Doha Film Institute: British Movie Season Launches With 'The Red Shoes'

The Doha Film Institute has partnered with the British Council and the Qatar Museums Authority to launch a slew of public screenings at the Museum of Islamic Art starting with the 1948 British classic The Red Shoes, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

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The Oscar-winning film is a tale of a young ballerina torn between her art and her romance with a young composer and has been restored for a new generation of moviegoers.

The movie will unspool Feb. 28 to kick off the DFI U.K. Cinema Showcase at the MIA Auditorium - a series of monthly screenings throughout 2013 "celebrating the power of classic and contemporary films from the British canon."

Throughout the year, certain screenings within the showcase will be attended by British filmmaking talent, and because it's a reciprocal initiative, DFI will also create a series of opportunities to bring Arab (and more specifically, Qatari) filmmaking talent to the U.K.

The celebration of British film culture will culminate in a special section of programming at the 2013 Doha Tribeca Film Festival. 

Doha Film Institute CEO Abdulaziz Al-Khater described the Qatar-U.K. initiative as "an exciting opportunity for us to celebrate the breadth and quality of British filmmaking with local audiences."

Martin Hope, director of the British Council, said: "We look forward to working with DFI and to promoting mutual awareness between our two nations."

The DFI UK Cinema Showcase will run monthly until fall 2013 and will also feature screenings of Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, Kes directed by Ken Loach and David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai.