Ali F. Mostafa: Emirati Cinema Comes of Age

Ali Mostafa on the cover of Esquire Middle East in 2016

Few names in the story of the cinema of the United Arab Emirates match the recognition and success of Ali F. Mostafa. The pioneering Emirati director can lay claim to a number of distinct “firsts’’ in the short history of Emirati cinema. These “firsts” include directing the first feature film produced and set in the U.A.E. ‘s powerhouse city of Dubai, City of Life (2009), a ground-level story of life in a Dubai stripped of its world-renowned glamour.

The success of Ali Mostafa is all the more noteworthy within the context of the UAE’s cinema industry. Films were not broadcast on the Emirate’s domestic television channels until the late 1980s, and it wasn’t until 1988 that the first “Emirati film,” Aber Sabeel, was produced and released. In the years following Aber Sabeel, films would only be released at a rate of one in a stretch of several years until the mid-2000s, and the first festival for Emirati films, the Emirates Film Competition, was formed only as recently as 2002.

Appreciating these facts about this young film industry help us understand why Ali Mostafa - 40 years old in the year 2021 - is seen as one of the most experienced and influential filmmakers of Emirati cinema (Esquire Middle East, 2016), and why his career success reflects key milestones in the industry’s growing prominence.

To read more, download our webzine Silkroadia Vol.3 No.2 “Ali F. Mostafa: Emirati Cinema Comes of Age” by D Cameron Shirvani Steiner(a Film Studies student in the Dodge College of Film & Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange County, California.)