VIDEO: Ali Mustafa’s City of Life Trailer //

01.12.10

byFajer Al-Kaisi

Director Ali Mustafa’s City of Life appropriately debuted at the 6th Annual Dubai International Film Festival. Shot entirely in the fledgling city of Dubai, with its culturally schizophrenic growth at the very heart of the film, the city itself becomes a sprawling post-modern character, and first time director Mustafa doesn’t shy away from showing us the grimy as well as the glitzy elements of this character. City of Life is ambitious and looks really really slick, thanks to the spectacular cinematography of Michael Brierly.

Best described as a Middle Eastern version of Crash, where the lives of three castes of characters intersect wildly with one another to lead us to seemingly fated consequences, the film sets a strong standard as the pioneer feature of the region. Strong performances from Sonu Sood, Natalie Dormer and Yassin ‘the Narcicyst’ Al-Salman keep a relatively linear storyline fresh and compelling.