Immigration is the hot topic at Cannes this year, according to festival director Thierry Frémaux, but it has nothing to do with festival programmers.
“It’s not the festival trying to have a political edge,” Frémaux says. “It’s the artists who are being political.”
Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó's film Jupiter's Moon, for example, which is in competition, is about a young immigrant who is shot while attempting to cross a border – and then discovers he can levitate. He escapes from a refugee camp and is pursued by the enraged camp director.
German filmmaker Fatih Akin's In the Fade, another of the 19 films competing for the coveted Palme d'Or, stars Diane Kruger as a woman grieving the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack in Germany.
At first Islamists are blamed, but it turns out the real culprits are neo-Nazis, and Kruger wants justice.
A Drowning Man, by Dubai-born Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel, is up for the Best Short Film award. Backed by the Arab Culture Fund, the 15-minute film tells the story of a refugee trying to survive in Athens. Fleifel won the Best Documentary prize at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Film Festival with his feature film, A World Not Ours.
Out of Competition, veteran actor Vanessa Redgrave's directorial debut, the documentary Sea Sorrow, explores the historical context of the migrant crisis. It draws parallels between Shakespeare's The Tempest and the tragic story of Syrian three-year-old Alan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach after the overloaded boat he was on, with his family and other refugees, capsized. It also focuses on ordinary people, including an Afghan former headmistress Redgrave met in Greece.
The Un Certain Regard section is normally where to find noteworthy films from auteurs that just missed out on selection for the main competition. In recent years it has gathered a reputation for being where to catch the festival’s best films. There are two films from the region screening in this section this year.
Tunisia has produced some of the finest cinema in the region over the past few years and it looks like this trend will continue with Kaouther Ben Hania's Beauty and the Dogs. It is about a young Tunisian woman who has to confront her mysterious assailant over the course of a night.
Karim Moussaoui's Until the Birds Return is set in present-day Algeria where past and present collide in the lives of a newly wealthy property developer, a young woman torn between the path of reason and sentiment and an ambitious neurologist impeded by wartime wrongdoings. Together, their three stories plunge us into the human soul of contemporary Arab society.
Also showing in Un Certain Regard is Dregs, an Iranian film by Mohammad Rasoulof that tells the story of a man who leaves city life behind to work on a goldfish farm in the north of Iran. There he comes up against a corporation exploiting the land for their own ends.
The Directors’ Fortnight section was created by the French Director’s Guild after the events of 1968, when the Cannes film festival was abandoned as part of a national wave of protests. It now heralds itself as the place to discover new talent.
This year there is a focus on emerging filmmakers from Lebanon. The Lebanon Factory is a talent-development initiative involving creators from that country paired with emerging directors from around the world to work on a short film.
This year’s pairings are Ahmad Ghossein and Lucie La Chimia; Mounia Akl and Ernesto Vilalobos; Rami Kodeih and Una Gunjak and Shirin Abu Shaqra and Manuel Maria Almereyda Perrone.
As for films showing outside the main specialist sections, French documentarian Sonia Kronlund will unveil her feature debut, Nothingwood, about larger-than-life Afghan director and producer Salim Shaheen.
Indonesian director Mouly Surya will also make her Cannes debut with Marlina the Murderer In Four Acts, the story of a young woman who goes on an empowering search for justice after she is attacked by a gang.
The smallest section of the Cannes Film Festival is Critics' Week. It was from here that horror hit Raw emerged last year. This time there is much pre-festival buzz about animated film Tehran Taboo, in which director Ali Soozandeh depicts four young people from Tehran who are forced to break the taboos of society.
The Cannes Market, meanwhile, is the place to show trailers and clips of films that are not yet ready to screen in full, but will be coming our way in the next year. The Dubai Film Market will show five works in progress from the region, giving a first look at the productions to distributors, festival programmers and sales agents.
The participating films are Arkansas-set Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf by Susan Yousef, Joint Possession by acclaimed Moroccan director Leïla Kilani, Annemarie Jacir's much-anticipated third film Wajib, Yasmine Chouikh's Until the End of Time, and Poisonous Roses by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh.
