ISLAMABAD: Forget Hollywood, forget Bollywood — one of the first films to hit Saudi screens when cinemas reopen next year will be from Pakistan.
Parchi is an ensemble action/thriller-comedy starring Hareem Farooq, Ali Rehman Khan and Shafqat Cheema.
“We feel honored and proud that we are among the first, it’s pretty exciting and it is quite an achievement,” Farooq, also a co-producer of the movie, told Arab News.
“We always aim to do something new and expand our reach, not just stick to Pakistan.”
Pakistan is noted for outstanding drama and television plays, but film has lacked investment, storylines, direction and quality content. Now, however, the movie business is enjoying a revival.
The impact of going international is not lost on Farooq. “I think it’s proof that Pakistani cinema has international appeal, it shows that we are on the right track and that we do have a great future.”
In addition to commercial success, films are changing some of the conversation about Pakistan. “We always want to put Pakistan on the global map in a good light, that is what we work for,” Farooq said.
“Cinema is a platform that can change mindsets — it’s huge and plays a mighty role in our image projection abroad. All the world sees is extremism and terrorism, they don’t get to see what Pakistan is really about.
“We are as crazy and as normal as everywhere else.”
The soundtrack from Parchi has been well received, and the first single, Billo Hai, already has more than a million views on YouTube. The movie itself will be released on Jan. 5 in Pakistan and the UAE, and Jan.12 in the US. Cinemas in Saudi Arabia will reopen early next year after a 35-year ban.
Arab News has emailed the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information for a confirmation about the film but no response has been received by the time of printing.
Lights, camera, action: Pakistani stars head for Saudi cinemas
Lights, camera, action: Pakistani stars head for Saudi cinemas
Iran denies using Swedish gangs to target Israel
STOCKHOLM: Iran’s Embassy in Stockholm has denied accusations it was recruiting criminal gang members, some of them children, as proxies to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli interests in Sweden.
“Paying attention to the source of this information clearly shows that it is false,” the embassy said in a statement on its website, adding that media coverage based on documents from Israel’s secret services was “false and baseless.”
Tensions have flared between Israel and Iran since the start of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, and the two states have fought a shadow war of killings and sabotage attacks for years.
On Thursday, Sweden’s intelligence agency said Iran was “using criminal networks in Sweden to carry out acts of violence against other states, groups or people in Sweden that it considers a threat.”
The service, commonly known as Sapo, said these were particularly aimed at “Israeli and Jewish interests, targets and operations in Sweden.”
Several hours before Sapo’s announcement, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter or DN cited documents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad as saying that the heads of two Swedish gangs had both been recruited by the Iranian regime.
“Unfortunately, some Swedish media have quoted the false and baseless claims of media and institutions affiliated with this brutal regime (Israel) and published false and fabricated reports against Iran,” the Iranian Embassy’s statement added.
The embassy said it “expects the Swedish media not to trust the claims and reports published by the Israeli regime” and to work for “an end to the crimes of the Zionist regime in Palestine.”
The diplomatic spat comes two weeks after night-time gunfire was reported outside Israel’s embassy in Stockholm, and three months after police found a live grenade lying on the grounds of the Israeli compound.
UNRWA chief says Israel ‘must stop its campaign’ against agency
- Philippe Lazzarini highlights ‘outrageous attacks on employees, facilities and operations’
JERUSALEM: UN Palestinian refugee agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Friday that Israel “must stop its campaign against UNRWA” in an opinion article published by the New York Times.
“The war in Gaza has produced a blatant disregard for the mission of the UN, including outrageous attacks on (UNRWA) employees, facilities and operations,” agency chief Lazzarini said.
“These attacks must stop and the world must act to hold the perpetrators accountable.”
UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
That prompted many governments, including top donor the US, to abruptly suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza, although several have since resumed payments.
An independent review of UNRWA, led by French former Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” but said Israel had yet to provide evidence for its leading allegations.
“Israeli officials are not only threatening the work of our staff and mission, they are also delegitimizing UNRWA by effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization that fosters extremism and labelling UN leaders as terrorists who collude with Hamas,” Lazzarini said.
He said the “assault on UNRWA has spread to (Israeli-annexed) East Jerusalem”, where demonstrations outside the agency’s compound have become common in recent months, and “increasingly dangerous, with at least two arson attacks.”
UNRWA last week suspended food distribution in southern Gaza, including Rafah, after Israel launched an offensive in the city and seized the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,284 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
Russia labels wives of mobilized soldiers group ‘foreign agent’
MOSCOW: Russia on Friday labelled a women’s organization campaigning for the return of mobilized men from Ukraine and a former pro-peace presidential candidate “foreign agents.”
Moscow uses the label, heavy in Soviet-era connotations, on Kremlin critics to silence dissent.
The justice ministry included the “Put Domoy” movement, which has organized women-led protests in Moscow to bring mobilized men back from Ukraine, in its list of “foreign agents.”
Put Domoy has been made up of wives of Russian men mobilized to fight in Ukraine.
The justice ministry said it had worked to create a “negative image” of Russia and the Russian army and called for illegal protests.
It also labelled one of the movement’s leaders, Maria Andreyeva, as a “foreign agent.”
She had become the face of the grassroots movement, which became increasingly uncomfortable for the Kremlin.
“I do not agree with this,” she told AFP of the label, adding: “I will protest this.”
Russian authorities had previously appeared unwilling to target the movement in an apparent bid not to anger relatives and wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
The women had earlier this year staged rare protests in central Moscow.
Moscow also included Yekaterina Duntsova, who had tried to run against President Vladimir Putin in a March presidential election, as a “foreign agent.”
Duntsova, who had filed documents to register in the race as an independent candidate, had campaigned on a platform of ending the Ukraine offensive.
She was slapped with the “foreign agent” tag more than two months after the vote, which saw Putin cruise to a fifth term in office unchallenged by any meaningful opposition.
Duntsova told independent media SOTA — also labelled a “foreign agent” Friday — that the move was “expected” but that the timing was odd.
“It could have been done during the presidential campaign,” she said.
Duntsova said she will not give up efforts to create a political party but that “it will become a bit harder with self-expression.”
As a “foreign agent,” she now cannot run for any office.
Russia also labelled the media project SOTA, one of the few independent media reporting from Russia, a “foreign agent.”
It said the media had criticized the Ukraine offensive and that its employees included “foreign agents” living abroad.
Marina Litvinovich, a rights campaigner, was also included in the “foreign agent” list.
Russia has hugely cracked down on dissent since sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
UK ambassador to Mexico sacked after pointing gun at employee, Financial Times reports
- Jon Benjamin is no longer listed as ambassador on his LinkedIn page
MEXICO CITY: The British ambassador to Mexico was fired after allegedly pointing a gun at a local embassy employee, an incident that was captured on video and circulated on social media, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Ambassador Jon Benjamin was traveling through two Mexican states known for their heavy cartel presence when he picked up a gun and pointed it at an employee inside the vehicle they were traveling in, the outlet reported, citing the video and people familiar with the matter.
The episode occurred in April, the sources told the Financial Times, and Benjamin was fired soon after. Benjamin’s LinkedIn page says his term as ambassador ended in May, and a biography on the UK government website says he “was UK Ambassador to Mexico between 2021 and 2024.”
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the embassy.
A video of what appears to be the incident in question was first published on X earlier this week from an anonymous, recently created account with the username @subdiplomatic.
It shows a man purported to be Benjamin sitting beside the driver in a stationary SUV-type vehicle and turning, smiling, to point it at a person in the back seat. The video has not been verified by Reuters.
