DUBAI: Jordan’s Amman International Film Festival (AIFF) has announced this week that the event will open its first drive-in cinema in the country.
The festival also revealed new dates for its inaugural edition that has been postponed due to the global restrictions imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic. It is expected to run from Aug. 23-31.
Its drive-in cinemas will be located at Amman’s New Abdali district, while other screenings will be held at the open-air theatre of Jordan’s Royal Film Commission in Jabal Amman.
AIFF, which focuses on first-time filmmakers in both the Arab world and abroad, will offer audiences feature-length narratives and documentaries, as well as short films.
Each film will only screen once at each venue.
Princess Rym Ali, president of the AIFF, said in a statement: “Thanks to the festival’s partners, we are able to hold the first edition this year, in spite of the challenges posed by the global health situation.”
We also see this event as a message of solidarity both for the public, in need of cultural escapism, and the local film community in difficulty,” Ali added.
“Unfortunately, we won’t be able, this year, to host guests from abroad due to travel restrictions, but we will certainly make up for it in the coming editions. The international jury members, and international experts will join Jordanian professionals virtually to enrich discussions and exchanges,” she said.
DUBAI: Dubai Fashion Week (DFW) has announced its Spring/Summer 2025 dates, with international labels set to hit the runway from Sept. 1-5, 2024.
“By positioning it ahead of the fashion weeks of New York, London, Milan and Paris, DFW provides an opportunity for participating designers to set the season’s trends and capture the attention of buyers,” organizing bodies the Arab Fashion council and Dubai Design District said in a released statement.
Previous iterations of DFW saw New York-based label Carolina Herrera as the guest of honor last October with a presentation by the brand’s Creative Director Wes Gordon; supermodel Naomi Campbell closing the October edition by walking for Rizman Ruzaini; and Moroccan designer Maison Sara Chaibi making her DFW debut in February after presenting her collection at Paris Haute Couture Week.
Emirati actress Meera AlMidfa reflects on Cannes and her first feature-length film, co-starring Saudi actor Fahad Al-Butairi
Updated 20 May 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar
DUBAI: Emirati actress and filmmaker Meera AlMidfa has two short films screening on the sidelines of the ongoing Cannes Film Festival — “Shame” and “Umm Salama The Matchmaker”.
Set to entertain audiences in the French Riviera, although the films are not playing on the official calendar of the film festival, each provides sharp insight and commentary on Arab womanhood, while approaching the subject from separate viewpoints and taking a different tone.
While in “Shame” AlMidfa plays a woman whose attempt to flee from home is abruptly halted when her mother catches her and leads to an intense confrontation, in “Umm Salama The Matchmaker,” she plays the daughter of a matchmaker trying to avoid getting hitched.
Meera AlMidfa (right) in “Umm Salama The Matchmaker”. (Supplied)
“The two films were made as part of Arab Film Studio workshop by Image Nation Abu Dhabi. And I was cast by the filmmakers who were doing the filmmaking course, both female directors. And they both explore similar issues about women and marriage,” AlMidfa said in an interview with Arab News.
However, AlMidfa is most excited about her first full-length feature, “Al Eid Eiden,” Image Nation Abu Dhabi’s Saudi-Emirati family comedy. “I play an Emirati woman married to a Saudi man,” said AlMidfa.
Starring opposite AlMidfa is Saudi actor Fahad Al-Butairi (“Telfaz11,” “The Office,” “From A to B”), with the film’s worldwide release planned for July 4.
Meera AlMidfa will soon star in her first full-length feature, “Al Eid Eiden,” Image Nation Abu Dhabi’s Saudi-Emirati family comedy. (Supplied)
The production brings together an all-female Emirati creative team featuring first feature director Maitha Alawadi, producer Rawia Abdullah and writer Sara Al-Sayegh.
The film’s logline reads, “‘Al Eid Eiden’ follows a Saudi-Emirati family as they make the final preparations for an Eid getaway in Abu Dhabi. An unexpected turn of events on their day of travel changes things drastically for the parents, but not wanting to disappoint their three young children, they decide to go ahead as planned.
“What ensues is a roller-coaster ride of comedic mishaps and misunderstandings as they hurtle through uncharted parenting territory, a theme park, and Eid gatherings with relatives. Through the chaos, they discover unity as a family.”
Having been an integral part of the theatre and acting scene for more than a decade in the UAE, AlMidfa — who has a master’s degree in film directing from the American Film Institute — is also interested in working behind the camera as much as she is performing in front of it.
“I would say acting comes more naturally to me. But the more I do production work, the more it sinks in as well. But it’s like a complete personality switch. So, you need to kind of figure out how to balance yourself when you switch from one to the other based on the project. So, I don’t mix them up too much — I don’t direct something and then act like back-to-back,” she said.
