The big city can be a scary place, even without an alien invasion. Without loved ones around, feelings of loneliness, anxiety or desperation can frequently creep in. How does one get through? To echo the words of playwright Tennessee Williams’s most famous heroine Blanche DuBois: “I always rely on the kindness of strangers.”
That’s what makes A Quiet Place: Day One, directed by Michael Sarnoski, feel so different from its hit predecessors. The first two films in the sci-fi saga followed a married couple and their children as they traversed a barren wilderness, fighting to survive. This prequel, set in New York City on the day the murderous creatures first land on Earth, follows a cancer patient and a law student, both alone, who become each other’s family, if only for a moment.
Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o, who stars as Sam, tells The National: “I think it’s a reminder of how much we as people need each other. Not just our tribal members – we need more. When in the first two films we’re following a family, we understand that relationship – the strong bond between family members. When it’s total strangers, it’s not a given. Here, you’re witnessing two people navigate this world, sometimes reluctantly, but always together.”
In the opening, Nyong’o's character Sam is in a hospice with only her service cat Frodo to console her. She’s seemingly given up on life, but when aliens descend, she finds herself fighting to survive. At one point early on, she and her cat are separated, and the film follows only the cat. Frodo happens upon a man in dire need of help, a British law student named Eric, played by Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who he guides to Sam.
“There's a peculiar love between these characters,” Quinn says. “It’s not the conventional kind usually presented in blockbusters.”
Quinn credits Sarnoski, who also wrote the script, with bringing a unique kindness to the film, in which the only villains are the creatures that hunt anything that makes a sound, and trusting others is the only way to survive. Sarnoski’s directorial debut, 2021’s Pig starring Nicolas Cage, was a surprise hit, following a truffle farmer as he attempts to get back the beloved animal stolen from him. In that film, a John Wick-esque set-up slowly becomes something much less bloody and much more compassionate than expected.
“I think [the kindness] is something Michael really brought to this. There’s a depth to his humanity, which is very palpable in his writing,” Quinn continues. “There’s grief, and the opposite of grief is love. And that was our task in some way – to try and figure that out together.”
The bond between the characters mirrors the bond that developed between the two actors, as they navigated a demanding shoot that required them to channel constant panic by leaning on one another.
Nyong’o says: “We were really taking care of each other in each scene. We didn’t have premeditated ideas of what needed to happen, we experimented with every take."
Part of that was necessary because of the basic set-up of the A Quiet Place films – because the monsters will kill anyone who makes a sound, people need to stay as silent as possible to survive. “We didn’t have dialogue. It wasn’t about remembering your lines," Nyong’o adds. "It was all about understanding – facial expression, bodily expression – and working within those nuances. We had to be listening to each other – watching each other – in every take.
"Joe impressed me because he was constantly surprising. His energy would shift the room from the first take. Then, he’d be equally as surprising on the second take. He would just try things, and I would too, and if it didn’t work, he’d try something else. He wasn’t self-conscious, and it was a beautiful thing to witness and play off of.”
Nyong’o was inspired by Quinn as an actor, and Quinn was inspired by Nyong’o as a person, who operated as a true leader on set.
“Lupita was a marvel to watch,” says Quinn, who is also set to become a Marvel hero in the coming Fantastic Four film. “The ways she conducted herself were honestly remarkable. She put so much effort into making sure that the aesthetic of the character felt right to her personally, which was no small task.
“It was a herculean effort to maintain presence through this. She was always there for everyone in every department, while remaining present and brave on screen. It was incredibly impressive."
A Quiet Place: Day One is in cinemas now across the Middle East
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
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MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Jurassic%20World%20Dominion'
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Match info
Australia 580
Pakistan 240 and 335
Result: Australia win by an innings and five runs
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
if you go
The flights
The closest international airport to the TMB trail is Geneva (just over an hour’s drive from the French ski town of Chamonix where most people start and end the walk). Direct flights from the UAE to Geneva are available with Etihad and Emirates from about Dh2,790 including taxes.
The trek
The Tour du Mont Blanc takes about 10 to 14 days to complete if walked in its entirety, but by using the services of a tour operator such as Raw Travel, a shorter “highlights” version allows you to complete the best of the route in a week, from Dh6,750 per person. The trails are blocked by snow from about late October to early May. Most people walk in July and August, but be warned that trails are often uncomfortably busy at this time and it can be very hot. The prime months are June and September.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
