There is always one film that gets booed after a press screening at the Cannes Film Festival. This year the distinction went to Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, a visual essay on the meaning of life that left many in the audience perplexed.
The level of anger was nowhere near that expressed after Lars von Trier's Antichrist played two years ago, but it was no surprise that many were baffled by an idiosyncratic film packed with interior monologues, flashbacks and flashforwards, not to mention a 48-year-old Brad Pitt playing the father of 51-year-old Sean Penn's character.
A family is mourning the death of its 19-year-old son. This is the catalyst for sequences involving dinosaurs, exploding stars, sea creatures, forests and childbirth. For some people, these scenes will provide fodder for invigorating existential debate, for others just boredom. There was a similar response to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, and it's to Kubrick that the film can best be compared. Critics seemed split between the two extreme reactions to the most eagerly awaited film of the festival.
Contemporary scenes involving Jack O'Brien (Penn) mourning his brother are juxtaposed with scenes from the 1950s of his father (Pitt) giving his three sons a disciplinarian upbringing that contrasts with the gentle love shown by their mother (Jessica Chastain).
Absolutely no one could make sense of what we had seen, but some were blown away by the lyrical quality of every shot. The film is inspired by a poem and Malick tries to create poetry in motion, albeit motion at a tranquil pace.
Malick, as is his wont, did not turn up to the press conference for the film and left it up to Pitt, who also serves as a producer and put his own money into the picture, and Jessica Chastain to do most of the talking. Of course, most of the media directed questions to one of the most famous actors on Earth who is in Cannes with the actress Angelina Jolie.
Dressed in a white suit over a white V-neck jumper, the actor looked every bit the superstar and it seemed odd that he was here defending a film that is so art-house it could play in a gallery just as well as a cinema.
Pitt defended Malick's absence from the press conference by stating: "I don't know why it's accepted that people who make things in our business are then expected to sell them, and I don't think that computes with him. He wants to focus on the making of it, not the real estate, selling the real estate. It is an odd thing for an artist to start something and then be a salesman."
It was a strange choice of words, as clearly artists can talk about their work without making a sales pitch, and there was certainly plenty to say; no other film at Cannes yet has generated such debate.
The actor also deflected some of the more banal questions about the way he brings up his children by joking that he copied his Tree of Life character. "I beat my kids regularly, that seems to do the trick," he quipped.
Given how much attention there was on the Malick film, it's no surprise that the premiere of Nadine Labaki's second film, Where Do We Go Now, was completely overshadowed. It's a shame because the Caramel director has responded to all the films about Lebanon in 1982 by making a comedy about the relationships between Muslims, Christians and Jews in a small, unnamed town.
The Lebanese director has made a marvellous ensemble drama about the women working together to ensure that sectarian violence does not come to their town. The first hour, involving murder, deceit and cover-ups, is particularly good, as is the decision to punctuate the film with songs. The second half becomes a subversive comedy as the women club together to keep the men from going to war with one another.
The premiere party was given by the Doha Film Institute, which had invested in the film, and was in full swing when the director arrived at 1.30 in the morning. But the day belonged to the shy and reclusive Terrence Malick and no amount of booing and bewilderment was going to change that.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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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.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey
Avedis Hadjian, (IB Tauris)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
MATCH INFO
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
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Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
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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
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
