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DUBAI: Dutch Moroccan Egyptian model Imaan Hammam and British Moroccan runway star Nora Attal have taken to Instagram to show their support for Loewe’s Knot on My Planet campaign, which seeks to protect elephants from poaching and trafficking.
The Spanish luxury brand is donating all the bag’s sales proceeds to the Elephant Crisis Fund, which aims to stop poaching, prevent trafficking and end the demand for ivory.
For her part, Attal posted a collage of black and white photos in which she can be seen posing with the bag. She captioned the post: “Happy to share with you this @LOEWE Elephant basket bag (that) has been created in collaboration with the #KnotOnMyPlanet campaign. Its eyes are hand-beaded by Samburu craftswomen.”
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Meanwhile, Hammam posted a candid close up of the woven, elephant-shaped bag to Instagram Stories with the hashtag #KnotOnMyPlanet — a nod to the adage that tying a knot ensures you remember, and the saying “an elephant never forgets.”
According to the campaign’s website, $11.4 million has been raised since September 2016 for The Elephant Crisis Fund, which is a joint initiative of Save the Elephants and the Wildlife Conservation Network, in partnership with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The aim is to end poaching for ivory as, according to the website, 100,000 African elephants were killed for ivory between 2012-2012 alone.
Hammam and Attal aren’t the only famous faces to get involved in the campaign.
Danish supermodel Helena Christensen, who shot to fame in the 1980s, also took to Instagram to show her support, writing: “Did you know that elephants are among the most social and intelligent animals on earth? This beautiful @Loewe basket bag, hand-beaded by the Samburi craftswomen, has been created in collaboration with the #KnotOnMyPlanet campaign with all proceeds going to the @ElephantCrisisFund helping secure a future for elephants and bringing elephant poaching and the ivory crisis to the forefront of the conversation.”
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US models Lily Aldridge, Amber Valletta and Carolyn Murphy also showed their support, with the latter writing: “Did you know that the elephant is the largest land animal and that they communicate through vibrations? We must help protect these gentle giants by raising awareness and supporting foundations that ensure their safety from poachers.”
The handbag features colorful beadwork by Samburu craftswomen from Kenya’s northern frontier district and Loewe’s logo woven in black embroidery.
DUBAI: Iranian-American actress Yara Shahidi is set to star in a brand new advertising campaign for Rouge Dior Forever, alongside Israeli-American star Natalie Portman, according to a report in Women’s Wear Daily.
Rouge Dior Forever is the stick version of Dior’s best-selling Rouge Dior liquid lipstick.
“Rouge Dior Forever pushes the boundaries further by offering a lipstick that combines the convenient gesture of a stick and the no-transfer wear of a liquid formula,” said Laurent Kleitman, president and CEO of Parfums Christian Dior.
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In the new spot, directed by Arnaud Uyttenhove, Portman and Shahidi are filmed against a barren, desert landscape. The actresses are seen wearing flowing red dresses to match the crimson lipstick shades.
The “Grown-ish” actress has also starred in another Dior Forever campaign, shot at the Salk Institute alongside “The Queen’s Gambit” actress Anya Taylor-Joy. The advert — directed by Damien Krisl and photographed by Camilla Akrans — is expected to debut in January 2023.
Shahidi took to her Instagram account to share a look at the upcoming ad campaign with her 6.9 million followers. “A beautiful day,” she captioned the image of her and fellow Dior brand ambassador Taylor-Joy, walking toward the camera in Grecian-style gowns.
The French luxury maison appointed Shahidi as a global brand ambassador in July of 2021, tapping the 21-year-old to be the face of its fashion and cosmetics lines.
DUBAI: Twenty years ago, Mohamed Emam went to his father to tell him something he had long held in his heart: He, too, wanted to become an actor. His father, Adel, arguably the most popular actor in the Arab world, responded bluntly — “My son, you are making a mistake.”
“He told me not to do it! As we sat there, he said to me that it’s very, very difficult. In some ways, it’s the hardest job I could have picked. He told me to choose something else,” Emam tells Arab News. “But what could I do? It was my passion. I said, ‘I love it.’ And I went against his wishes. I had to follow my heart.”
