JEDDAH: Tickets for “Amra and the Second Marriage,” Saudi Director Mahmoud Sabbagh’s latest feature film, will go on sale in London on Sept. 13.
The film is scheduled to debut on Oct. 13 at the Vue cinema in Leicester Square, and the following day at the Curzon cinema in Soho.
“Amra and the Second Marriage” tells the story of how a middle-aged housewife handles her husband’s decision to pursue a second wife.
“It’s a dark comedy about an average housewife who discovers that her retiring husband is planning to marry a younger second wife,” Sabbagh told Arab News.
“In her attempts to comprehend this new reality, her life begins to unravel as she’s pushed toward a hefty compromise,” he said.
“Unlike my debut feature ‘Barakah Meets Barakah,’ which voiced millennials’ concerns about cosmopolitan Jeddah, this one touches on a heartland mainstream milieu. There’s a hyper-real element to it that serves not to estrange.” Both films were shot entirely in Saudi Arabia.
Born in Jeddah in 1983, Sabbagh grew up heavily influenced by Egyptian films from the 1980s.
In 2011, he attended Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he studied documentary filmmaking and production.
After earning his master’s degree, Sabbagh returned to Jeddah, where he released the highly acclaimed 2016 film “Barakah Meets Barakah.”
Shot entirely in Jeddah, the film is a comedic love story that plays on strict Saudi social conventions in a dramatically candid way.
It premiered at the 66th annual Berlin International Film Festival — the first Saudi feature film to do so — and was later selected as the Saudi entry for best foreign-language film at the 89th Academy Awards.
The following year, Sabbagh was appointed to the jury for the best first feature award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.
“In all my work, I take a humorous stab at the contradictory, unequal setups of our society. There’s a cinematic moral responsibility to every filmmaker,” he said.
“My quest has been to modernize intersubjective realities and distort those unequal power dynamics so change can occur from within. This happens by being able to tell more and more local stories,” he said.
“These stories get their universal appeal because emotional conflicts are universal. You can’t deny that.”
Regarding his inspiration to pursue a career in filmmaking, Sabbagh credits his fellow Saudis.
“The everyday life of a Saudi inspires me. We have rich stories and fascinating milieus. In my latest film, I strived to give its dark comedy a Coen Brothers tone,” he said.
Along with directing and screenwriting, Sabbagh also produces films, and in 2015 he founded Elhoush Productions, the first independent feature film production company based in Jeddah.
Prior to filmmaking he worked as a journalist, which he attributes with shaping his perceptions on sensitive social taboos.
As for what is next, “I’d like to progress my style more. I have bigger desires for more cinematic fulfilment,” Sabbagh said.
“I’m interested as a director in the idea of being able to go further, to do something that hasn’t been done before, to work harder with everyone else to bring the filmmaking experience to a more pleasant and accessible standard.”
Saudi director’s latest film to debut in London
Saudi director’s latest film to debut in London
- In all my work, I take a humorous stab at the contradictory, unequal setups of our society
‘Act of Devotion’: Pakistani artist turns worn Qur’anic pages into works of art
- 28-year-old visual artist Saad Mehmood began restoring Qur’an pages ready for ritual disposal as part of BA final-year thesis
- Renowned artists describe the effort as “positive,” say it is vital to expand ways in which we experience the holy book
LAHORE: For Saad Mehmood, it was a routine visit to a mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore for Friday prayers in 2017 when the then 22-year-old stumbled upon a store room with sheaves of paper stored carefully on a shelf.
The worn pages were fragments from everyday copies of the Qur’an, which were awaiting ritual disposal. In Pakistan, pages of the holy book that are disposed are often called shaheed, or martyred, copies.
In Islam, widely accepted methods of disposing worn pages of the holy book are to wrap them in a cloth and bury them, ideally in a mosque, or to burn them respectfully.
But Mehmood, at the time a final year student of fine arts at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU), was inspired by the worn copies and decided to restore them as part of his thesis.
“Saad asked for some of these pages that were torn or worn out, and started to restore the ordinary, mass-printed sheets with gold paper and the finest ink — bringing that which was ‘martyred’ back to life,” the artist’s statement accompanying an ongoing exhibition of his works in Lahore reads.
