On Sept. 18, the Italian Embassy to the UAE brought Rome to the screens of Abu Dhabi with a showing of director Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grande Belleza”, The Great Beauty, described by Canadian critic Jay Stone as “a meditation on life, a celebration of the incidentals that make it joyous.”

It was a busy week for art as movie theaters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were graced with the first edition of the European Film Screenings, a small festival that aims to bring to the UAE a series of films from European countries. The VOX Cinema chain in Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi and in Mercato Mall in Dubai hosted the weeklong event with the sponsorship of Etihad Airways.

The event took place from Sept. 18 to Sept. 24. in Abu Dhabi and Sept. 19 to Sept. 25 in Dubai. It consisted of a series of free showings on a first-come, first-serve basis of a carefully curated selection of films from Germany, France, UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and Italy.

Actors, writers and directors such as Paco León, Christophe Wagner and Andrzej Wajda are just some of the names that took hold of the UAE’s movie screens during this cultural celebration.

In addition, a collection of award-winning Emirati short films were shown alongside the European films in an attempt to encourage local creativity. The regional directors featured included Nayla Al Khaja, Ali Mostafa, Mohammed Al Otaiba and Ahmed Zain.

As a part of the larger scheme of the film screenings, a panel of discussion was held on Sept. 20 at Marina Mall. The panel was led by Alessandra Priante, a representative from Eurimage, and also included festival executives, central figures in the European film industry and Emirati directors, who engaged in conversation about the ways in which European models of artistic production could be applicable in Gulf States.

Priante, the moderator of this interstate dialogue, said to The National: “The cinema is one of those areas where cooperation between member states is not only possible but actually encouraged by each of the governments.”