The Katara DFI Cinema is proud to present the award-winning film Robot & Frank in its Middle Eastern premiere. The film will screen from 11-17 September at the Katara Drama Theatre.

Set in the near future, Frank, a retired cat burglar, has two grown kids who are concerned he can no longer live alone. They are tempted to place him in a nursing home until Frank’s son chooses a different option: against the old man’s wishes, he buys Frank a walking, talking humanoid robot programmed to improve his physical and mental health. What follows is an often hilarious and somewhat heartbreaking story about finding friends and family in the most unexpected places.

Winner: Sundance Film Festival 2012, Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

Tuesday, 11 September: 8:30pm
Wednesday, 12 September: 8:30pm
Thursday, 13 September: 5:30, 8:30pm
Friday, 14 September: 5:30, 8:30pm
Saturday, 15 September: 5:30, 8:30pm
Sunday, 16 September: 5:30, 8:30pm
Monday, 17 September: 5:30, 8:30pm

Tickets are available via the Doha Film Institute website as well as:

September 4 – September 17
DFI Ticket Outlet, (Katara Building 26)
Esplanade Entrance
Tuesday - Monday: 1pm – 7pm
Closed: Friday, September 7 and Sunday, September 9

September 11 – September 17
Katara Drama Theatre Ticket Outlet (Katara Building 16)
Drama Theatre Entrance
This location opens 30 minutes prior to first screening start time.

Review from IndieWire.com
With an understated turn by Frank Langella at its center, "Robot & Frank" pits the actor against a mechanical counterpoint who has no name. As Frank, Langella plays a crabby ex-thief wasting away his senior years in a near future that looks much like the present. Living alone in Cold Springs, New York, the man meets his match when his grown son (James Marsden) buys his dad a robot butler (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) to care for his every need. While initially reticent to accept the pushy machine into his life, Frank eventually realizes that the robot's amoral outlook makes it the ultimate accomplice in his intention of pulling off one final heist. Through a twisted burst of inspiration, Frank rediscovers his vitality.

Directed by newcomer Jake Schreier from a screenplay by Christopher D. Ford, "Robot and Frank" allows its understated wit to emerge organically from well-calibrated performances and the resulting pathos. Despite the ostensibly absurd set-up, the filmmakers play it straight, so that Frank's initial resistance to the robot's intrusion in his secluded life is no less credible than if the old man were grappling with a pushy roommate.

"Robot and Frank" succeeds because Schreier and Ford render the relationship between the human character and the robot in largely credible terms. While there's never a point in time in which the movie hints that the robot has developed bona fide feelings toward Frank, his own affection for the robot is entirely believable. The ultimate cinematic actor, Langella's facial expressions often tell the story in close-up, and with "Robot and Frank" they display a jaded man rediscovering his passion. With his subjectivity the star of the show, once Frank starts to see the robot as his only friend, so can we.

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