The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) screened yesterday the film “All the Invisible Children” in the presence of WFP Goodwill Ambassador, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, HRH Princess Dalal Al-Saud, Laurence Fishburne and Barry Osborne.

The award-winning film highlights the rights of millions of children and adolescents whose lives are marred by exploitation and war. An estimated three hundred million children in the world suffer from hunger and over 100 million have never been to school.

“It really is a fantastic production in every way – the acting, the artistic impression, and the effect are all enormous,” Princess Haya said.

Proceeds

Following the screening of the film a fundraising event was organized by the DIFF at the “Jambase”. Proceeds of the screening and the fundraising ceremony will go to the project "A Package for Life for the Children of Niger'', which is co-managed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WFP, which work to protect children worldwide.

The goal of the joint project is to send as many children as possible to school in one of the poorest countries where the children are most at risk and severely deprived.

The showing, which was held at the Madinat Theatre in Souk Madinat Jumeirah, was also attended by two directors of the film, Katia Lund (Brazil) and Stefano Veneruso (Italy) and the producer, Chiara Tilesi of ‘MK Production’.

Italian Development Cooperation

Put together by eight major directors including Medhi Charef, Amir Kustorica, Spike Lee, Katia Lund, Jordan Scott, Ridley Scott, Stefano Veneruso and John Woo, “All the Invisible Children” was financially made possible by the Italian Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

High profile music stars have also made a valuable contribution with the song Teach Me Again, written, composed and produced by Elisa, performed by Tina Turner and Elisa, and released by Caterina Caselli for Sugar.

Major visibility

WFP and UNICEF, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, thank the Festival for its support and for giving major visibility to a project that is quite original in its concept. The eight directors lent their name, talent and time to help vulnerable children in a country where hunger issues and poverty remain very critical.

Whenever there is a chance, Dubai is always supporting the efforts of the humanitarian community and this was again evident at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Awards

“All the Invisible Children” has been sold in over 80 countries and presented in several festivals which so far include: Venice, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro and Seville.

The film also won several awards including the “Most Sold Italian Film Award” and “Best Young Director Award” for Stefano Veneruso at the Capri Film Festival in Italy.

Cécile Sportis
WFP/Paris
Tel: +33-1-70385330
Cell: +33-6161-68266
Cécile.Sportis@wfp.org

Zeina Habib
WFP/Dubai – Gulf
Tel: +971 4 3681383
Cell: +971 50 6562753
Zeina.Habib@wfp.org

Khaled Mansour
WFP/Cairo
Tel: +202 5281730 ext.2600
Cell: +20-122-348671
Khaled.Mansour@wfp.org