Review: Cannes title ‘Everybody Loves Touda’ is a sparkling example of Nabil Ayouch’s work
Updated 20 May 2024
Gautaman Bhaskaran
CANNES: Directed by Morocco’s Nabil Ayouch, Cannes Film Festival title “Everybody Loves Touda” is a compelling look at a single mother, Touda (an excellent Nisrin Erradi), who lives by the age-old dictum “never say die.”
Living in a small town, she is a bundle of music and mirth and her dances seem to bring cheer to her audience, but she soon faces unwanted attention.
The Cannes screening ended with a standing ovation, and Ayouch’s fourth outing at the festival seemed to garner far more audience appreciation than in earlier years. In 2012, his critically acclaimed drama “Horses of God” played in the Un Certain Regard section, which is second in importance to the main competition and is widely seen as a platform for experimental cinema. But Ayouch has also played in the In Competition section for the coveted Palme d’Or — his 2021 feature “Casablanca Beats,” the first title from Morocco since 1962 to vie for this honor, proved a sensation.
Maryam Touzani and Nabil Ayouch attend the "Everybody Loves Touda" Photocall at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival. (Getty Images)
Like his other movies, Ayouch approaches “Everybody Loves Touda” with fascinating realism that at times may appear a little too harsh. Having written the script with Mayam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”), Ayouch may have given us formulaic fare, but he infuses Touda with a kind of determination that is awesome. Striving to relocate to Casablanca, where her deaf son would have better schooling and she herself could find greater opportunities, Touda begins to sing in village nightclubs, bearing with a grin the lecherous gaze of men drunk with delusion.
This is not the first time that Ayouch puts women in such precarious positions. His 2008 “Whatever Lola Wants” talks about the trials of a postal worker in New York who dreams of becoming an Egyptian belly dancer, and “Much Loved” (which played at in the Director's Fortnight section) created a storm with its exploration of prostitution in Morocco.
Peppered with lively music (by Flemming Nordkrog), Touda croons folkloric songs on liberation and other forms of women’s rights. The actress’s gripping performance causes the narrative to sparkle —Erradi has a remarkable on-screen presence that makes the movie a joy to watch.
Lebanese designer Georges Chakra puts on a show at the Cannes Film Festival
Updated 20 May 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: Lebanese designer Georges Chakra is making a splash at the ongoing 77th Cannes Film Festival and has so far dressed a number of stars on the red carpet.
Australian actress Claire Holt hit the red carpet before the premiere of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” in an all-white gown by the designer.
The Georges Chakra Couture look was created from white satin and chiffon and featured pleated detailing across the hips and a dramatic chiffon shoulder train. The look hailed from the designer’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection.
Meanwhile, Tunisian actress Dorra Zarrouk attended the “Women in Cinema” gala dinner hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in a white satin bustier gown with a satin cape encrusted with hand painted gold feathers from the label’s Fall/Winter 2023-2024 line.
Dorra Zarrouk in Georges Chakra. (Getty Images)
Finally, Chinese actress and model Crystal Zhang chose a Georges Chakra Couture gold sequined gown with a draped veil from the Spring/Summer 2024 collection to attend the Marie Claire China event which took place on the sidelines of the festival.
Holt showed off her choice at the premiere of Costner’s latest film on Sunday. “Horizon: An American Saga” sees the director return to his favorite Western genre with a three-hour film that is just the first of four mooted chapters.
Costner put millions of dollars of his own fortune into the decades-long passion project.
“At a certain moment I just said OK, I'm going to do this myself. And so I mortgaged property, I raised the money,” he told AFP at the festival.
The early reviews were mixed, with The Hollywood Reporter deriding it as a “clumsy slog” while British newspaper The Telegraph said it was “earnest yet hopeful... (and) perhaps its full grandeur won't be fully realized until part two.”
Costner says he is unconcerned about risking his money.
“If they take it away from me, I still have my movie. I still have my integrity. I still listened to my heart,” he said.
US comedian Jerry Seinfeld heckled by Pro-Palestinian supporter at standup show in Virginia
Updated 20 May 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: Pro-Palestine protests disrupted US comedian-actor Jerry Seinfeld’s Saturday night comedy set in Norfolk, Virginia, resulting in one protestor being escorted out of the venue.
Seinfeld has been vocal in his support for Israel following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. The comedian also met with families of the hostages and visited a kibbutz during a trip to Israel in December.
In videos posted online, Seinfeld’s show can be seen being interrupted by a man who stood in the crowd and yelled toward the comedian that he was “a genocide supporter.”
Another video posted to Instagram shows the individual yelling, “Save the children of Gaza,” “No more American tax dollars for genocide” and “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Seinfeld responded to the heckler, later joking, “This is exciting. I like this.”
Last week, several students walked out of Duke University’s commencement ceremony to protest Seinfeld speaking at the event.
