directed by Jassim Al Nofaley. The Gulf Shorts witnesses the come back of Omani director Maitham Al Musawi who screened his adventure drama "Raneen" in last year's GFF; with this year's "Farrakh – Popcorn" which will also make its world premier. As for the experimental cinema, four films made by Omani students will participate in the Gulf Students' Competition where three of them are having their world premiere. One of those films is "Ghan Lee Ya Domia - Sing to Me Toy" by Essa Salem Hamed Al-Subhi. And through the cameras of Marwan Al Busafi and Taha Al Busafi, "Thill Al Horeya - Shadow of Freedom' scans the Arab street and discovers contemporary realities dated back to 2003. The film also looks at the societal torment that started the protests in some parts of the Arab world.