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  • Director of Pakistani documentary on forced conversions says such themes inspire ‘positive change’


Director of Pakistani documentary on forced conversions says such themes inspire ‘positive change’

In this photo, posted on April 21, 2022, Pakistan filmmaker Jawad Sharif gestures during an TedTalk event in Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo courtesy: Instagram/jawadshariffilms)
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Updated 03 January 2023
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Director of Pakistani documentary on forced conversions says such themes inspire ‘positive change’

  • ‘The Losing Side’ by Jawad Sharif presents first-hand accounts of forced conversions in Pakistan
  • The documentary won ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award at Cannes World Film Festival in December
Updated 03 January 2023
BURAQ SHABBIR

KARACHI: Jawad Sharif, the director of the Pakistani documentary ‘The Losing Side’ on forced religious conversions in Pakistan which won big at the prestigious Cannes World Film Festival in France last month, said on Monday that films based on such themes help inspire “positive change” in society.

’The Losing Side’, according to Sharif’s production house, narrates the “traumatic stories” of four survivors of forced conversions and marriages in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province. The documentary won the ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award in the November Online Edition of the Cannes World Film Festival 2022.

The 40-minute-long documentary film was shot in 2022 in different parts of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, including Tharparkar, Mithi, and Badin. As per official data, at least four million Hindus reside in Sindh.

According to a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Pakistani Minorities — an informal group run by members of the UK’s House of Commons and Lords — each year, as many as 1,000 Pakistani Hindu and Christian girls aged 12 to 25 are forcibly converted to Islam to be married off to their abductors.

The report suggested that cases of forced conversions in the country have been increasing steadily in recent years, making it one of the most pressing human rights issues in the South Asian nation. In October 2021, Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee to Protect Minorities from Forced Conversions rejected the anti-forced conversion bill after the Ministry of Religious Affairs opposed the proposed law.

“The reason behind highlighting such themes is to bring positive change in society by addressing the violations [of human rights] so they can be lessened or eradicated,” Sharif told Arab News on Monday.

“When it comes to themes such as forced conversion and forced marriages [in Pakistan], it becomes quite a conflict to release the film,” he added. “There is pressure from the government to not send out a negative message in media, given that the country’s economic situation is bad.”

But for Sharif, the reason behind highlighting such themes is to bring positive change in society by addressing human rights violations so they can be decreased or eradicated.

“We have filmed first-hand accounts of victims in ‘The Losing Side’. They are basically survivors from the Hindu community in Sindh,” he said.

“They were forcefully kidnapped, converted, and sold out to different parties who forced girls into multiple marriages, raped them, and used them,” Sharif added. “It is a very emotional and sensitive story featuring personal takes.”

Sharif said men in this part of the world take advantage of minority women knowing they are vulnerable. He added that most minority girls live below the poverty line which enables the men, who have some authority over them, to manipulate them into surrendering.

“It was a huge challenge to film the girls and women as they were scared that people would come after them again after watching the documentary,” he recalled. “My first target is local audiences to create awareness among the local community where the issue is prevalent,” Sharif shared.

Sharif said recognition at an international film festival helps raise the issue in mainstream media, which makes it more prominent. “If we speak of legislation and policy change for forced conversion in Pakistan, the pressure mostly comes from international media,” he added.

In addition to the victims, ‘The Losing Side’ features former senator Farhatullah Babar, chairman of the Islamic Ideological Council of Pakistan Dr. Qibla Ayaz, and Sindh chief minister’s aide Veerji Kolhi, among others.

Topics: The Losing Side Pakistani films Cannes Film Festival

British historian explores Nabateans’ ‘cool culture’ in documentary 

Updated 19 December 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar
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British historian explores Nabateans’ ‘cool culture’ in documentary 

  • Bettany Hughes’ series ‘Lost Worlds’ travels through AlUla, Europe and Petra 
Updated 19 December 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar

JEDDAH: For British historian Bettany Hughes, the story of the Nabateans is as vital as those of the ancient Greeks, Romans or Egyptians. 

In a new three-part series, “Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds: The Nabataeans,” Hughes traces the titular civilization’s incense trade routes from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean, accessing newly revealed research across Saudi Arabia’s Al Ula, Jordan, Greece, Italy and Oman. 

