Actress May Elghety to star in Disney animated series
Elghety is also currently filming a British movie called “Due Dating” alongside actors Danielle Scott, Jade Asha and Alex Crockford
“Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire” is a 10-part anthology
Updated 03 May 2023
Arab News
DUBAI: Egyptian actress May Elghety is set to star in Disney’s upcoming animated sci-fi series “Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire” that follows futuristic stories across Africa, she announced this week.
“Super excited and honored to be a part of this!! ‘Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire’ coming to you very soon,” she wrote to her fans on Instagram.
The Disney+ original, inspired by Africa’s diverse histories and cultures, is set to premiere this year, according to Variety magazine.
It is a 10-part anthology that “brings together a slate of rising animation talents from six African nations to produce action-packed sci-fi and fantasy stories that will present bold visions of advanced technology, aliens, spirits and monsters imagined from uniquely African perspectives,” according to Variety.
Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” will serve as the executive producer. Cape Town-based animation house Triggerfish, which received the prestigious MIFA Animation Industry Award in Annecy in 2022, will be the lead studio for the series.
The production teams feature a slew of African artists including Egyptian director Ahmed Teilab, who has joined the series’ writing and directing team.
Elghety is currently filming a British movie called “Due Dating,” alongside actors Danielle Scott, Jade Asha and Alex Crockford. The movie, expected to be released in 2023, is directed by Daniel Pacquette and written by Jade Asha.
Elghety is an award-winning actress born to parents Mohamed Elghety and Mona Barouma, who are both writers and TV presenters.
The 24-year-old actress started her career as a child. In 2013, She landed a lead role in “El-Kaserat,” a controversial TV series depicting the illegal act of child marriages in upper Egypt. Her performance landed her the Best Upcoming Actress award at the Arab Drama Festival.
She later starred in productions like “Clash” in 2016, “High School Girls” in 2020, “Taye’a” in 2018, “Every Week Has A Friday” in 2020 and “MAMA,” which premiered at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2022.
British Lebanese actress Razane Jammal authors children’s book
Updated 16 June 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: British Lebanese actress Razane Jammal is set to release a children’s book titled “Lulu & Blu.”
The actress, famous for her roles in Netflix series “The Sandman” and “Paranormal,” took to social media on Sunday to share the news, writing: “What started as a little story I wrote seven years ago turned into a book for your little ones. I’ve poured my (heart) into this and I’m thrilled to invite you all to our first launch in Beirut.”
The launch event is scheduled to take place on June 25 at community space Minus 1 in the Lebanese capital. The actress will perform a reading of the children’s story, which tells the tale of a “vegetarian lioness, a friendly fish and their most unusual friendship,” according to the author.
Published by Turning Point Books, the story was illustrated by Sasha Haddad, a Lebanese illustrator who graduated from Cambridge School of Arts in 2014.
In the role that arguably shot her to stardom, Jammal played Lyta Hall in 2022’s “The Sandman,” based on the legendary graphic novels.
Her character dreams of her dead husband each night, slowly realizing that he is not a figment of her imagination but is hiding out in the dream world.
It is a part that Jammal managed to play truthfully with subtlety — a subtlety for which she credited her mother in a previous interview with Arab News.
“I’ve always been extra, and my mom was far more subtle than I am. I had to fine-tune myself to vibrate on her frequency, a frequency that was very sweet and very raw, and vulnerable and nurturing. I took that from her.
“I grew up having a simple, community-based life in a place where you have 500 mothers and everyone feeds you and you feel safe — even if it’s not safe at all. At the same time we went through so many traumas, from civil wars to assassinations to losing all our money in another financial crisis.”
Mideast content creators unveil bold short films in collaboration with YouTube
Updated 16 June 2025
Celine Hijazi
DUBAI: Some of the region’s most celebrated content creators — including Bahrain’s Omar Farooq, the UAE’s Anas Bukhash, Morocco’s Taha Essou, Palestine’s Haifa Beseisso and Egypt’s Sherif Nabil — have premiered powerful short films in collaboration with YouTube to mark the platform’s 20th anniversary.
“For years, creating and distributing entertainment was limited to major studios. Today, we’re at an inflection point — YouTube creators are the entertainment industry’s new startups,” said Tarek Amin, YouTube’s regional director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkiye, during the premiere in Dubai this weekend.
