City of Life (2009)

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I am not used to write on this wall but this time i had to say something. I see people complaining about things that do not have anything to do with the movie. This movie is a portrait of the "melting pot" in UAE and their different lifestyles. This is a real eye opener. For us to see their culture. I have been there and i did not have the chance to see so many things, which actually makes me sad. But this movie was great in my opinion. I think that it also had a whole new way of shooting movies on. We also see how the poor man.....see it yourself.

Arab film fest DC. To my surprise there's an Emirati movie with a not so bad blurb. Decide to go check it out, hoping it's not clichéd or derivative.In short, movie was really really good. I was pretty much glued to the screen. Script was very smart and intertwined 3 story lines, and while it felt slightly forced in some parts it wasn't distracting. Cinematography was great, humor was intact and soundtrack for the most part was on key. As a Kuwaiti that grew up in the US, then lived in the UAE and Kuwait, only to come back to the US I feel very drawn to this movie. I actually feel this movie was made for my generation of English-as-a-first-language Arabs. Was very impressed, and glad that I went. While I wouldn't say this movie redefines cinema, it definitely shines as a stand alone title with enough originality to inspire future attempts from the Gulf.Highly recommended.

I've convinced my movie-addict French neighbor to come discovering the first Emirati movie with me last night and we've both been thrilled by this experience! We've both been living in Dubai for a few years and everything in this movie was talking to us: the character, the story, the atmosphere and the sets of course. Debuting director Ali F. Mostafa has done an excellent work in depicting these different lives and their destiny in this cosmopolitan city, capturing smartly the essence of the Dubai "cultural melting pot" without falling in the stereotype. Acting was good in general for the whole cast (special mention to Yassin Alsalman aka Khalfan and Sonu Sood aka Basu), the photography was capturing Dubai atmosphere with just the right tone and the cool soundtrack was giving a arty note to the movie, reminding me a bit of what is being done in the US independent production the last years (Anderson or Reitman). City of Life is not free of defects though: the fighting scenes look a bit like cartoon (watch the local martial art in dish dash!), the social class rivalry between Emiratis would have benefited from further development and some elapse effect in the narration dilute the emotional impact of certain scenes (the scene with Natalia at the hospital), but these minor reproaches do not erode the pleasure you will feel watching City of Life and remember this is only the first movie of Ali F. Mostafa! Now would this movie talk to somebody not living in Dubai? I would say definitely yes as City of Life stands alone as a good piece of cinematography with a captivating story. I hope this movie will get the chance to have an international career and I wish foreign audience will witness the birth of a new talented Emirati director as we did yesterday. Spread the word!!!

Directed, written and produced by Ali F. Mostafa, a UAE based film maker, being the first Emirati full length feature, I was looking forward to seeing how Dubai had been depictedIt revolves around the life of an Emirati called Faisal (played by Saoud Al Kaabi) who's unsure about his identity in society, an Indian taxi driver called Basu (played by Sonu Sood) dreaming to become a big Indian actor, a flight attendant called Natalia Moldovan (played by Alexandra Maria Lara) looking for companionship and an old Filipino cardboard collector (played by Itlanas Jr) and how their lives converge in the end for better or worse.'City of life' is a drama set in the urban environment that is Dubai. How people from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds are trying to find themselves, figure things out and live. It also shows how certain actions and their reactions leads to a domino effect in their lives where some find hope and some find a reason to live.Saoud Al Kaabi played his role well though he was completely over shadowed by Yassin Alsalman who plays his aggressive emotional friend to perfection. Sonu Sood as the taxi driver dreaming big was good in patches as I thought at some points in the film he could have showed more emotions to get the viewers really involved in his plight. Alexandra Maria Lara and Jason Flemyng (playing the playboy Guy Berger) were not very convincing while Natalie Dormer (playing Natalia's roommate Olga) was quite good in comparison. Ahmed Ahmed (playing restaurant owner Nasser) and Javed Jaffery (playing Suresh Khan) didn't have big enough roles to make any impact on the viewer while Habib Ghuloom (playing Faisal's father) was quite poor in his single style of dialog delivery but I suppose his role didn't have anything else to offer either.For a person who's directing his first full length feature, Ali F. Mostafa did a fantastic job. I love the opening bicycle scene and the way he incorporated shots from old Dubai i.e. Satwa with the modern Dubai i.e. SZR road. I also like the way he included the various point of views and lifestyles i.e. covering the local, western and Asian. The story was well written though a little cliché but then that is Dubai in a lot of ways. The camera work in some places was a bit shaky but maybe that's how they wanted it to be.What I didn't like about the movie was that it seemed to be just another thing out of the UAE that was trying to promote 'Brand Dubai'. I know most movies do that when it comes to the locations they use and I'm being a little too critical about it but I just felt it could have been avoided in some areas.It was a nice night out. A movie I recommend to any person who's lived in the UAE or the gulf even if you might not be able to relate to any of the characters cause just watching Dubai on the big screen and trying to figure out the various locations is fun in its own way plus you get a good story to enjoy on the side...