“For me, you can’t understand the classical world unless you understand the Nabataeans — they are the missing link in the story of society, because, in many ways, they were the engine that drove many other civilizations. They connected the far edges of the Arabian Peninsula with the center of Europe, and without them, that line of connection wouldn’t have happened,” Hughes told Arab News on the sidelines of this month’s Red Sea International Film Festival, where the show’s first episode was screened.  

Her decades of research have revealed that Petra, the Nabateans’ iconic capital, was just a small part of a vast empire that is only now revealing its secrets. 

“When you say, ‘These are the guys that built Petra,’ then people go, ‘Oh, yeah. I always wondered.’ But that’s why we’re doing this series; to remind the world that they have this whole other story, whole other centers of operation. And to try to write them back into history. They’re a very cool culture. I’m very impressed by them. 

“They love happiness. They love liberty. Women seem to have a really strong role in their society. They’re all about trade and communication — and therefore understanding people beyond borders and boundaries. So, I think there’s a lot that we can learn from them as a culture,” she continued. 

Hughes’ entry point to the Nabateans came almost three decades ago. 

Hughes with local desert guides in Wadi AlFann, AlUla. (Supplied)

“It was initially through trying to do detective work on the trade network,” she explained. “I knew that the Romans were obsessed with incense. I knew that Tutankhamun was buried with incense balls in his tomb. And I thought, ‘So, who’s delivering that?’ Because I also knew that incense came from that southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. So, who was in charge? 

“And then I saw this coin of Aretas IV, who was probably the most powerful of all the Nabatean kings. And Huldu, his queen, was also on the coin. And I just thought that that doesn’t happen often. That’s really interesting, so I needed to get to the bottom of their story,” Hughes added. 

And since Saudi Arabia’s AlUla has been opened up to the outside world over the past few years, Hughes jumped on the opportunity to learn more about the civilization that’s recurrently appeared on the edges of her research efforts.  

She first travelled to the historic site in 2022, heading deep into the deserts of AlUla, even spending time with the still-existing Bedouin communities there, tracing how the Nabateans traversed the harsh landscape with their camels and the stars as guides. 

The first episode of “Lost Worlds” is dedicated entirely to AlUla, in the second episode they visit Europe, before heading to Petra in the third and final episode.  

Hughes credited her love for history to one of her schoolteachers. 

“When I was growing up, history wasn’t fashionable. People would say, ‘Oh, it’s irrelevant. All the answers lie in the future.’ And I just knew that couldn’t be true — that there was this reservoir of ideas and inspiration and understanding that came in the past,” she said. “And then I had a brilliant teacher who said, ‘Go for it. Even if you’re unpopular, even if people are saying no, make it happen.’ That kind of gave me the confidence to plow ahead. 

“I then went to Oxford to study history, and I was very aware that in the official stories of the world that I was reading as a student, women didn’t feature very much. Even though I knew, obviously, we’d been 50 percent of the human population forever, we only occupied a tiny percentage of recorded history. So I felt that was something I could help with,” she continued. “I don’t just write about women’s history, but I’m always looking for the gaps — and the story of the female role in history is one of those gaps that needs filling.” 

Topics: Red Sea International Film Festival 2024

Review: ‘Carry-On’ fails to deliver on its festive promise 

Updated 19 December 2024
Matt Ross
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Review: ‘Carry-On’ fails to deliver on its festive promise 

  • Netflix thriller with Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman starts strong, but fizzles 
Updated 19 December 2024
Matt Ross

LONDON: Netflix has absolutely missed a trick with the marketing for new thriller “Carry-On”. Instead of billing it as a slick, tense action-adjacent movie starring Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman, the bosses at the streaming giant should have pitched it as a modern interpretation of the greatest Christmas movie of all time — because for the first 45 minutes or so, “Carry-On” feels like the spiritual successor to “Die Hard” (or maybe “Die Harder,” given the airport setting). 

Egerton is Ethan, a disenfranchised TSA agent who dreams of being an LA cop. When monitoring bags at a packed Los Angeles airport on Christmas Eve, he is contacted by a mysterious traveler (Bateman) who gives him a simple choice: let a specific suitcase through the scanners, or the traveler will have Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend killed. What follows is a cat-and-mouse couple of hours with Ethan surreptitiously trying to raise the alarm and find out what’s in the bag, while his boss, colleagues, girlfriend and LAPD detective (Danielle Deadwyler) try to figure out why he’s acting so strangely. 

