It’s award season in Hollywood with March’s Oscars just around the corner. And while the big cinemas continue to be packed with the latest blockbusters (you can trailers for this week’s releases right here), there is plenty to satisfy genuine movie lovers around town.

One of the most exciting events sees the Scene Club screen Buried, the one-man show starring Ryan Reynolds as Paul, a US truck driver working in Iraq who finds himself buried alive inside a coffin with only a lighter and mobile phone for company.

After its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the movie received 24 nominations at international film festivals and won 10 awards.

 

Every month, this non-profit film club shows a film – range of genres and nationalities and, thanks to support from DIFF, completely uncensored – at Dubai Knowledge Village, followed by a Q&A session with a member of the cast and/or crew.

Emirati filmmaker Nayla Al Khaja founded the club in 2007 with the aim of building an independent cinema community in the UAE, and it now has close to 7,000 members.

The screening of Buried, which will be attended by the producer Alejandro Miranda, takes place from 7pm on Wednesday February 12.

The 2010 film is remarkable for how it manages to sustain the tension with only one character. It’s a cinematic trick that’s hard to pull off, but it has been done before in Hollywood. Here are the silver screen’s greatest solo turns.

Into The Wild (2007)
Emile Hirsch plays real life person Chris McCandless who says goodbye to his regular life and goes to live in the Alaskan wilderness.

Into The Wild, starring Emile Hirsch

127 Hours (2010)
James Franco stars in a true story about an amateur rock climber, Aron Ralston, who gets trapped in a Utah ravine and cuts his arm off in order to escape.

127 Hours, starring James Franco

Moon (2009)
After three years on a space mission, Sam, played by Sam Rockwell, starts to lose control.

Moon, starring Sam Rockwell

Cast Away (2000)
A plane crash leaves Chuck alone on a desert island with just a volleyball for company in this movie starring Tom Hanks.

CastAway, starring Tom Hanks

All Is Lost (2013)
Robert Redford plays a nameless man who goes for a sail but gets into deep water when his boat starts to sink.

All Is Lost, starring Robert Redford

Gravity (2013)
Sandra Bullock is a stranded astronaut, Ryan Stone, trying to get back to earth after an accident in space.

Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock

Wall E (2008)
A plucky, and very cute, trash-collecting robot falls in love on a dying planet in this Pixar cartoon.

Wall-E

Knowledge Village Conference Centre, Dubai, monthly, free. Tel: (04) 43910051. Taxi: Knowledge Village. thesceneclub.com