Louvre Abu Dhabi has announced the launch of its first-ever short film, The Pulse of Time, coinciding with the museum’s third anniversary on 11 November 2020.

The 40-minute immersive audiovisual journey brings the story of humanity to life through an exploration of artworks from the museum’s collection.

The film takes viewers on a voyage of the 12 chapters of the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s galleries, exploring the history of human creativity through a selection of 15 artworks and sharing stories of cultural connections from pre-history to contemporary times.

The Pulse of Time is available in three languages: Arabic, English and French.

The Emirati actor, producer and TV presenter Saoud Al-Kaabi, known for his role in City of Life (2009), narrates the film in Arabic. British actor, screenwriter and film director Charles Dance, known for playing the role of Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones, narrates the English. And French-Swiss actress Irène Jacob, known for her role in Three Colours: Red (1994), narrates the French version.

"This immersive digital experience encapsulates the current moment as the museum reflects on its third year anniversary. The film animates the galleries and objects on view, for an awakening of the imagination that audiences may experience from anywhere in the world. This marks a new era of original, digital commissions living side-by-side with traditional, physical exhibitions. The film’s languages and collaborators represent the museum space itself as a crossroads for intercultural connection," Manuel Rabaté, director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, commented in the press release. 

Commonalities across cultures can be discovered in Louvre Abu Dhabi’s treasures such as the Italian sculpture of a man dressed in a Roman toga, named "The Orator" (100-150 CE), and the Bodhisattva, an intercessor between the Buddha and his followers, from the Kushan empire in Pakistan, Gandhara, Takht-i-Bahi or Sahri-Bahlol (100-300 CE).

Audiences will explore the migration of artistic influence from West to East in the carvings of the basin inscribed with the name of Bonifilius from Northern Italy (c. 1300), also from the museum’s collection. The two-headed monumental statue from Ain Ghazal, Jordan (6500 BCE), on loan from the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, allows us to see and reflect on the way our ancestors saw themselves.

The Pulse of Time will premiere on YouTube on 11 November 2020 at 7pm in Arabic, 8pm in English and 9pm in French (Gulf Standard Time). 

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