And for that first 45 minutes, it’s an absolute riot – the sparky back-and-forth between Egerton and Bateman sizzles, and the sense of futility is palpable as Ethan realizes that the traveler has predicted his every move. Then, there follows one of the most ludicrously staged highway set pieces in recent movie history which, rather than upping the ante, turns “Carry -On” from a cagey, sweaty thrill ride into a zany, cartoony mess. Ethan goes from terrified everyman to buff action hero in a way that worked for Bruce Willis in 1988, but simply falls flat here. The plot, such as it is, just sort of gives up — Bateman’s villain insists that he doesn’t know the reasons for the bag caper because he doesn’t need to know, which feels a little lazy, given the effort put into the convoluted web of blackmail. 

There is a positive though: despite coming off the rails in its second half, “Carry-On” is inarguably a Christmas movie. And as a result, it’s at least 10 times better than the majority of holiday dross currently cluttering up the streaming platforms. It’s just a shame that this isn’t going to be one of the best movies of the entire year— which seems like a possibility at one stage— rather than just the festive season. 

Topics: Netflix review

Saudi singer Fulana: ‘Music is my way to understand the world’ 

Updated 18 December 2024
Iain Akerman
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Saudi singer Fulana: ‘Music is my way to understand the world’ 

  • The Saudi singer-songwriter discusses her debut album
Updated 18 December 2024
Iain Akerman

DUBAI: “I’m a nervous wreck, but I’m very excited,” admits singer, songwriter, and producer Nadine Lingawi. “I mean, I know that I need to sound like I’m poised and I have everything together, but look, it’s my first. This is my first bulk of work. It’s definitely not something that’s super commercial and one always wonders whether or not it’s going to succeed. But I think in the very bottom of my emotional cortex, I have this very strange sense of calmness and almost a sense of being undoubtful that this will do really well, because I love it.” 

Lingawi, better known by her stage name Fulana, is discussing her debut album, the collaborative project “ground:from.” Created with the electronic music duo Input/Output, it is the first of the conceptual album’s two musical chapters, and is described, rather morbidly, as a ‘letter to death’.  

For the Vancouver-born, Jeddah-raised songstress, it’s a moment of truth, having spent the past three years pushing outs tracks such as “Minarets,” “Lore,” “Trouble,” and “Reprobate” through the indie label Wall of Sound. Singing primarily in English, she inhabits a world of self-reflection and existentialism, yet has performed at some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest musical events, including the inaugural Riyadh International Jazz Festival earlier this year and MDLBeast XP. 

“I don’t think I ever had that idea — or want — to perform on stage; it was treated as more of a hobby growing up,” says Lingawi, whose family hail from Jeddah’s historic Al-Balad. “Music was just something that I did to express certain feelings or emotions. I was never really good with words or confrontation, and around people my age I felt things a little more deeply, and I struggled to express that. So music is more of my safe haven, or my way to understand the world.” 

Initially, “ground:from” was little more than a collection of songs written by Lingawi, who asked Abdulmajeed Alwazna (one half of Input/Output) to produce a single track for a partially-written album. Alwazna then reached out to Husam Al-Sayed, the second half of Input/Output and a friend of Lingawi’s, and together the three of them reviewed everything while Lingawi outlined her vision for the album.  

“I think of it as quite a magical moment, because it’s one thing when people want to help you create something,” says Lingawi. “It’s another thing when people want to have a sense of ownership, because then they come in with their full hearts.” 

The three worked together for two-and-a-half months, with Lingawi moving from Jeddah to Riyadh for the recording sessions. Meeting two or three times a week, sometimes simply to discuss the album’s direction, they dissected every single sound she had brought to the studio, deciding what would stay and what would go.  

“We looked at the anatomy of songs, and we decided together: ‘This doesn’t work here, we should shift it.’ Or ‘This sound does not work here, let’s recreate another sound,’” recalls Lingawi. “We wrote together, we produced together, we experimented together, and so we gave birth to this project.”  