The effort is “an act of artistic devotion,” Mehmood told Arab News at the exhibition last week, saying all his work now revolved around restoring the holy pages and turning them into artforms.
“This work started in 2017,” Mehmood, now a 28-year-old visual artist, said. “I collect the pages of the Qur’an that are shaheed, then there’s an entire process to their restoration, I fill in the damaged parts so that the pages are readable again.”
Mehmood said he had done extensive research on damaged Qur’anic pages and what happened to them and where they went from storerooms of mosques and homes.
“I saw that they’re buried in graveyards, or floated in clean and flowing water. Sometimes, I even saw the pages being burned and their ashes buried in some corner of a graveyard,” he explained.
This got Mehmood thinking: instead of disposing of the sacred texts, he could restore them.
The process of restoration was a difficult one, as many Qur’an pages Mehmood came across had no references.
“When we open these [Qur’anic] collections… there are [some] smaller pages which don’t have any references [which ayat, surah, what page number],” he said. “So, this was a conundrum… how do I restore them when there’s no reference to work with?“
Mehmood decided to make a collage of such pages.
“So, at least they are still visible, still accessible,” he said. “So, we don’t accidentally disrespect the words, they will remain in front of our eyes, and then turn them into art to be appreciated.”
Mehmood has also visited multiple religious scholars to present his idea and his work.
“There are a lot of organizations in Pakistan like Tahaffuz-e-Auraq [who dispose of pages in the prescribed manner],” Mehmood said. “I restored them and then I started showing people that basically this is the work I’m doing.”
The idea found wide acceptability, he said.
“GOLD LEAF”
The ongoing exhibition in Lahore, organized by the Pakistan Art Forum, includes collages of restored Qur’anic fragments, concentric circles around Islamic calligraphy, decorative additions like gold leaves, and paintings with Arabic diacritics on Vasli and white paper. And this is all by design.
Mehmood said he wants to further explore this Islamic art form and create something new, like his painting of the diacritics without any words, or of punctuation marks without any sentences.
“The Qur’an came to us from Arabia, and the diacritics were added later, so that non-native Arabic speakers [Ajmi] could understand the text,” he said. “[Helping] in how to pronounce and enunciate it, zeir, zabr, that is also something I’ve worked on, and will continue to work on.”
There is also a reason why Mehmood uses gold leaf so often.
“When you look at my work… I have used gold leaf on the shaheed [damaged] Qur’anic pages,” he said.
“I used that gold leaf specifically and consciously, because gold is considered a divine material. And where the words are missing, pages torn, I’ve also used gold leaf to show the preciousness of the lost words, using a precious material.”
“EXPAND WAYS TO EXPERIENCE QUR’AN”
The visual artist has held a number of group exhibitions at the Alhamra Arts Center in Lahore and Sanat Gallery in the southern port city of Karachi. Last week, he held his second solo show in Lahore, titled Al-Qadr, referring to the night when Muslims believe the Qur’an was first revealed.
While most of the visitors to the Lahore exhibition said they had come out of curiosity, they left with admiration for the intricate work and beautiful calligraphy or collage technique that Mehmood uses.
“Calligraphy is a part of [what I do], but this is something else [entirely],” he explained. “You can call it a collage. You can call it an installation. You can call it painting, you can call it artwork.”
Shahid Rassam, a famous Pakistani painter and sculptor, described Mehmood work as “positive,” saying he had seen other works, though rare, in which worn Qur’an pages were restored as a form of art.
Rassam, who has himself made contemporary forms of the Qur’an, including one in which he used metal engravings, said it was “vital to expand the ways in which we experience the sacred text, even as art installations.”
“I think what this young man [Saad Mehmood] is doing is objectively a positive thing,” the artist said. “He’s taking sacred pages and giving them their rightful respect, instead of just letting them lie in poorly-kept stores and boxes.”
What We Are Reading Today ‘Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors’ by Alison Light
Alison Light, author of many acclaimed books about feminism and history, takes us on a journey to trace her own ancestors in “Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors.”
