DUBAI: Following part one, here is the second half of our rundown of the films in competition at this year’s RSIFF, which begins Dec. 5. 

‘Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo’ 

Director: Khaled Mansour 

Mansour’s debut feature will tug at the heartstrings of animal lovers. Set in Cairo, the film centers on 30-year-old Hassan, who faces eviction from the home he shares with his mother and his dog, Rambo. Their landlord, Karem, wants them out so he can expand his auto-repair workshop. When Karem attacks Hassan, Rambo steps in, and the landlord is humiliated in front of the whole neighborhood. Karem vows to take revenge. Mansour told Deadline that the film is “not about extreme violence against dogs, but about me and my generation’s relationship with society … That relationship in which we always feel chased in our city like stray dogs. At the same time, we do not know any other haven to belong to.” Mansour’s film was backed by the Red Sea Film Foundation.  

‘Sima’s Song’ 

Director: Roya Sadat 

Starring: Mozhdah Jamalzadah, Niloufar Kookhani, Aziz Deildar 

Sadat has established herself as one of Afghanistan’s leading filmmakers. Her latest feature is a period piece, set in Kabul in 1978, and follows two friends — Suraya, a wealthy communist, and Sima, a not-so-wealthy Muslim conservative — navigating their country’s transition to socialism, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the rise of anti-Soviet resistance, including the mujahideen. With the Taliban once again controlling her country, Sadat’s film is a timely one. “The world has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is happening to Afghan women,” she told Variety. “Perhaps this film can … invite the audience to join this collective call for solidarity through a shared sense of empathy.” 

‘Aïcha’ 

Director: Mehdi M. Barsaoui 

Starring: Fatma Sfar, Nidhal Saadi, Yasmine Dimassi 

The Tunisian filmmaker’s second feature — which was backed by the Red Sea Film Foundation — is reportedly based on real-life events. A dissatisfied woman in her late twenties, Aya, is the sole survivor of a bus crash. Realizing that no one knows she is alive, she impetuously takes the opportunity to flee to Tunis under a false identity. But when she witnesses a crime, she learns just how precarious her new life is. 

‘6 in the Morning’ 

Director: Mehran Modiri 

Starring: Samira Hasanpour, Mehrdad Sedighian, Mona Farjad 

Multi-hyphenate Modiri is, according to the Tehran Times, “Iran’s leading social satirist.” In his latest feature, a young woman named Sarah is due to leave Tehran for Canada for three years to study for her doctorate. The night before her 6 a.m. flight, after a tense final family dinner, she heads out to a farewell party at her friend’s apartment. Then there’s a knock on the door from the police. 

‘To Kill a Mongolian Horse’ 

Director: Xiaoxuan Jiang 

Starring: Saina, Undus, Qilemuge, Tonggalag 

The Manchurian filmmaker’s moving debut feature is the story of a Mongolian horseman (played by Jiang’s real-life friend Saina) who decides to become a performer in the hugely popular local horse shows, where Saina’s spectacular stunts help him make enough money to support his young son and cover his father’s gambling debts. But all Saina really wants is to care for his beloved sheep and horses on the wild grasslands — a way of life threatened by climate change and capitalism.  

‘Saba’ 

Director: Maksud Hossain 

Starring: Mehazabien Chowdury, Rokeya Prachy, Mostafa Monwar 

The Bangladeshi filmmaker directorial debut has already impressed on the festival circuit. The title character is the sole carer for her paraplegic mother Shirin. When Shirin suffers a heart attack, Saba rushes to sell their home, putting her life on hold in order to save her mother. Variety called it “a pressing work of social realism, expressing — in quiet but poignant ways — the tenor of the nation’s disaffected youth.” 

‘My Friend An Delie’ 

Director: Zijian Dong 

Starring: Liu Haoran, Zijian Dong 

Li Mo is flying home for his father’s funeral when he bumps into his former best friend An Delie, whom he hasn’t seen since middle school and who insists he doesn’t know Li Mo — even though they are both heading to the same funeral. With their flight diverted, the two embark on a long drive together. Through flashbacks to the late Nineties, we see the formation of their friendship and the difficult relationships both had with their parents.   

‘Bin U Bin, Elsewhere the Border’ 

Director: Mohamed Lakhdar Tati 

Starring: Salim Kechiouche, Slimane Dazi, Hanaa Mansour 

Tati’s atmospheric drama is set in the unforgiving desert on the Algerian border. Saad is a filmmaker trying to scrape enough money together to finish his movie. To do so, he has been living with his friend Fethi and his family who are professional smugglers, taking goods — usually fuel — into Tunisia. While Fethi and his family have welcomed Saad into their home, he remains, essentially, an outsider. 

LONDON: To say “The Piano Lesson” is a family affair would be something of an understatement. This cinematic adaptation of August Wilson’s 1987 play follows a pair of siblings, locked in disagreement about a family heirloom — an engraved piano, ‘liberated’ from the Charles family’s ancestral enslavers and now residing in 1936’s Pittsburgh. But there’s a neat parallel, too, about the film’s journey to the big screen (and Netflix subscribers shortly thereafter), produced as it is by Denzel Washington, directed by son Malcom, co-produced by daughter Katia, and starring son John David Washington as Boy Willie.

Washington (John David, that is) reprises his role from the 2022 stage production, and is joined by fellow castmates Samuel L Jackson (Doaker), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Wining Boy).

Boy Willie wants to sell the piano and buy a plot of land following the untimely death of his employer, James Sutter. His sister Bearniece (Danielle Deadwyler), on the other hand, wants to keep it in the family as testament to the suffering endured by their ancestors. What’s more, Bearniece suspects Boy Willie had something to do with Sutter’s death, as she begins seeing the latter’s ghoulish specter around the house. Uncles Doaker and Wining Boy want peace and quiet, while Willie’s friend Lymon simply wants to escape his old life and start over.

It's a complicated, convoluted setup, and Washington (Malcolm, this time) skillfully takes his time establishing who is who, utilizing the kind of character-led exposition better suited for a stage play, in fact. The cast (as you’d expect, given their familiarity with the roles) all turn in powerhouse performances. A rendition of “O’ Berta” is a chilling standout, as is the simmering tension between widowed Bearniece and the affable Lymon.

The only place “The Piano Lesson” falls down is when it leaves the intense trappings of the family house, where it loses a little momentum as it ventures beyond the limits of the stage production. As good as it is, there’s a question of whether this needed remaking as a movie at all — but regardless, “The Piano Lesson” makes for a riveting, unsettling study on familial trauma and legacy.