BEIRUT // It was an unlikely and joyful product of the Syrian war, a television sitcom that managed to prise humour out of a desperate situation, with the added twist that all the actors were children.
Umm Abdu the Aleppan was filmed on the historic cobbled streets of Old Aleppo and took a light-hearted look at life in a city ravaged by war, portraying ordinary people dealing with everythng from power cuts and water shortages to in-fighting among rebel groups to bombardments. But life imitated art in the most tragic way when the star of the show, 14-year-old Qusai Abtini was killed in a missile strike as he tried to flee from the city.
Fresh-faced and wide-eyed with a toothy smile, Qusai played the husband in a bickering couple and soon became a local celebrity. He was killed when a missile struck the car he was travelling in. When news of his death emerged, a symbolic funeral procession marched through his neighbourhood with several dozen men waving opposition flags and chanting, “Qusai has gone to heaven. Bashar [Al Assad, the Syrian leader] is the killer of my people.”
In life and death, Qusai portrayed the suffering of his fellow Aleppans through comedy. He played Abu Abdu, the domineering, patriarchal husband of the title character Umm Abdu, a clever, ambitous but slightly ditzy woman, played by a girl named Rasha. Both of the young actors displayed a natural flair for comedy.
Bashar Sakka, the director, said he cast children because “they are the witnesses to the massacres committed by Al Assad against childhood.”
Qusai was ten when the mass protests first erupted against Al Assad’s rule in March 2011. He soon became swept up in the uprising, taking part in anti-Assad demonstrations, often sitting on his older brother’s shoulders. He spoke in opposition videos, criticizing Assad’s government and describing Aleppo’s destruction. At the same time, he acted in school plays. Afraa Hashem, the director of his school, saw his talent and introduced him to Bashar Sakka.
“He was very ambitious. Once he moved from acting in plays to TV, his dreams broadened and he worked on transforming what he was living through into his performances,” she said.
“We were looking for an intelligent boy and Qusai was a very talented boy,” said Mr Sakka, who is now in exile in Turkey. “We wanted him to be free with ideas, and without fear of Bashar Al Assad’s regime and its ruthlessness.”
The show is steeped in the atmosphere of Aleppo, Syria’s bustling commercial hub before the war, and takes place in the stone alleyways of one of its old neighbourhoods, with the Arabic dialogue in the city’s distinct accent. Umm Abdu the Aleppan aired on the opposition station Halab Today in nearly 30 episodes of about 10 minutes each. Filming continued even through the almost daily bombardment. One out-take shows three girls jumping in alarm at the sound of an explostion - and then carrying on with their lines.
In one episode, the mother of a rebel fighter visits, looking to arrange a marriage between her son and Umm Abdu’s daughter. Over tea, Umm Abou tells her all her daughters are married to members of the Free Syrian Army, the comparatively secular rebel group. When she learns that the prospective groom is a “mujahid” – an Islamic militant fighter – she slyly demands a high dowry to deliberately thwart the negotiations.
In another episode, Umm Abdu decides with her girlfriends to form an all-female rebel faction. Abu Abdu teases her, saying, “You want to go to the front lines when you’re afraid of cockroaches.” Then he tells her there’s a mouse under the couch and laughs as she jumps up and screams.
Another scene has Abu Abdu going with rebels on a raid, but Umm Abdu gossips about it to all her neighbuors – and her husband comes back wounded from an ambush by government forces who learned of the planned attack. “I wonder how everyone found out?” he muses.
After the TV series, Qusai had roles in local theatre productions. Last summer, he played a rebel killed in fighting. As his mother weeps over his body, a man tells her: “Be happy for him. He wanted martyrdom and he got it.”
During recent shelling,Qusai’s home was hit and his father was wounded and left wheelchair-bound. On July 8, Qusai’s father decided to send his children out of Aleppo just before the city was besieged by the forces of the Al Assad regime.
But as the car Qusai was in made a run down the only road out of rebel-held parts of Aleppo, it was hit by a missile.
In a video of the symbolic funeral a few days later, his father in his wheelchair watches the marchers go by, holding a placard reading, “Qusai, Abu Abdu the Aleppan. You are a little hero. You scared the regime with your giant acts so they killed you.”
His brother Assad, 19, a fighter in the US-backed Free Syrian Army, said, “He was loved by everyone. He used to lead the revolutionary protests in the streets. He was their poster boy. But he was my little brother and every time I see kids in the street now it feels like my heart will stop beating.”
* Associated Press
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• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
The biog
Name: Shamsa Hassan Safar
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Degree in emergency medical services at Higher Colleges of Technology
Favourite book: Between two hearts- Arabic novels
Favourite music: Mohammed Abdu and modern Arabic songs
Favourite way to spend time off: Family visits and spending time with friends
BACK%20TO%20ALEXANDRIA
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Friday’s fixture
6.15pm: Al Wahda v Hatta
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9pm: Al Wasl v Baniyas
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MATCH DETAILS
Barcelona 0
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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)
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
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MATCH INFO
Chelsea 3 (Abraham 11', 17', 74')
Luton Town 1 (Clark 30')
Man of the match Abraham (Chelsea)
What's in the deal?
Agreement aims to boost trade by £25.5bn a year in the long run, compared with a total of £42.6bn in 2024
India will slash levies on medical devices, machinery, cosmetics, soft drinks and lamb.
India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
Indian employees in the UK will receive three years exemption from social security payments
India expects 99% of exports to benefit from zero duty, raising opportunities for textiles, marine products, footwear and jewellery
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
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All or Nothing
Amazon Prime
Four stars
Top financial tips for graduates
Araminta Robertson, of the Financially Mint blog, shares her financial advice for university leavers:
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The biog
Age: 30
Position: Senior lab superintendent at Emirates Global Aluminium
Education: Bachelor of science in chemical engineering, post graduate degree in light metal reduction technology
Favourite part of job: The challenge, because it is challenging
Favourite quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Gandi
If you go...
Fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai in Thailand, via Bangkok, before taking a five-hour bus ride across the Laos border to Huay Xai. The land border crossing at Huay Xai is a well-trodden route, meaning entry is swift, though travellers should be aware of visa requirements for both countries.
Flights from Dubai start at Dh4,000 return with Emirates, while Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi start at Dh2,000. Local buses can be booked in Chiang Mai from around Dh50
Results
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WISH
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
'Nope'
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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