It will be hard to find a wackier film about the ills of mass meat production than Okja.
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho – whom Quentin Tarantino has compared to Steven Spielberg – is a master of mixing genres and tonal shifts. He specialises in fantasy films with messages for adults. As with his 2006 hit, The Host, his new film uses an outlandish creature to highlight ecological mayhem.
It stars Tilda Swinton as the neurotic, dastardly new chief executive of the Mirando Corporation. In creating Lucy Mirando, Swinton says she had several characteristics in mind.
“She is part vestigial virgin, part Barbie doll, part spa manager. But that sort of sense of her being super-wholesome, it’s all a façade.”
Mirando has a plan. She will change the evil reputation of the company she has inherited by giving it a new eco-friendly face. As such, her Mirando Corporation will genetically modify and breed new super-animals that will reduce food costs and have no environmental footprint. In this way, they can feed the world and at the same time create a popular reality TV show based around these animals.
Twenty-six of these genetically modified animals are sent around the planet, where they are brought up in different environments for a decade to see what conditions will enable these creates to become bigger, fatter and tastier.
In South Korea, a sweet, young, innocent girl, Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), has made a pet of her creature. She has given it a name, Okja, and we see them frolicking in the countryside, helping each other out of tight spots.
The creature is a marvel of CGI. It's part pig and part dog; the size of a hippo, with furry skin and an amenable, doting personality. It has been brought to life by visual effects (VFX) supervisor Erik De Boer, who previously worked on Life of Pi.
Bong is full of praise about the detail around creating Okja, "While the audience looks at the outer exterior of Okja, the VFX team always looks at the bone structure, the fat and the ligaments. Erik really refrained from making the character look like a Disney cartoon."
But when Mirando recalls the animals, the company run into problems. Mija doesn't want to let Okja go. She is supported by a group of bumbling, well-intentioned animal-rights activists played by Paul Dano, Lily Collins and Steven Yeun. They believe the Mirando Corporation is exploiting food for its own ends, and uncover the poor conditions of the animals.
"Once you understand the issues and do the research, you can be a more conscious consumer," Dano says.
But the film goes out of its way to show that animal-rights activists have their own foibles and problems, which in their own way are just as bad and ruthless as those of the food corporations.
The film is not trying to convert us to veganism, but it does want to raise awareness. "I'm not vegetarian, but it certainly talked to me about the complexity of the issues surrounding the food industry," Yeun says.
How we feed more than seven billion people is a complex question and one that doesn't have easy answers. But can we do so ethically? That is the dilemma at the heart of Okja.
"I don't have a problem with people eating animals – after all animals eat animals, we are carnivores," says Bong. "In the pre-capitalist era, the way we prepared the food and ate it was fine by me, but once mass production and capitalism was introduced, it consumed the animal consumption business and problems started to arise."
Bong visited an abattoir in Colorado whilst writing Okja and was shocked by how even an organic cow was dissembled and packaged into food using cold, metallic machinery. "When you see that in person, it is very shocking," he says.
Yet the beauty of Okja is that first and foremost it is a movie designed to entertain and make us laugh. There are myriad eccentric side-characters. Not least Dr Johnny Wilcox, a zoologist who is the public face of the Mirando Corporation.
To play the part, Jake Gyllenhaal sports a furry moustache, and long shorts. He speaks in a high-pitch tone taking his cue from watching children's presenters on YouTube. "It's interesting in that world, to speak to children, there is a strange affectation that people seem to take, we all seem to do it in one way or another, and these bad performances just become magnified when they are television."
He sees Doctor Johnny as a Shakespearean figure. "He has to turn himself into something that he's not, because he's desperate for attention," he says. "The audience hates him, and he doesn't mean to be hated – I kind of love that about the character."
• Okja is on Netflix from June 28.
Calls
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillian, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
4/5
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
UAE SQUAD FOR ASIAN JIU-JITSU CHAMPIONSHIP
Men’s squad: Faisal Al Ketbi, Omar Al Fadhli, Zayed Al Kathiri, Thiab Al Nuaimi, Khaled Al Shehhi, Mohamed Ali Al Suwaidi, Farraj Khaled Al Awlaqi, Muhammad Al Ameri, Mahdi Al Awlaqi, Saeed Al Qubaisi, Abdullah Al Qubaisi and Hazaa Farhan
Women's squad: Hamda Al Shekheili, Shouq Al Dhanhani, Balqis Abdullah, Sharifa Al Namani, Asma Al Hosani, Maitha Sultan, Bashayer Al Matrooshi, Maha Al Hanaei, Shamma Al Kalbani, Haya Al Jahuri, Mahra Mahfouz, Marwa Al Hosani, Tasneem Al Jahoori and Maryam Al Amri
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
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EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
A Prayer Before Dawn
Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
Starring: Joe Cole, Somluck Kamsing, Panya Yimmumphai
Three stars
THE BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Whenever I have any free time I always go back to see my family in Caltra, Galway, it’s the only place I can properly relax.
Favourite film: The Way, starring Martin Sheen. It’s about the Camino de Santiago walk from France to Spain.
Personal motto: If something’s meant for you it won’t pass you by.
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.
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
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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
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Price, base: Dh1.2 million
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 725hp @ 6,500pm
Torque: 900Nm @ 1,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.3L / 100km (estimate)
Where can I submit a sample?
Volunteers can now submit DNA samples at a number of centres across Abu Dhabi. The programme is open to all ages.
Collection centres in Abu Dhabi include:
- Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC)
- Biogenix Labs in Masdar City
- Al Towayya in Al Ain
- NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City
- Bareen International Hospital
- NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
- NMC Royal Medical Centre - Abu Dhabi
- NMC Royal Women’s Hospital.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
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Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Fly Etihad or Emirates from the UAE to Moscow from 2,763 return per person return including taxes.
Where to stay
Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
