In his first feature-length work, Moroccan filmmaker Adnane Baraka presents a documentary that explores our shared fascination for the mysteries of the cosmos and the primal urgency to live.
Fragments from Heaven, which is screening at the Amman International Film Festival, begins with an astronomical event that took place in eastern Morocco a decade ago. The event is described by Mohamed Oubakha, a nomadic shepherd in his 50s – and one one the film's protagonists – as “blue fire” breaking over the Moroccan desert before colliding with Earth with a horrific rumble.
The blue fire, as it turns out, was a meteor believed to be from Mars, its fragments strewn across the flat desert.
The fragments, given their scientific value, are valuable. For Oubakha and many of the nomads in the eastern region of Morocco, they may be a life-changing find, especially necessary given the increasing aridity of the area – a possible byproduct of climate change – which has caused shrubs to dry, leaving less food for cattle.
As such, Oubakha decides to leave his family, joining a group of other nomads in an expedition to find the "precious stones". Their journey is a trying one. The group will spend weeks sauntering across the flat desert, surveying the ground in wandering gazes, barely blinking and “searching until I forget what I am searching for”.
Besides Oubakha, Fragments from Heaven also centres on Abderrahmane Ibhi, a scientist and university professor researching meteorites for clues about the origins of life. The stones are believed to contain organic compounds that suggest life may have emerged on Mars hundreds of millions of years ago.
“It was a radical choice and a risk,” Baraka says. “We have two characters, two different universes, and they never meet. What was a more interesting link was the quest itself.”
Baraka says the two figures – Ibhi and Oubakha – are looking for the same object, though for different reasons. While the former is driven by hopes of scientific advancement, Oubakha’s quest for the meteorite fragments is aimed at providing a better life for his family.
The same goes for many of the nomads striving to find the promising bits of stone. “One wants to get married or to build a house. Another wants to change his life and go to live in a village, not just in a tent in the middle of nowhere. They are simple dreams projected on to a stone.”
Baraka can’t quite pinpoint the film’s genesis, but says he’s been infatuated by the meteorite ever since hearing about it through Moroccan media. Meteorites frequently fall over the Moroccan desert, he says, but the one in 2013 particularly caught the attention of the public, as a single gram of the stone would sell for $1,000.
“People who found one or two kilos became rich,” he says. “That’s why it was famous, and more people became interested in finding them.”
Many came from across the world to Morocco with the aim of finding these stones, Baraka says, but the Amazigh who lived in those areas seemed to have an instinctive notion of where to look for them, perhaps because they were more familiar with the terrain.
It was the Amazigh nomads that Baraka wanted to feature in his film. The filmmaker describes his time with Oubakha and his family as “magical”, adding that they seemed undeterred by the presence of his camera. Baraka spent extended periods of time with them. He would take several trips from Marrakesh to the eastern region of Morocco, where he would spend weeks or even months at a time with the family and venturing out with Oubakha on his quest.
Fragments from Heaven was not a straightforward endeavour. The film has been more than eight years in the making, in large part due to the scarcity of initial funding. However, as Baraka made headway, and his vision for Fragments For Heaven solidified, he managed to secure funding from several established bodies, including Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and the Red Sea Fund.
“It was a strange and experimental process,” he says. “It began with the writing. I wrote sequences, imagined sequences, because documentary-making is not merely a slave of reality, but also provoking reality to happen.”
One example of this provocation is how Baraka wanted to present death – because he found it to be a necessary juxtaposition with the film’s allusions to primordial life. It was one of the earliest themes that Baraka had written for the documentary, and yet it wasn’t until the tail-end of the filming project that Baraka found a way to visually encapsulate death.
He would not have been able to find it had he not expressed his vision with Oubakha and his son. “During the shoot, I was focusing on something else with Oubakha, and suddenly his son comes up to me and tells me one of their sheep died yesterday.”
The sheep had trailed away from the herd, and after becoming lost, had died and was eaten by wild dogs. The cadaver is seen in the film as nothing more than a pile of wool and bones. The scene is a potent reminder of how absolutely the elements and cycle of life reign in the desert expanse.
There is a little dialogue in Fragments from Heaven, but despite the prolonged moments of silence – or maybe because of it – the film becomes a riveting watch that reels viewers with its tableaux-esque visual compositions and the sounds of the desert – the wind buffeting against Baraka’s microphone and the crackle of sand and stone.
Between the sprawling scenes of Morocco’s desert and the close-up portraits of Oubakha, his family, and the nomads searching for meteorites with a trance-like persistence, Fragments From Heaven manages to become, much like the subjects and themes it examines, timeless.
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Brief scores:
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England: 277 & 19-0
West Indies: 154
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Director: Mohamed Sammy
Starring: Mohamed Ramadan, Ayad Nasaar, Mohamed Adel and Sabry Fawaz
2 stars
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WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
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Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."
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Final%20Fantasy%20XVI
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The%20Legend%20of%20Zelda%3A%20Tears%20of%20The%20Kingdom
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Selected fixtures
All times UAE
Wednesday
Poland v Portugal 10.45pm
Russia v Sweden 10.45pm
Friday
Belgium v Switzerland 10.45pm
Croatia v England 10.45pm
Saturday
Netherlands v Germany 10.45pm
Rep of Ireland v Denmark 10.45pm
Sunday
Poland v Italy 10.45pm
Monday
Spain v England 10.45pm
Tuesday
France v Germany 10.45pm
Rep of Ireland v Wales 10.45pm
Ferrari
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