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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 JUNE 2016 40 This Week IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Warcraft (12A) 10:20, 14:15, 18:00, 20:50 Money Monster (15) 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Angry Birds (U) 10:00, 12:15, 14:00,16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Alice Through The Looking Glass (PG) 10:25, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 X Men Apocalypse (12A) 10:30, 14:15, 17:45, 20:50 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Warcraft (12A) 14:00, 14:30, 18:00, 20:00, 21:00, 22:40 Alice Through the Looking Glass (PG) 14:00, 18:30 The Jungle Book (PG) 14:05, 16:20, 18:35, 20:50 Angry Birds (U) 14:10, 18:50 Eye in the Sky (15) 14:10, 16:25, 18:40, 20:55 Whisky Tango Foxtrot (15) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 Money Monster (15) 14:15, 16:25, 18:45, 21:00, 23:15 Taking Stock (15) 14:15, 18:35 Bad Neighbours 2 (15) 14:20, 16:25, 18:40, 20:45, 23:10 X-Men: Apocalypse (12A) 14:20, 18:10, 21:10, 23:15 A Hologram for the King (12A) 14:30, 18:20, 21:05 Captain America: Civil War (12A) 14:30, 18:00, 21:10 Mustang (12) 16:10, 20:45 Angry Birds (U) 16:20, 20:55 Alice Through the Looking Glass (PG) 16:25, 21:05, 23:35 Warcraft (12A) 17:00 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Me Before You (12A) 10:45, 13:35, 16:05, 18:30, 20:50 X-Men: Apocalypse (12A) 10:55, 13:50, 17:55, 20:55 Angry Birds (U) 10:55, 13:45, 16:00, 18:15, 20:30 Warcraft (12A) 10:40, 13:20, 15:55, 18:30, 21:05 The Jungle Book (PG) 11:10, 13:30, 16:10, 18:30 Money Monster (15) 21:00 A Hologram for the King (12A) 11:00, 13:35, 16:05, 18:30, 20:45 Alice Through the Looking Glass (PG) 10:45, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Inhebbek Hedi (Tunisia) Majd Mastoura and Rym Ben Messaoud, the actors portray- ing the thwarted romantic pro- tagonists of Mohamed Ben Attia's slow-burning drama, opened the Valletta Film Festival on June 3 pri- or to its screening, welcoming the audience to partake in a discussion about the film and its implications in a scheduled discussion organ- ised by the festival. The film certainly plunges view- ers into the daily foibles of its char- acters – chiefly Hedi, days away from his wedding but psychologi- cally adrift – but any overt politi- cal discussion points are thin on the ground. Instead, the primary source of the drama – Hedi find- ing true love in Rym days before his wedding – is universal in a lot of ways, but also particular to the Tunisian family dynamic. Our lovers do chat about the Tu- nisian revolution at one point, but Hedi is no revolutionary, and it's suggested that his struggles stem from his comparative passivity. Opening the door onto a foreign culture that is nonetheless geo- graphically close to us, and doing it through the blossoming of a po- tentially doomed relationship was the right way to set the tone for the Valletta Film Festival, which this year boasted a 'Without Borders' sub-programme. Hotel Dallas (Romania) Hotel Dallas tells the true story of Romania's fraught relationship with its communist past, but it does so through the most unreal kaleidoscope imaginable: the peo- ple's collective memory of the time they were allowed to watch the benchmark American soap Dallas. A mockumentary built on a quirky historical factoid – Ceaus- escu allowed Dallas as the only American broadcast on Roma- nian TV for the express purpose of showing how decadent and cor- rupt American society was – its weaving together of musical, road trip and an overarching quest nar- rative never felt forced, pretentious or weird-for-weird's-sake. The reason for this is simple: the film's inherent – sometimes car- toony – strangeness is implicit in the topsy-turvy political situation it seeks to dissect. But it's the dis- section of a trickster, not a surgeon. Director and protagonist Livia Ungur leads this surrealist fable- cum-historical investigation with the help of Dallas' 'Bobby' himself, Patrick Duffy (would love to have been a fly on the wall for his first meeting with Ungur and her team) and it's a hilarious, inspired jour- ney. Sand Storm (Israel) Just like Inhebbek Hedi, the main plot engine for writer-director Elite Zexer's feature-length debut is a socially illicit romantic liaison. But unlike the other film, Sand Storm gives only a glancing look at the prospective couple's intimate life, with barely a scene dedicated to the young Layla's (Lamis Ammar) beloved – a young man of presum- ably Palestinian origin whose roots render their romance an impossi- bility. Instead, the focus falls more heavily on Layla and her put-upon mother Jalila (Ruba Blal), who is placed in the awkward position of having to oversee her husband, Suliman's (Hitham Omari), second wedding preparations. As tensions related both to social imposition and personal history come to a boil, it looks as though it's Layla and Jalila that will come out worse for it whatever happens. Impeccably photographed by Shai Peleg and just as sensitively acted, Sand Storm is a coming-of- age story that doesn't exactly lack humanity and humour, but whose presentation of a gridlocked social order for women is sure to inspire righteous anger. Unlike the deflat- ed climax meted out to her charac- ter, the beautiful and versatile ac- tress Lamis Ammar can likely look forward to a bright future. The Valletta Film Festival took place across various venues in Val- letta from June 3 to 11 When the city became a cinema FILM Valletta Film Festival - 2016 Bright future ahead? Lamis Ammar as Layla in Sand Storm By Teodor Reljic With the second edition of the Valletta Film Festival celebrating its closing ceremony last night, TEODOR RELJIC looks over some of the highlights of what continues to be a key appointment in Malta's cultural calendar Majd Mastoura and Rym Ben Messaoud in Inhebbek Hedi Writer-director- star of Hotel Dallas Livia Ungur