Many of us might be curious about our ancestors — who were they, what stories did they have to tell, what were they like? Exploring one’s lineage could uncover less than glamorous backstories or prove to be a frustrating endeavor with inconsistencies and dead ends.
Light, however, finds a way to chart the course of the lives of everyday people. She goes through the stories of servants, sailors, farm workers, combing through archives to revive their stories and allow these people to live once more — if only in her pages.
In her 2009 book, “Mrs Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury,” she was transfixed by the life of Virginia Woolf, a popular yet deeply depressed author in her own right, who relied on live-in domestic help during her life to help with the most intimate and mundane of daily tasks. In this book, Light uses the same approach but turns the focus to her own life and history. She tries to understand her own ancestors and — by extension — all of ours, too. Her attempt at understanding the lives of those who once existed helps us to understand our own lives. Family history is a kind of public history and one that we share.
The book has maps, detailed family trees and Light’s personal photographs to augment her painstaking research and ability to zap life into those long gone.
“I began this book because I realized I had no idea where my family came from,” she says in the preface. Although she knew where she grew up and her personal history — as well as fragments of her parents’ lives, which they shared, and some stories about her grandparents — she did not know the bigger picture.
Her mother’s mother was an orphan and her father’s side was littered with blank spaces. She concluded that many of her relatives had no roots, as far as she could tell, and so the book became a quest to dive deeper into what it is possible to find out about people we never met but whose bloodline we share.
Since genealogy has become something of a trend in recent years, finding out your genetic background has become a simple process — spit into a tube and have it analyzed. But what are the stories that go behind and beyond the science?
Light’s book tries to find out, and you, the reader, can join her on that journey.
Athr Foundation fosters creativity with Bait Shouaib open studio
- Bait Shouaib offers an immersive and supportive environment, fostering creativity and cultural exchange among the rich heritage of its surroundings
- During the residency, artists learned about the Al-Balad district from the perspective of a local inhabitant, resulting in studio presentations and site-specific installations
JEDDAH: The Athr Foundation has launched the first open studio at Bait Shouaib, an artists’ residential program located in the heart of Al-Balad.
Bait Shouaib offers an immersive and supportive environment, fostering creativity and cultural exchange among the rich heritage of its surroundings.
During the residency, artists learned about the Al-Balad district from the perspective of a local inhabitant, resulting in studio presentations and site-specific installations.
One artist, Badr Ali, told Arab News: “My memories of Al-Balad were from childhood, where my mom warned me of its rough and dangerous nature. Coming from Germany, I took a hiatus from art and decided to join this residency for inspiration. I was struck by the district’s homogeneity and outdated toys, sparking research on their intended audience. These toys, originally meant for Umrah migrants, now seem out of touch with today’s tech-savvy kids.”
He added: “Through my art, I explore the irony of these toys in a district that has undergone gentrification. My painting highlights the decay of mass-produced toys, using glitter and embellishments to emphasize the contrast between superficial esthetics and inherent quality issues. This residency in Jeddah has been a unique experience, different from my previous ones in France, Germany, and the UK. The cultural nuances and art scene in Saudi Arabia have presented new challenges and inspirations for my work.”
The intimate perspective offered by the artists has deepened their understanding of Al-Balad’s rich cultural heritage. The night-time festivities during Ramadan added an extra layer of enchantment.
Artist Tamara Kalo said, “This residency program has been really inspiring. I feel like there are so many things I wanted to do and not enough time. But, also, that’s the beauty. Maybe it’s like you get to explore little bits and pieces of things that are inspiring, then you do what you can and it still opens doors for other things in the future.”
On her artwork, she said: “The bedspace is a realm of the subconscious, holding tensions of dreams and nightmares, comfort and discomfort. By intertwining my body with a green ribbon on the bed frame, I create a cage-like enclosure for imaginative safe space. The green screen material offers infinite representation possibilities, blurring the line between material and immaterial through video overlay. This references the virtual world as a collective subconscious that interrupts our rest. The roshan-turned-camera work brings the public into private space by capturing direct light reflections.”
And Abdulla Bahiji’s innovative approach to reimagining the urban landscapes of Jeddah and the Hejaz region involved transforming concrete blocks into biodegradable incense burners infused with scents and flora.