• The Cannes Film Festival begins on May 17 and runs until May 28.
artslife@thenational.ae
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
MATCH INFO
CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures
Tuesday:
Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)
Second legs:
October 23
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
MATCH INFO
New Zealand 176-8 (20 ovs)
England 155 (19.5 ovs)
New Zealand win by 21 runs
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 390bhp
Torque: 400Nm
Price: Dh340,000 ($92,579
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 380hp at 5,800rpm
Torque: 530Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Price: From Dh299,000 ($81,415)
On sale: Now
Six tips to secure your smart home
Most smart home devices are controlled via the owner's smartphone. Therefore, if you are using public wi-fi on your phone, always use a VPN (virtual private network) that offers strong security features and anonymises your internet connection.
Keep your smart home devices’ software up-to-date. Device makers often send regular updates - follow them without fail as they could provide protection from a new security risk.
Use two-factor authentication so that in addition to a password, your identity is authenticated by a second sign-in step like a code sent to your mobile number.
Set up a separate guest network for acquaintances and visitors to ensure the privacy of your IoT devices’ network.
Change the default privacy and security settings of your IoT devices to take extra steps to secure yourself and your home.
Always give your router a unique name, replacing the one generated by the manufacturer, to ensure a hacker cannot ascertain its make or model number.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Union Berlin (5.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Hertha Berlin v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Freiburg (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Monchengladbach (8.30pm)
Sunday
Mainz v Augsburg (5.30pm)
Schalke v Bayer Leverkusen (8pm)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
6027 - Dh100
6026 - Dh200
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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
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Match statistics
Dubai Sports City Eagles 8 Dubai Exiles 85
Eagles
Try: Bailey
Pen: Carey
Exiles
Tries: Botes 3, Sackmann 2, Fourie 2, Penalty, Walsh, Gairn, Crossley, Stubbs
Cons: Gerber 7
Pens: Gerber 3
Man of the match: Tomas Sackmann (Exiles)
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Swiss fly direct from the UAE to Zurich from Dh2,855 return, including taxes.
The chalet
Chalet N is currently open in winter only, between now and April 21. During the ski season, starting on December 11, a week’s rental costs from €210,000 (Dh898,431) per week for the whole property, which has 22 beds in total, across six suites, three double rooms and a children’s suite. The price includes all scheduled meals, a week’s ski pass, Wi-Fi, parking, transfers between Munich, Innsbruck or Zurich airports and one 50-minute massage per person. Private ski lessons cost from €360 (Dh1,541) per day. Halal food is available on request.
Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 (Turf) 1,400m. Winner: Al Ajeeb W’Rsan, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Jaci Wickham (trainer).
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 (T) 1,400m racing. Winner: Mujeeb, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel.
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 90,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Onward, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown Prep Rated Conditions (PA) Dh 125,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Somoud, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle.
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (T) 1,600m. Winner: AF Arrab, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 90,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Irish Freedom, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
Premier Futsal 2017 Finals
Al Wasl Football Club; six teams, five-a-side
Delhi Dragons: Ronaldinho
Bengaluru Royals: Paul Scholes
Mumbai Warriors: Ryan Giggs
Chennai Ginghams: Hernan Crespo
Telugu Tigers: Deco
Kerala Cobras: Michel Salgado
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 3
Danilo (16'), Bernardo Silva (34'), Fernandinho (72')
Brighton & Hove Albion 1
Ulloa (20')
Leaderboard
63 - Mike Lorenzo-Vera (FRA)
64 - Rory McIlroy (NIR)
66 - Jon Rahm (ESP)
67 - Tom Lewis (ENG), Tommy Fleetwood (ENG)
68 - Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP), Marcus Kinhult (SWE)
69 - Justin Rose (ENG), Thomas Detry (BEL), Francesco Molinari (ITA), Danny Willett (ENG), Li Haotong (CHN), Matthias Schwab (AUT)
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Key products and UAE prices
iPhone XS
With a 5.8-inch screen, it will be an advance version of the iPhone X. It will be dual sim and comes with better battery life, a faster processor and better camera. A new gold colour will be available.
Price: Dh4,229
iPhone XS Max
It is expected to be a grander version of the iPhone X with a 6.5-inch screen; an inch bigger than the screen of the iPhone 8 Plus.
Price: Dh4,649
iPhone XR
A low-cost version of the iPhone X with a 6.1-inch screen, it is expected to attract mass attention. According to industry experts, it is likely to have aluminium edges instead of stainless steel.
Price: Dh3,179
Apple Watch Series 4
More comprehensive health device with edge-to-edge displays that are more than 30 per cent bigger than displays on current models.
