Safar Arab film festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the UK with expansion plans to satisfy its growing audience.
Founded in 2012 under the auspices of the Arab British Centre, Safar is the only festival in Britain dedicated to promoting cinema from the Arab world.
Recognising the festival’s maturity after a decade, Safar is now sharing its programmatic repertoire across the country and transitioning from a biennial to an annual event.
It will take its cinematic offerings beyond London to an additional seven cities in England, Scotland and Wales, and has launched a Futures Mentorship Scheme, with the support of the City of London, for aspiring UK-based Arab filmmakers.
The programme director of the Arab British Centre and Safar said the expansion was a “natural progression” for a festival that means “journey” in Arabic.
“We are so delighted to be bringing Arab cinema to new audiences in all four corners of Britain. As independent Arab filmmaking continues to diversify and expand, we are proud to further cement our position as the home of Arab cinema in the UK,” said Amani Hassan.
This year’s programme of contemporary films falls under the broadly-titled theme, “The Stories We Tell”, which curator Rabih El-Khoury says goes back to “the very essence of filmmaking: storytelling”.
“In The Stories We Tell, we’ll be exploring the devices used by Arab filmmakers to push cinematic boundaries, reclaim overlooked histories, and present new perspectives to audiences both at home and abroad — importantly, on our own terms,” said Berlin-based El-Khoury, who returns as Safar’s curator for the second year running.
With an array of some of the best new feature films — including documentaries and shorts — from the Arab world, organisers say this year’s festival showcases a wide variety of “experimentations in form” that blend the “traditional with the radical”.
While some films “bring colonial traumas to the global stage”, others embark on an inspection of contemporary social issues through “surreal and fantastical lenses.”
Of the 22 films from 13 countries being shown, the Egyptian film Feathers — one of five films to have its UK premiere at Safar — is one such radical and surreal experimentation that has garnered both criticism and acclaim.
Omar El Zohairy’s fantastical tale of a father living in the countryside who turns into a chicken when a magic trick goes wrong was Egypt’s first film to feature in International Critics' Week at Cannes Film Festival, and it went on to be awarded the Grand Prize. It also, however, generated opprobrium for what some deemed its “negative” depiction of the large Arab nation, with several high-profile actors and even some politicians criticising the film and its director.
Safar opens with the UK premiere of Farha, the feature debut by Darine J. Sallam, based on a true story of the eponymous 14-year-old girl in Palestine in 1948, who is concealed by her father to protect her from pending danger.
Sallam is one of the filmmakers who will be taking part in a series of live talks, workshops and panel discussions at the festival.
Five stories by five directors examine modern womanhood in Saudi Arabia’s Becoming, a film that looks at the kingdom’s changing society through various female protagonists.
Marking the 20th anniversary of its release, Waiting for Happiness by Abdelrahmane Sissako is one of Safar’s “Arab classics” on offer to audiences. The 2002 French film looks at how a teenager visiting his mother in a Mauritanian village finds himself a stranger in his own country because he doesn’t speak the local language.
For a deeper dive into the region’s cinematic past, the debut film from renowned filmmaker Michel Khleifi will be shown at the festival. Released in 1980, Fertile Memory is the first full-length Palestinian feature to be shot within the occupied West Bank and addresses the roles of women, family and politics following the Six-Day War of 1967.
Safar screening partners in London are the ICA, Cine Lumiere at the Institut Francais, and Barbican Cinema.
Cities joining Safar nationwide are Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool, Hull and Plymouth.
Safar Film Festival runs from July 1 to July 17.
Pathaan
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MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
ICC Awards for 2021
MEN
Cricketer of the Year – Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan)
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Test Cricketer of the Year – Joe Root (England)
WOMEN
Cricketer of the Year – Smriti Mandhana (India)
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Lizelle Lee (South Africa)
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Tammy Beaumont (England)
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On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
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Company profile
Name: Fruitful Day
Founders: Marie-Christine Luijckx, Lyla Dalal AlRawi, Lindsey Fournie
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2015
Number of employees: 30
Sector: F&B
Funding so far: Dh3 million
Future funding plans: None at present
Future markets: Saudi Arabia, potentially Kuwait and other GCC countries
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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
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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More coverage from the Future Forum
School counsellors on mental well-being
Schools counsellors in Abu Dhabi have put a number of provisions in place to help support pupils returning to the classroom next week.
Many children will resume in-person lessons for the first time in 10 months and parents previously raised concerns about the long-term effects of distance learning.
Schools leaders and counsellors said extra support will be offered to anyone that needs it. Additionally, heads of years will be on hand to offer advice or coping mechanisms to ease any concerns.
“Anxiety this time round has really spiralled, more so than from the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Priya Mitchell, counsellor at The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.
“Some have got used to being at home don’t want to go back, while others are desperate to get back.
“We have seen an increase in depressive symptoms, especially with older pupils, and self-harm is starting younger.
“It is worrying and has taught us how important it is that we prioritise mental well-being.”
Ms Mitchell said she was liaising more with heads of year so they can support and offer advice to pupils if the demand is there.
The school will also carry out mental well-being checks so they can pick up on any behavioural patterns and put interventions in place to help pupils.
At Raha International School, the well-being team has provided parents with assessment surveys to see how they can support students at home to transition back to school.
“They have created a Well-being Resource Bank that parents have access to on information on various domains of mental health for students and families,” a team member said.
“Our pastoral team have been working with students to help ease the transition and reduce anxiety that [pupils] may experience after some have been nearly a year off campus.
"Special secondary tutorial classes have also focused on preparing students for their return; going over new guidelines, expectations and daily schedules.”
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
match info
Manchester United 3 (Martial 7', 44', 74')
Sheffield United 0
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Match info:
Real Betis v Sevilla, 10.45pm (UAE)
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 3 (Silva 8' &15, Foden 33')
Birmginahm City 0
Man of the match Bernado Silva (Manchester City)
Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
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