Reflecting on his experience as a newcomer to Al-Balad, he said: “As a first-time dweller in Al-Balad, I found myself captivated by its essence, enveloped in a rich tapestry of scents ranging from Jawi bakhoor to fish, oud to meat. These fragrances not only altered my perception of time but also served as tangible markers of the city’s evolving narrative. Investigating the history of Al-Balad, I uncovered the remarkable resilience of the local businesses as they transitioned from traditional to medicinal products, showcasing the city’s adaptability.”
The curator of the open studio, Alana Alireza, said: “In my role I oversaw the coordination of two artists and a researcher to cultivate a harmonious and collaborative workspace. This led to the creation of a reflective essay inspired by my time in Al-Balad, exploring the themes of scent and nostalgia.”
Bait Shouaib, hosted by the Athr Foundation offers a transformative experience for artists worldwide. The four-week residency provides a fully equipped studio space and facilitates cross-cultural dialog, heritage exploration, and artistic development.
Meet Abdullatef Alrashoudi, the Saudi baker making it big in Paris
- The former surgeon turned Cordon Bleu graduate incorporates flavors from his homeland into his high-end bakes
LONDON: Five years into his medical career, Saudi surgeon Abdullatef Alrashoudi hung up his stethoscope for the final time.
It was the morning of his 30th birthday, and an offer had recently landed in his inbox from Le Cordon Bleu, the prestigious Parisian culinary school that has trained luminaries from American chef Julia Child to Mary Berry, one of the original judges on “The Great British Bake Off.”
Now 34 and running his own café in one of Paris’ trendiest neighbourhoods, Alrashoudi looks back on that email as a turning point in his life.
“It was the biggest gift,” he says. “Baking had always been my dream, and medicine was showing me it was not the right path.”
After the switch, which he admits left his hospital colleagues “shocked,” Alrashoudi’s career has gone from strength to strength. Nine gruelling months studying bread dough, baking and boulangerie techniques led to spells working in leading Parisian restaurants — and finally to a place of his own.
LÂM — which combines Alrashoudi’s nickname ‘Latif’ and ‘âme’, the French word for ‘soul’ — has been open for just over six months, but is already welcoming a steady stream of regulars through the doors.
The airy, mineral green-fronted space sits opposite a bubble tea shop and art gallery in a “hip, up-and-coming” neighbourhood just off the French capital’s Place de La République.
In the window, a hand-built La Marzocco machine from Italy, in the same vibrant green as the Saudi Arabian flag, churns out rich cups of coffee from the high-end Parisian brand Coutume.
These aromatic brews are accompanied by delicate counter bakes that fuse traditional French techniques with enticing Middle Eastern flavours — the nutty richness of tahini, the sweet crunch of pistachios, the fragrant allure of rose.
Alrashoudi, who hails from the date-rich province of Al-Qassim but grew up in north Riyadh, explains that, instead of a cinnamon roll, the café serves a black-lemon version inspired by the Saudi dessert klēja, made with soft brioche dough, honey, and biscuit.
Other inventive options on the menu include zaatar and feta buns, bakes mixing chocolate and cardamom, plus a tahini cookie, for which he uses the classic French technique of burned butter to add “a deeper flavour”.
Since opening in September, LÂM has quickly become a popular spot. While most patrons are “local to the street,” Alrashoudi, who is fluent in French, is hopeful that the coming months will bring more Khaleeji visitors — especially in the run-up to the Olympics, which will be hosted in the city this summer.
But before millions of visitors from around the world descend on Paris for a month of sporting action, Alrashoudi is focusing on getting through Ramadan, with fasting hours in the French capital running from around 5.30 a.m. until 7 p.m. this year.
To mark the holy month, he is serving Saudi dates with every coffee, and plans to continue that after Ramadan finishes because it is “working really well” with customers.
And while you can take the baker out of Saudi, you can’t take the generous spirit of Saudi out of the baker. In keeping with the principles of hafawa (hospitality), Alrashoudi holds back a cup of coffee every night for a fasting Tunisian restaurateur working next door.
