Winnie Harlow heads to Saudi Arabia for magazine photo shoot
The models met on social media nearly a year ago
Salman said Harlow helped her feel more comfortable in her own skin
Updated 01 June 2019
Arab News
DUBAI: In a first of its kind, international model Winnie Harlow flew into Saudi Arabia for a photoshoot with her Saudi doppelganger for the June cover of Vogue Arabia.
The latest magazine issue features fashion star Winnie Harlow and her look-alike Shahad Salman, both models championing vitiligo awareness. Vitiligo is a skin condition caused by lack of melanin in some areas of the skin, creating patches of lighter skin on the body and face.
They met online, almost a year ago, when Salman posted her picture with Harlow’s side-by-side on Instagram.
“She wrote in the caption that it was ‘weird’ how similar we looked. I commented saying that it was not weird, but that she was so gorgeous,” Harlow told Vogue Arabia. Harlow was the first model with vitiligo to walk in the much-celebrated Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
The models discussed their stories of success when they met during the photoshoot in Riyadh’s Sadus heritage village, and how vitiligo did not stand in the way of their dreams.
“Winnie was the person who gave me the confidence to fight. I never expected to meet her. Sharing time on the set of Vogue with her was a dream. I feel that now I, too, can inspire other girls from the Arab world,” Salman said.
‘What if this were me?’: Pakistani-Dutch filmmaker amplifies Afghan voices challenging refugee stereotypes
Anya Raza’s ‘On the Mountain’ captures the dilemma of an Afghan woman teacher, who is caught between love, family and unforgiving realities of the conflict
The filmmaker urges Pakistan to reconsider its decision to expel Afghan refugees, saying ‘it is very important that they have their basic human rights and dignity’
ISLAMABAD: Anya Raza was in Washington and watched with the whole world in disbelief as the Afghan capital of Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, marking an end to two decades of United States-led intervention.
The chaos that unfolded moved the Pakistani-Dutch writer and filmmaker to reach out to the Afghans, who desperately sought to relocate to safety, as well as humanitarian and other workers involved in the process.
Their tales of love, loss, devastation and despair compelled Raza to document these heart-wrenching stories to humanize the Afghan refugee crisis for the world, which largely seemed to be indifferent to the chaos.
Her film, ‘On the Mountain,’ based on true stories Raza encountered during the interviews, challenges stereotypes and offers a deeply human perspective on the plight of Afghan refugees, according to the filmmaker.
“I interviewed a lot of refugees, people working with refugees, humanitarian workers, case workers, resettlement officers, and others involved. Time and again, I was struck by the sheer devastation, loss, and the immense decisions people had to make just to keep uprooting their families, to keep them safe,” Raza told Arab News, on the sidelines of the Women International Film Festival in Islamabad last week.
“After 20 years of war, the voices of Afghan people weren’t reaching the international stage, despite all the sacrifices they made, despite the destruction. It felt like a way for me to lend my voice as an artist, to break some of the silos.”
The 13-minute film captures the dilemma of an Afghan woman teacher who is caught between love, family and the unforgiving realities of the conflict, forced to make heartbreaking choices.
Set against the backdrop of a turbulent Kabul in 2021, Raza says the film is both a “social and political statement” that challenges stereotypes and biases relating to refugees and offers audiences a chance to reflect on the human characters behind headlines.
“There are a lot of prejudices, biases, and stereotypes when it comes to refugees — their role in communities, how they are perceived,” she said.
“This film is an invitation into an Afghan home, into the love and tough decisions that a family must make. It lets viewers ask, ‘What if this were me?’“
But for Raza, whose work has sparked discussions around identity, nationality and human rights, bringing the film to life was not without challenges.
“For artists, it’s always difficult to secure funding for projects. You might find money, but it’s harder to find people who align with your values,” she said.
The film continues to connect with audiences around the world and evokes powerful emotions and reflections from the attendees at the Islamabad festival.
But despite the effort, the reality has drastically changed for many Afghan refugees since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan and thousands of them fled to Pakistan to seek refuge there, according to the filmmaker.