The result is an atmospheric, contemplative exploration of mortality. In essence, a dialogue with death, the first chapter takes listeners on a journey above ground, incorporating audio elements such as the sounds of crickets, birds, thunder, and other natural sonic occurrences. Together, these sounds contribute to a sense of the “beginning of decomposition,” with Lingawi “speaking to death herself” in her trademark introspective, lyrical style.  

“I’ve always enjoyed the dichotomy of life,” she admits. “I’ve always enjoyed creating sounds that sound really cheerful, but what I’m saying is quite dreadful, or vice versa. I think it creates that sense of balance that we try to achieve while we’re alive. I think from a very young age I was very fascinated by the idea of endings and beginnings. It’s always been a part of how I view the world, or the things that I tend to think a little too much about.  

“But death, in this album, is not just the idea of decay or our souls leaving us. It also translates into the death of causes, the death of humanity, the death of feelings, the death of chapters. It’s more about endings and romanticizing those endings. In a sense, it is a reflection of me because I tend to romanticize endings a lot more than I enjoy the good parts of things. So, in chapter one, it’s about that longing for tension, that longing for the one thing I can never reach. And in chapter two, we’re kind of taking a step back and realizing the aftermath of that. Of not enjoying a moment for what it is when it is alive.” 

Lingawi’s vocals, sometimes mesmerizing in their emotional clarity, fuse beautifully with the deep synths and ambient guitar of Input/Output, whose fondness for rhythmic structure and cinematic soundscapes help to create a sonic environment rooted in the intensity of its subject matter. In the first chapter, that largely relates to the melancholy of love, the fleeting nature of life, and the cycles of loss and rebirth. In the second — due early next year — the trio head below ground, where the conversation with death will be darker and far more honest.  

Lingawi’s musical journey began as a child, listening to the radio on car journeys with her mother. Around the age of 17, she began to put her own music online, having experimented with GarageBand and having nurtured a love of slam poetry since the age of 14. 

To retain her anonymity, she chose the name Fulana, which means ‘anonymous female’ in Arabic.  

“Fulana was just my very cheeky way of saying, ‘I’m going to put my music online, and no one’s going to tell that it’s me.’ And I wanted to stick with it because through the name I was able to, I wouldn’t say dissociate, but to have people focus more on what I’m saying and the stories I’m telling, rather than on me as a person. And that remains a big part of who I am as a musician. I don’t really want people to care about me as a person. I’m not that interested really,” she says. “It’s the music itself, so if we could just focus on that and not me as a person, that would be amazing.” 

Topics: Fulana Saudi Arabia

No quitting: Bollywood’s Aamir Khan wants to keep acting

Updated 18 December 2024
AFP
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No quitting: Bollywood’s Aamir Khan wants to keep acting

  • Khan has helped shape Indian cinema for years, becoming one of Bollywood’s most popular actors
  • During Covid-19 pandemic, the superstar and filmmaker considered quitting cinema for good
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP

LONDON: During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bollywood superstar and filmmaker Aamir Khan considered quitting cinema for good after dominating the Indian film industry for more than four decades.
“It was in the middle of Covid and I was... thinking of a lot of things, and I suddenly felt that I had spent all of my adult life in this magical world of cinema,” Khan told AFP in London, draped in a heavy purple shawl and sporting a handlebar moustache.
He is not wrong, having helped shape Indian cinematic culture for years, becoming one of Bollywood’s most popular actors.

Indian actor Aamir Khan poses for a portrait inside a hotel during an interview with AFP in London on December 3, 2024. (AFP)

He has amassed a formidable oeuvre of Hindi-language films, including “Lagaan,” nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars in 2002, as well as movies such as “3 Idiots,” “Dangal” and “Taare Zameen Par” (Like Stars on Earth).
Starting as a child actor in the 1970s and synonymous with Bollywood ever since, Khan realized he had “not really given the kind of bandwidth to my personal life that I would have liked to.”
“The realization that I’ve lost all that time was something that I was finding difficult to come to terms with and I was going through a lot of guilt... My knee-jerk reaction to that was that I’ve had enough of film,” Khan said.
However, his family, including two children, eventually convinced him not to retire. “In my head, I quit. And then I didn’t,” said Khan.
Now, turning 60 in March, Khan, who lives in Mumbai, wants to “continue to act and produce for some time.”