Alrashoudi has already become known in the neighborhood as ‘the Saudi chef’ and his customers are “always asking” about his homeland — particularly the cultural transformation that has swept through the Kingdom in recent years under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030.
The young baker credits much of his success to those changes. It was the Crown Prince’s own Misk Foundation that granted him a scholarship to study at Le Cordon Bleu alongside a group of other young Saudis, who have since gone on to lead kitchens in the Kingdom and beyond.
“When I was growing up many people did not know about Saudi, but in recent years that has changed,” says Alrashoudi, who acknowledges that LÂM is one of a small number of Gulf culinary spots around the world positively influencing perceptions of the region.
But despite growing representation of Khaleeji culture on the global stage, for most people Arabic cuisine still predominantly conjures images of Levantine dishes such as shawarma, hummus, and falafel.
This is reflected in the culinary landscape of major cities, with TripAdvisor figures revealing that London and New York City combined have only one Saudi Arabian restaurant, despite hosting hundreds of Lebanese and Egyptian eateries.
Alrashoudi believes this needs to change, particularly at a time when diners are increasingly interested in broadening their horizons.
“The government has been trying so hard to have people come and visit Saudi Arabia and to export our culture,” he says. “It’s where I am from and I love it — now it needs to be experienced by the world.”
Abdullatef Alrashoudi’s orange saffron muffins
Ingredients:
200g sugar; zest of 2 oranges; 2 medium eggs; 105ml olive oil; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 300g all-purpose flour; 1/2 tsp baking soda; a generous pinch of salt; 60g almond flour; 120g buttermilk; 120ml orange juice; 20g sugar; a pinch of saffron
Instructions:
1. Mix 200g sugar with the orange zest until the mixture is fragrant and the sugar is slightly moist — this helps release the oils from the zest, packing a punch of orange flavor.
2. Crack the eggs into the sugar-zest mixture. Whisk vigorously until fully combined. Then add the olive oil while whisking. You want it all emulsified, giving your muffins a beautiful, light texture. Then add the vanilla essence.
3. In another bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and almond flour together.
4. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients. Pour in the egg, oil, and zest mixture. Gently fold everything together — just enough to combine.
5. Fold in the orange juice and buttermilk. The mixture should now look golden. In a separate bowl, mix 20g sugar with the saffron to sprinkle on top of the muffins.
6. Spoon the batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle with the saffron-sugar mix. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10-15 minutes, or until the muffins are golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Oman reveals artistic team headed to Biennale Arte 2024 in Venice
DUBAI: The Sultanate of Oman has announced that its national pavilion at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia, or Biennale Arte 2024, will be titled "Malath-Haven" and will be curated by Alia Al-Farsi.
Set to run from April 20 to Nov. 24, 2024, the display in Venice will showcase new artworks by Omani contemporary artists Dr. Ali Al-Jabri, Essa Al-Mufarji, Sarah Al-Olaqi, Adham Al-Farsi and Alia Al-Farsi herself.
In line with the 2024 Biennale’s curatorial theme "Foreigners Everywhere," the artists will present a body of work that captures the essence of Oman's multicultural legacy.
Sayyid Saeed Al Busaidi, Undersecretary for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth for Culture, said in a statement: “We are delighted to return to this enchanting city for the second time, showcasing the rich artistic heritage of our nation. Our presentation will spotlight a diverse collection of contemporary artwork created by talented Omani artists.
“Additionally, the Ministry is committed to fostering artistic development nationwide through various programs aligned with the Venice Exhibition. The participation of the Sultanate of Oman in the International Art Exhibition holds significant importance within the framework of intercultural dialogue and human interaction diversity. As a platform renowned for its celebration of global artistic expression, the Biennale Arte offers Oman a unique opportunity to showcase its rich cultural heritage and artistic innovation on an international stage.”
Curator Al-Farsi added: “The four chosen artists representing the Sultanate of Oman at the 60th International Art Exhibition have each made noteworthy and commendable contributions to their communities, effectively revitalizing the contemporary art scene in Oman throughout their careers. Their impact extends beyond their artistic endeavours, serving as inspiration for new generations of artists.”