Today, those same refugees face forced repatriation and are being driven back to the uncertainty they once escaped.
“It breaks my heart to see Afghans who have lived here their whole lives, who felt that Pakistan was their home, [are] now being forced to leave without any of their belongings,” Raza said.
Pakistan has repatriated approximately 1.3 million Afghan refugees in a deportation drive launched since Nov. 2023, according to officials. The drive was launched after Islamabad witnessed a surge in suicide attacks and militancy that it blamed on Afghan nationals, without providing evidence.
The government in Islamabad initially said it was focusing on expelling foreigners with no legal documentation and other categories, such as Afghan Citizen Card (ACC)-- a document launched in 2017 to grant temporary legal status to Afghan refugees— would be included later. This year, Pakistan’s interior ministry asked all ACC holders to leave the country by March and started deporting them from April 1.
In total, Pakistan has hosted over 2.8 million Afghan refugees who crossed the border during 40 years of conflict in their homeland.
Raza urged Islamabad to reconsider its decision to expel Afghan refugees: “It’s very important that they have their basic human rights, their dignity, that they’re safe.”
AlUla a ‘cinematic wonder,’ says exec on 5th anniversary of Saudi Arabia’s Film AlUla
Updated 18 May 2025
Nada Alturki
CANNES: AlUla’s natural landscapes are fast becoming a national icon for Saudi Arabia, attracting tourists who wish to experience the scenes for themselves. But since the inception of Film AlUla, the region’s film agency, its sand dunes and historic landmarks have traveled the world through cinema.
As Film AlUla celebrates its fifth anniversary, Acting Executive Director Zaid Shaker sat down with Arab News to discuss the entity’s milestones on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival in France.
“I think that our voice and our positioning (of) Film AlUla as a catalyst in the Saudi film industry has sort of echoed, and now we have amazing infrastructure,” Shaker said.
Only seven years ago, cinemas reopened in the Kingdom after a 35-year ban. The establishment of Film AlUla in early 2020, under the mandate of the Royal Commission of AlUla, has played a hand in cementing Saudi Arabia’s role in the international film industry.
One of Film AlUla’s headlining achievements is Tawfik Alzaidi’s “Norah,” released in 2023, which became the first Saudi feature film to premiere at Cannes. The film, which followed the story of a young girl in the 1990s with a thirst for artistic expression, featured a crew made up of 40 percent AlUla locals.
This year, first-time director Osama Al Khurayji’s “Siwar” was the opener for the Saudi Film Festival, held at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran in April. The film follows two families, one Saudi and one Turkish, as they navigate societal challenges and personal upheavals. Here, AlUla acts as a stand in for the southern city of Najran and the shoot featured an 80 percent local crew.
Film AlUla executives have long emphasized training the local community as part of their core mission.
The area is home to roughly 65,000 residents, the executive said, and one of the core factors to creating a sustainable film sector is establishing a well-trained local crew. This is done through training programs for capacity-building and skill refinement.
“Whenever we work on attracting an international production, our organic by-product is sort of upskilling the locals so that they can take this forward and start narrating their own stories,” Shaker said.
The entity recently announced a partnership with Manhattan Beach Studios, which operates more than 600 sound stages around the globe, as operators for their local facilities.
“We try to do everything looking at very high quality and the highest of standards… In partnering with MB Studios to manage our cutting-edge, state-of-the-art facilities, we are showing commitment locally, regionally and internationally, that our positioning is real, and that we offer a seamless, advanced experience to every storyteller that comes to AlUla,” Shaker said.
Some of the first major Hollywood productions to shoot in the region were Anthony and Joe Russo’s drama “Cherry,” and Ric Roman Waugh’s “Kandahar,” and others followed. In 2024 alone, AlUla hosted 85 projects, ranging from films and TV series to commercials and music videos.
These productions are largely incentivized by the country’s rebates policies, operated under the umbrella of the Saudi Film Commission and the National Rebate Fund.
“We offer 40 percent rebates and an uplift of 10 percent incentives, which are usually designed based on training programs and marketing efforts,” he said.