Indian actor Aamir Khan speaks during an interview with AFP in London on December 3, 2024. (AFP)

He also wants to use his company Aamir Khan Productions “as a platform to encourage new talent... whose sensibility is close to mine. And (who) want to tell stories which affect me.”
One of those stories was “Lost Ladies,” a Hindi-language comedy about two young brides, which he co-produced with his ex-wife Kiran Rao and was recently promoting in London.
It was released this year, becoming India’s entry for the Oscars foreign film category.
Khan and Rao’s partnership on “Lost Ladies” began when Khan spotted its script at a screenwriting competition which he was judging, leading him to suggest that Rao direct the film.
“I like to react organically to material that comes my way. I feel that a film should begin with the writer, the thought,” Khan said.
“I like that the story should emerge from the writer and then, as a producer or as an actor, I come in at the right time, when I deserve to,” he added.
Many of his films touch on social issues in India, from women’s rights in rural areas and the sports industry, to the toxic culture in higher education and disability rights.
However, Khan has refused to be boxed into just one type of movie or role.

Indian actor Aamir Khan poses for a portrait inside a hotel during an interview with AFP in London on December 3, 2024. (AFP)

“I’m happy to jump genres and, experiment with different kinds of stories. I like to surprise myself and my audience.”
He is also not afraid to admit slip-ups, and has been vocal about his disappointment with his last performance in “Laal Singh Chaddha.”
The 2022 Indian adaptation of Tom Hanks’s “Forrest Gump” was a rare blip in the otherwise glowing critical reception of Khan’s work.
“I’m not really happy with my last performance, actually,” said Khan, adding that he thought he was too high-pitched in the role.
“I hope this one’s better,” he said of his upcoming film “Sitaare Zameen Par,” which he says is a “thematic” sequel to “Taare Zameen Par,” a drama about special needs education.
Despite winning dozens of Indian film awards as well as India’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, Khan still grounds his idea of success in the film itself.
“Filmmaking is very difficult... telling a story through so many art forms which come together to form cinema,” he said.
“So when I look at the film that we’ve made, and then I look at the script that we set out with, (I ask): has the film reached where we thought it would?“
“And if we’ve reached where we wanted to, and we’ve made the film that we set out to, then it’s a big relief.”

Topics: Aamir Khan Bollywood stars

Review: ‘Maria’ rests on the shoulders of the superb Angelina Jolie

Opera icon Maria Callas is played by Angelina Jolie. (Supplied)
Updated 18 December 2024
Gautaman Bhaskaran
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Review: ‘Maria’ rests on the shoulders of the superb Angelina Jolie

Updated 18 December 2024
Gautaman Bhaskaran

JEDDAH: One of the most fascinating movies I watched at the recent Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, “Maria” may not have inched up to reach its great height had it not been for lead star Angelina Jolie. Jolie superbly plays the legendary Maria Callas, a Greek soprano who made Paris her home. The audience is introduced to her a week before her death on Sept. 16, 1977. Frail and pacing up and down her living room, she collapses, and the movie is rewound seven days before her end.

Like so many celebrities, who came before and after her, Maria leads a wretched life of excesses and miserable loneliness. Director Pablo Larrain’s third biopic after “Jackie” (on Jacquline Kennedy) and “Spencer” (on Princess Diana), the film hardly takes us outside her palatial mansion in the French capital that soon begins to feel like a golden cage. Imprisoned of her own will, Maria’s life spirals towards an anticipated end.

We are told how she had travelled a torturous journey from the slums of Nazi-occupied Athens to the European and American concert halls in a narrative that is interspersed with an affair with the Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis. 

Though Larrain makes his film seem almost eventless — we follow along as Maria navigates her apartment or wanders through the bourgeoisie neighborhoods of Paris — we sense a storm gathering in a distance as she sinks into self-destruction.

The Chilean work may not have been so compelling had it not been for the exceptional portrayal of Maria by Jolie, who disappears into the character with ease and conviction. She is faultless as an epitome of tragedy and sorrow and this makes the movie eminently watchable.

Topics: Red Sea International Film Festival 2024

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