These creators, who amass billions of views across their channels, showcased deeply personal stories that transcend borders and languages, highlighting YouTube’s role as a platform for emotional storytelling and global connection.
The shift reflects a wider trend across the region with YouTube creators across the Middle East and North Africa rapidly becoming entertainment startups.
Companies such as Telfaz11, which has offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have scaled from popular YouTube series to successful feature films.
Bukhash’s signature charm and curiosity is reflected in his film “ABtalks Diaries: Korea Edition.” The work follows him on a journey through South Korea where he interviews chefs, artists, and members of the public.
Despite a glaring language barrier, Bukhash draws out surprisingly intimate moments, proving that vulnerability is a universal language. “We did this because we realized Arabs are obsessed with K-Pop,” Bukhash joked on stage.
In “Into the Dark,” Beseisso documents her four-day stay in a darkness retreat. Blending humor and reflection, her film becomes a deeply personal meditation on silence, emotion and reconnection — with herself and others.
“I heard about the darkness retreat from a friend and was intrigued,” she told Arab News. “I went, closed my eyes for three days, and it turned out to be one of my favorite experiences.”
In “Into the Fire: Mount Ijen,” Nabil documents the harsh realities of sulfur miners working in Indonesia’s active volcanic mountain. He exposes the conditions these workers face and the generational impact of their labor.
“YouTube gives you that intimacy,” Nabil said. “It’s a challenge, but it’s rewarding.”
The connection between these filmmakers lies in their ability to confront discomfort, explore untold stories, and share them with candor.
“This event is not for us,” Bukhash reflected. “It’s for the people at home wondering if they should start, and need that extra push.”
Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi presents ‘The Social Health Club’ in Basel
Updated 15 June 2025
Jasmine Bager
RIYADH: This month, Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi is turning up the heat at Basel Social Club — which runs until June 21 in the Swiss city — with her latest installation, “The Social Health Club.”
Freshly conceived, but rooted in the artist’s past works, the yellow-drenched installation offers a layered, sensory experience — and sharp cultural commentary — as well as a first for the artist: a live-performance element.
Jeddah-based Alamoudi is known for creating immersive multimedia installations drawing from and exploring the complex dynamics of her evolving homeland. “The Social Health Club” is built around pieces found in Jeddah’s Haraj market in 2018 — a range of exercise equipment including a rowing machine.
Ahaad Alamoudi. (Supplied)
“These are pieces I collected from thrifting. I like the fact that no instructions came with the machines — I don’t have their name or the source of where they came from or who made them. But they’ve become part of the urban landscape that I’ve been in. And I was trying to create fun within the space,” Alamoudi told Arab News.
In “The Social Health Club,” the equipment, painted predominantly in vibrantly-saturated monochrome yellow, stands untouched, serving as symbols of a culture obsessed with self-optimization. At the core of the installation is a cameo from a yellow-painted iron previously featured in her 2020 video work “Makwah Man.” (Makwah means iron in Arabic.)
Part of Ahaad Alamoudi's 'The Social Health Club' at Basel Social Club. (Supplied)
“A lot of my pieces stem from a narrative I create within a video. In ‘Makwah Man,’ this man wearing a yellow thobe is ironing a long piece of yellow fabric in the middle of the desert. And as he’s ironing, he tells us how to live our lives. But in the process of him telling us how to live our lives, he also starts questioning his own in the process — understanding the role of power, understanding the pressure of change, adaptation,” Alamoudi explained.
“The yellow exists within the video piece, but he’s also wearing yellow thobe in the video piece. And (in this iteration at Art Basel) there’s also a rack of yellow thobes twirling in the exhibition. For me, the yellow thobe is like a unifying symbol. I’m trying to say that we’re all experiencing this in different ways. So in the performance (for “The Social Health Club”) a man (a local body builder) in a yellow thobe will be performing on these machines. He has no rule book. He doesn’t know anything; he doesn’t know how to ‘properly’ use the equipment. He’s going to go into the space and do things with the machines.
“The performance will be recorded. But I think it’s more like an activation,” she continued. “It’s not the piece itself. The piece itself exists as the machines.”
“The Social Health Club” was shaped through close collaboration with curator Amal Khalaf, who combed Jeddah’s market with Alamoudi in search of “machines that were a little bit abnormal, like not your typical machines that people would directly know what it is in the gym,” Alamoudi said.