This rebate can be elevated to 50 percent when Saudi nationals are employed in key roles within the production.
“AlUla is blessed with a vast, diverse collection of amazing locations. It’s awe inspiring — it’s a cinematic wonder in itself. So part of the attraction and work in bringing productions and building a film sector relies on the sense of location,” Shaker said.
“It’s building on this amazing backdrop, which spans, in its history, more than 200,000 years. The … location has witnessed lots of cultures, lots of civilizations, lots of stories. It’s how we position these amazing, inspiring locations to be pivotal characters in any audio-visual production.”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani women filmmakers, along with their colleagues from Egypt, Lebanon, and other countries, this week showcased short films focusing on powerful themes such as grief, resistance, and patriarchal oppression at the ninth edition of the Women International Film Festival (WIFF) in Islamabad.
Organized by the Women Through Film community organization that aims to empower women filmmakers by promoting their art, the ninth edition of the festival was hosted at the Islamabad Community Library at the capital city’s I-8 sector on Saturday night.
The open-air event showcased 11 short films from filmmakers hailing from eight countries, namely Pakistan, Canada, Spain, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Sweden, and France. Three of the films were Pakistani productions while the rest were helmed by international filmmakers.
Each film explored profound themes of grief, resistance and patriarchal oppression.
“This was a dream more than a plan— to encourage women to tell their stories,” Madeeha Raza, WIFF’s curator, told Arab News.
“We try to prioritize locally made films, and I am glad we have three Pakistani films this year. The films from Iran and Lebanon touched upon resistance and war and how that affects the lives of normal people,” she said.
“I could resonate with that a lot, which made me choose them.”
People watch a film at the Women International Film Festival (WIFF) in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 17, 2025. (AN Photo)
The festival also featured panel discussions on filmmaking and the role of women in it. Anya Raza, whose film about an Afghan teacher dealing with the horrors of conflict, was one of the highlights of the festival.
Alongside her on a panel discussion were filmmakers Marya Javad and Nargis Muneeb, co-founder of the Islamabad Film Society. The conversation delved into the power of storytelling to challenge narratives and provide a voice to marginalized communities.
“This platform was created to give women a space to make films and submit them,” Raza explained. “The stories seen as controversial need to be shown more because they break the status quo. They shatter the concept of normalcy and allow people to take meaningful lessons.”
For Ayesha Siddiqa, a 25-year-old marketing professional, WIFF was an “eye-opener.” The Egyptian film ‘If The Cat Is Gone,’ which explored the complexities of friendship and societal judgments, stood out for Siddiqa the most.
“It was a simple story, but it was so relatable,” she told Arab News. “The way it showcased stereotypes we face every day was impressive.”
‘CREATING A COMMUNITY’
The event also offered a valuable networking opportunity for filmmakers. Jawad Sharif, a seasoned award-winning filmmaker, said festivals such as the WIFF are essential for the creative community.
“Such events motivate artists. In a society where stories of grief and struggle are often ignored, festivals like this ensure they are heard,” he said.
“It’s not just about watching films, it’s about creating a community.”
People watch a film at the Women International Film Festival (WIFF) in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 17, 2025. (AN Photo)
Waghma Feroz, a documentary filmmaker from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said events such as WIFF are crucial for women to highlight their issues.
“If women create films, they often focus on women’s issues or human rights, which are rarely highlighted in mainstream media,” she pointed out. “Events like WIFF allow these stories to be told.”
Raza, whose film ‘On the Mountain’ touched upon the struggles of Afghan refugees, agreed.
“Stories about refugees and the human cost of conflict are rarely given space,” she said. “But they need to be told, and festivals like this ensure they reach the audience.”
Due to limited sponsorship this year, the festival was reduced to a three-hour event, which was far shorter than its previous editions.
Despite the challenges, Raza remained optimistic about the future.
“We’ve had highs and lows. Some editions were very well-supported,” she noted.
“This time we couldn’t garner much support and had to rely on partners. But next year will be our tenth edition, and we hope to make it grand,” she added.
