When Cherien Dabis’s All That’s Left of You premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January – one of several Arab films at the festival – it marked both a beginning and an ending.
Dabis broke through at the Utah event in 2009 with Amreeka, a project developed at the inaugural Rawi screenwriters’ lab in Jordan, founded by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in partnership with the Royal Film Commission. As the film world mourns Redford, who has died, aged 89, Arab cinema now stands as one of Sundance’s constants.
Redford’s only film touching the Arab world was Spy Game (2001), where Beirut served as the backdrop for CIA operations. But the actor – celebrated for roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men and who also directed nine features including Ordinary People – built something different for the region: infrastructure linking Arab filmmakers to Hollywood.
The Sundance Institute, founded by Redford in 1981, became a crucial door for Arab directors. In 2005, the launch of Rawi paired regional writers with international mentors.
Amreeka premiered alongside Najwa Najjar’s Pomegranates and Myrrh at Sundance in 2009 – both films emerging from Rawi’s first years. Amreeka, a drama about Palestinian-American migration, competed in the US Dramatic Competition, while Pomegranates and Myrrh, a love story set in Ramallah that had its world premiere in Dubai in 2008, screened in a non-competitive section. Suddenly, stories rooted in Ramallah and the West Bank were reaching distributors in Los Angeles and London.
Momentum built quickly. Mohamed Al-Daradji’s Son of Babylon was screened at Sundance in 2010. Sally El Hosaini’s My Brother the Devil won the World Cinema Cinematography Award in 2012. A year later, Jehane Noujaim’s The Square captured Egypt’s revolution and Sundance’s audience award before earning an Oscar nomination – the kind of trajectory that had been impossible for Arab documentaries before Sundance opened its doors.
“I could see and feel that there were other voices out there,” Redford said in 2018, explaining Sundance’s origins. “Other stories that needed to be told that were maybe more risky. They weren’t being given a chance.”
He may have been describing American independent films, but the words applied just as well to the Arab filmmakers his institute would champion.
Beyond screenings, Sundance provided vital financial backing to Arab and North African filmmakers. Its Documentary Fund supported Noujaim’s work and Talal Derki’s Return to Homs, which won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in 2013. Derki returned with Of Fathers and Sons, which premiered at Sundance in 2017 and was later nominated for an Academy Award.
Sundance’s labs and residencies – the workshops and extended retreats it designed for filmmakers – connected Arab directors to producers and distributors, helping them strengthen scripts and secure more festival invitations and distribution opportunities.
By 2019, when the documentary Gaza premiered at Sundance, Arab films were becoming a mainstay. The film’s subjects, including musician Abu Yaseen, were invited but denied exit permits by the Israeli government. The film screened without them – a reminder of how freedom of movement is taken for granted by many, but also of how the voices of the disenfranchised can still reach the world.
The Arab world recognised Redford’s contribution directly. In December 2019, he received the Etoile d’Or, a lifetime achievement award, at the Marrakesh International Film Festival, where he described his career as a “lifelong quest for truth and freedom”.
It underscored the contrast between Spy Game’s Beirut backdrop and the Palestinian stories Sundance championed: Hollywood often used the Arab world as scenery, while Redford helped build systems that let Arab filmmakers tell their own stories.
Redford leaves behind more than 75 film appearances and nine directorial works. In the Arab world, his legacy remains in the Jordanian lab that nurtured a generation, the Palestinian dramas that reached Utah, and the Arab films that continue to screen at Sundance – proof that the doors he opened remain wide.
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
AT%20A%20GLANCE
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Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
The Penguin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz
Creator: Lauren LeFranc
Rating: 4/5
Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Global institutions: BlackRock and KKR
US-based BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with $5.98 trillion of assets under management as of the end of last year. The New York firm run by Larry Fink provides investment management services to institutional clients and retail investors including governments, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, banks and charitable foundations around the world, through a variety of investment vehicles.
KKR & Co, or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is a global private equity and investment firm with around $195 billion of assets as of the end of last year. The New York-based firm, founded by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, invests in multiple alternative asset classes through direct or fund-to-fund investments with a particular focus on infrastructure, technology, healthcare, real estate and energy.
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
Company%20Profile
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Engine: 80 kWh four-wheel-drive
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 760Nm
Price: From Dh280,000
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
