BERLIN: A movie at the Berlin film festival that looks at how Daesh fighters recruit young European women online highlights the dangers of using the Internet, the actress in the starring role told Reuters.
In the film “Profile,” British journalist Amy Whittaker goes undercover to investigate the workings of the militant group by creating a fake Facebook profile and pretending to be a Muslim convert called Melody Nelson.
She comes up with a cover story, disguises her tattoo, learns a bit of Arabic and dons a hijab. Over the coming days she spends hours chatting online to an Daesh fighter called Bilel, with whom she makes curry via video link in one scene, and gradually finds herself being attracted to him.
“It’s dangerous for us all to be online because there’s so much access to everything,” said Valene Kane, who plays Amy. “You can basically do anything online and I suppose that’s what the film shines a light on, this new world that we live in.”
“It’s not just Syria — it’s all over. People are being manipulated into different situations with the anonymity of being online and having an avatar or whatever it is that they use to represent themselves,” Kane said.
Bilel, who in the film is originally from London and describes his job in Syria as “killing people,” promises the woman he knows as Melody he will treat her like a queen and get her a cat.
The character, played by Shazad Latif, shows Melody a luxury home where she would live and makes a video call to her while he is having fun playing football with international recruits.
Kane said women often had a fantasy about what romance should be like and Bilel played that role perfectly for her character.
“This man comes on her screen and says everything that she thought as a little girl that she wanted — I’m going to get you a palace, I’m going to give you as many children as you want, you’ll never have to work again,” she said.
The camera shows Whittaker’s screen for the duration of the film, with viewers voyeuristically watching as she chats to Bilel and her friends and carries out Internet searches on everything from Daesh to how to freeze her eggs.
“It’s about loneliness, about who we are today, how much of our life is happening on screen and how vulnerable we are when we are attached to the Internet and how scary it is,” Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov told Reuters.
“It’s a reality — it’s how we live today,” he said. “If I’m awake for 15 hours, half of this time I’m in front of a screen — my iPhone screen or my desktop or laptop and most important events today in my life are happening on screen.”
The film is based on the true story of French journalist Anna Erelle’s undercover work, which was published in December 2014 and resulted in six people being arrested for involvement in recruitment networks.
Germany’s domestic intelligence chief said last month that Daesh continued to target vulnerable youths in Germany through the Internet and social media.
“Profile” is one of around 400 films being screened at this year’s Berlinale, which runs until Feb. 25.
Film at Berlin fest examines how Daesh militants recruit European brides
Film at Berlin fest examines how Daesh militants recruit European brides
‘A Night of a Lifetime’ takes us down the aisle in celebration of love
- Wedding-themed art exhibition runs until April 18 at SAMoCA in Riyadh
RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Museum of Contemporary Art’s latest exhibition, “A Night of a Lifetime” explores weddings as acts of love and celebration. It runs until April 18.
The exhibition is curated by Alaa Tarabzouni and Philippe Castro and brings together works from more than 30 local, regional, and international artists, that reimagine cultural, ceremonial, and emotional aspects of weddings through the lens of contemporary art.
Noura Al-Maashoug, director of SAMoCA, told Arab News: “All of these artists are exploring both familial practices, their societal practices, what is carried on from earlier traditions, and what traditions we let go of as we move towards the future.
“It’s a very intimate show. A lot of the artists have explored very personal stories, either related to themselves or people from their family. And there’s also a lot of — especially from the Arab world — themes of the public and private celebrations and how weddings really reveal those disparities.”
Entering the first hall of the exhibition, that showcases the more ceremonial aspects of marriage, we are met with floating fabrics, shimmering dance installations, woven chandeliers, a wedding fountain, and children’s festive clothing.
Further in is Lebanese artist Milia Maroun’s “A Love-Living Story,” which is composed of three suspended garments draped in plants, floating between ground and ceiling. The pieces are “kimabayas,” a hybrid garment imagined by Maroun that blends the fluid grace of the kimono with the spiritual symbolism of the abaya. Maroun sees it is a symbol of marriage.
“The kimabayas are not still-life memories, but living symbols — sanctuaries that breathe, grow, and evolve alongside the couple. They tell of a marriage where body and spirit rise together, between Earth and sky, held in a luminous, living promise,” the artist wrote.
Next, visitors are led down a bright pink aisle to the kosha, an elevated seating area for the bride and groom, typical of Middle Eastern weddings, which becomes a focal point of the ceremony. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to interact with the space by sitting for pictures with loved ones or friends, as wedding guests often do.
“I really want people to just have a lot of fun with this. It’s a sumptuous, beautiful show,” Al-Maashoug said. “The scenography was designed very deliberately for people to enjoy themselves. But at the same time, all of the works are incredibly rich with nuance.”
Ultimately, the show is less about weddings than about what they reveal: our longing to be seen, chosen, and remembered. Love, in all its imperfect forms, emerges as a profound act of optimism; a decision to trust the unknown, and to embrace belief.
Moroccan artist Sara Benabdallah’s “Dry Land” series and French artist Valerie Belin’s “Moroccan Brides” series both showcase grand, theatrical traditional clothing through still-life portraits. In a sense, the brides are merely models for the decorative motifs of the costumes, perhaps signifying an unexpected, heavier role at play.
French artist Nicolas Henry’s “Yasmine and Khalil, the Story of a Love Encounter” catches the eye in the neighboring hall, which showcases slightly darker themes of personal experiences with marriage. His work comes across as an ambiguous story of a love that has not been lived.
Nearby is Saudi artist Sultan bin Fahad’s sparkling mountain of collected chandeliers and ornaments, symbolizing what’s disposed of after the ceremony ends. His compatriot Batool Alshomrani’s “A Risky Game” frames book pages that title what the union could mean: “The Passionate Friends,” “Alone,” or “The Veil of Money.” Amani Al-Thuwaini’s “He Is Not Your Choice” tackles the taboo thoughts about arranged marriage of a bride-to-be, whose words are embroidered on a cascading veil.
The exhibition is a grand display of wedding culture across Arab countries and the diaspora in which the artists walk the line between how desire and doubt, and modernity and tradition, can coexist and sustain each other.
Through humor, exaggeration, and sincerity, they explore and invent the language of celebration. Ornaments become symbols of emotions.
There’s also an emphasis on marriage as labor, honing in on the daily choreography of care, endurance, and compromise. Beyond the sparkle and costume lies the quiet work of maintaining a union in gestures that are too small to be photographed and moments that endure once the lights fade out.
“We have a lot of young artists, but we also have quite established artists as well,” Al-Maashoug said. “What’s beautiful about weddings is, no matter what generation you are, you engage with it. Whether you’re looking forward to attending your first wedding, or you’re looking forward to falling in love, or you’re a little bit older and reminiscing about your experiences or those of your loved ones, there’s really something for everyone.”