Rawdah Mohamed walks the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival
Updated 18 May 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: Somali Norwegian model Rawdah Mohamed walked the red carpet at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in France on Saturday night.
The model showed off a blush pink-toned look, complete with a drop waist, on the red carpet ahead of the premiere of “Die, My Love.”
The model showed off a blush pink-toned look, complete with a drop waist, on the red carpet ahead of the premiere of “Die, My Love.” (Getty Images)
The film is an adaptation of the 2017 novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz about a new mother who develops postpartum depression and enters psychosis. “Die, My Love,” starring Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, earned a six-minute standing ovation from the audience at Cannes.
Directed by acclaimed Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, the film has been hailed by critics, with Deadline calling it a “brutal but beautiful portrait of a woman on the edge.”
Visibly teary eyed during the standing ovation, Ramsay addressed the crowd, saying: “Wow. I’m so overwhelmed. Thanks to these amazing actors. I’ve got to get it together — I’ll see you in a minute.”
Joining Lawrence and Pattinson in the cast are LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte.
Mohamed watched the film one day after appearing on the red carpet for the “Eddington” on Friday.
On Friday, she wore a look by Chinese couture label Cheney Chan. The gown hailed from the label’s Fall/ Winter 2024 collection.
A self-taught fashion designer, Chan was born and raised in the Jiangsu province.
“Growing up, my parents always wanted me to be a pilot,” he previously shared with Vogue Singapore. “I had cleared all the flying tests effortlessly back in high school, but it was unfortunately not where my heart lay.” Eventually, he gained a fashion media degree at Peking University before starting his eponymous label in 2012.
The label has previously been flaunted by the likes if US singer Kelly Roland and actress Anya Taylor-Joy.
Mohamed finished off her look with a matching hijab and bejeweled brooch.
The rising star has attended the Cannes Film Festival before, in 2023 and 2024, and is fast making a name for herself as one to watch in the fashion industry.
She has worked with brands like Boss and H&M and walked the runway during Roberto Cavalli’s show in Dubai in 2024.
Palestinian Film Institute amplifies local stories at Cannes
Updated 18 May 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: The Palestinian Film Institute is making a resounding statement at the Cannes Film Festival with its largest presence to date under the banner #HereThereAndForever.
This year’s Pavilion Program spans a range of activities including exhibitions, screenings, producer talks, and intimate meet-and-greet sessions, reflecting a commitment to amplifying Palestinian voices on the global stage.
“We’re not celebrating being in Cannes,” PFI programmer Mohanad Yaqubi said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s nothing to celebrate for us … it’s really about orienting the narrative surrounding Palestinian cinema and Palestinian stories through the filmmakers themselves.
“We feel the responsibility, and it’s very hard,” he said. “Some of our members actually have families in Gaza now, and they are here in Cannes. It’s uncomfortable, but this is not an industry only for rich people. We have to make that industry accommodate us and our needs as an oppressed and underrepresented (group).”
A major highlight of the program is the official launch of the PFI Film Fund. According to Yaqubi, the fund represents a dream long in the making. “The aim for the first three rounds is to fund or support four to six projects in different formats, at least, to give them a base so that they can start working,” he said.
In addition, PFI is hosting a special spotlight session on Palestinian producers, as well as a reception featuring filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser, whose film “Once Upon a Time in Gaza” is part of the Un Certain Regard lineup. Another notable event is the screening and reception for “From Ground Zero,” an initiative spearheaded by filmmaker Rashid Masharawi. The anthology film is a collection of eight short documentaries and two feature-length films by 22 Palestinian directors, each offering raw glimpses into life under airstrikes in Gaza.
With four Palestinian producers participating in the Producers’ Network, Yaqubi encouraged attendees to explore their slates, which he described as “the upcoming Palestinian films and narratives that need to be supported.”
Yaqubi’s aims are clear. “We hope to be here every year,” he said. “The presence is important, and to stay away won’t make a change. We have to dip our toes in the cold water and change things.”