“She’s quite incredible,” she continued. “And we really built the space together. Essentially, the main thing that I created was the video; everything else was built off of that. She really helped. She really looked at social change and how we navigate that. Our collaboration was perfect.”
Yellow dominates every inch of the piece—deliberately and intensely.
“I obsess over symbols within certain works I create. And with that also comes a color,” Alamoudi said. “I wanted to showcase something that was luxurious, colorful, almost like gold, but it’s not gold. It’s quite stark in its appearance.”
Yellow is both invitation and warning. “I think that yellow is also quite deceptive. I like it as a color to get people excited to come closer and see what’s happening, but at the same time question what it is — it’s so aggressive that it becomes a bit uncomfortable.”
A still from Alamoudi's 2020 video work 'Makwah Man,' which is also part of 'The Social Health Club'. (Supplied)
The viewer’s interaction is critical to the piece’s meaning.
“I think the machines represent something and they carry something, but they really are activated by the people — what people are doing with them,” Alamoudi said. “And that’s why I’m encouraging a lot of viewers to engage with and use the pieces, or try to use them without any instruction. A lot of people entering into the space (might) fear even touching or engaging with them. Having the performer there activating the structures is going to add another layer to the piece itself.”
She hopes visitors feel free to explore, unburdened by expectations.
“People are meant to use it any way that they want to use it. They can sit on it, stand on it, touch it — they can leave it alone,” she concluded with a laugh.
From Shanghai to New York, stars show off Lebanese looks
Updated 15 June 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: International stars including Hollywood actress Emily Blunt and Chinese K-Pop singer Victoria Song showed off glittering looks by Lebanese designers at global events.
Blunt attended the American Institute for Stuttering's Annual Gala in New York late last week in a gown from Lebanese label Elie Saab’s pre-fall 2025 ready-to-wear collection.
Emily Blunt attended the American Institute for Stuttering's Annual Gala in New York late last week in a gown from Lebanese label Elie Saab. (Getty Images)
The pleated gown came in a simmering shade of burnt sienna and incorporated a bouquet of ruffles on one shoulder. The Oscar-nominated actress chose to keep things relatively simple when it came to her accessories, opting for minimal earrings, bracelets and a few shimmering rings. Blunt’s look was put together by celebrity stylist Jessica Paster, who also works with singer Paris Jackson and actress and comedian Quinta Brunson. Launched in 1998, the American Institute for Stuttering is a non-profit organization offering speech therapy and community support for people of who stutter.
Blunt previously wore an Elie Saab design for the 2024 BAFTAs in London and proved she’s a fan of Lebanese creations by attending the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Albie Awards in a hot red dress by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad in September 2023.
Meanwhile, Chinese songstress Song showed off a full beaded lilac number by Elie Saab at the 2025 2025 Sina Weibo Movie Night Awards on Friday.
The red carpet in Shanghai, China, played host to a number of decadent Lebanese designs, with the likes of Elaine Zhong showing off a Zuhair Murad gown as Tong Li Ya opted for Georges Hobeika and Chen Du Ling stunned in Georges Chakra.
The actresses all opted for floor-length shimmering gowns in various shades of gold, with Zuhair Murad’s social media team describing the fashion house’s creation as “an embroidered corset with leaf petal detailing in champagne and silver paired with a draped silk chiffon skirt from the Zuhair Murad Couture Spring 2025 collection.”
Egyptian film ‘Happy Birthday’ takes top honors at Tribeca Film Festival
Updated 14 June 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: Egyptian film “Happy Birthday,” the debut feature by writer-director Sarah Goher, this week took two of the international festival’s top honors — for best international narrative feature and for best screenplay.
The film, which stars Nelly Karim, Hanan Motawie, Hanan Youssef and Doha Ramadan, tells the story of Toha, an eight-year-old girl working as a child maid for a wealthy family in Cairo. She forms a close bond with the family’s daughter, Nelly, and becomes determined to give her the perfect birthday — something Toha herself has never experienced.
As her connection with Nelly’s mother begins to blur the lines of class and duty, Toha is forced to confront the stark social hierarchies of modern Egypt.
Goher co-wrote the film with acclaimed Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, internationally recognized for Marvel’s “Moon Knight.” Diab also took on the role of executive producer.