Emam has no regrets about that decision now. How could he? The Egyptian actor has, over the last two decades, become one of the region’s premiere talents in his own right, boasting nearly 12 million followers on Instagram and headlining both action blockbusters and Ramadan comedies alike — some opposite his beloved father.
He’s speaking to Arab News on the day that his latest film, “3amohom” (Their Uncle), is set for its star-studded premiere in Dubai. The city is already festooned with posters of his likeness, a version of himself he sculpted intensively for a year to become a true action star.
The action comedy, in which he plays a boxer who discovers a printing press for counterfeit money, has already had a huge opening in Egypt and is primed to become the actor’s biggest opening in the Gulf ever, as he plans to turn his attention next to Saudi Arabia, with red carpets in Jeddah and Riyadh awaiting his arrival.
“I’m being completely honest when I tell you this is the most proud I’ve been in my career so far,” says Emam. “The fact that I’m taking a tour of the Arab world to open this film is something I always hoped I would have the chance to do some day.”
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Saudi Arabia is now front and center in the mind of Emam and the entire Egyptian film industry, as the emergence of the Kingdom as a cinema market has transformed not only the marketing of their movies, but their entire conception.
“We’re not just thinking about how things will play in Egypt anymore. From our first meetings, we’re thinking about how our stories will resonate in Saudi Arabia, and the greater Gulf. It’s been amazing, honestly. It’s encouraging us to work harder in every aspect of moviemaking, and it’s pushing us to make even more movies,” says Emam.
It’s a huge summer for Egyptian cinema. “3amohom” is opening opposite another blockbuster, the historical epic “Kira & El Gin,” which is aiming to smash the records set by its maker’s previous film, “The Blue Elephant 2.” It’s directed by someone that Emam knows well, Marwan Hamed.
“I wish my old friend the best of luck. Both of our films are packing cinemas, and rightfully so,” says Emam.
In some ways, Emam owes the trajectory of his career to Hamed. The director entrusted him with the lead role in the 2006 blockbuster film “The Yacoubian Building,” opposite a true megastar — his father Adel — despite the fact that Emam had only minor television credits to his name at that point.
“After I made that film, I spoke to my father again. He told me he loved my performance. Since then, he’s told me he loves all my movies. He’s always saying to me how proud he is, even now,” says Emam.
That’s not to say Emam’s rise to fame has been easy. In some ways, Emam is still living his father’s shadow, knowing that while he has had privileges as Adel’s son, he has also had to work extra hard to prove that he deserves the spotlight.
“It’s very difficult to become an actor when your father is the biggest actor in the world. It was a big, big struggle at first. Slowly people grew to understand that I love cinema, that I don’t do this just because my father is a big actor,” says Emam. “To this day, I’m still just trying to do my best, and to please people.”
Not surprisingly, Emam’s love for cinema began on the sets of his father’s films, watching not only his father, but the dozens of people around him all focused on different tasks to make the film a success.
“I was amazed by what I saw. I wanted to join them immediately. I knew in my heart right then — from four years old — that I wanted to be an actor,” says Emam.
Like his legendary father, Emam has excelled at comedic acting — something he does not take for granted.
“Comedy is harder than anything else, to be honest. It’s very hard to make the Egyptian people laugh. It’s very hard to make them accept you. I thank God that after doing a lot of comedy movies, the people have come to appreciate me in that role,” says Emam.
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For “3amohom,” however, Emam didn’t want to lean only on his wit. He had always wanted to play a boxer and while the film features only a few boxing scenes, Emam trained as if he was scheduled for a debut fight.
“I trained very intensively for eight months. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever put myself through. And because we filmed off and on for a year and a half, I had to keep myself in that peak condition the entire time. Not to mention keeping my hair bleached blond — which I’m not sure my head has forgiven me for,” says Emam.
“The training did come in handy outside of the boxing ring, of course. It was a very hard shoot. In one scene, I had to do a fight with 20 different guys. I’d never pushed myself to that degree.”
While he plans to do more action films, and action comedies in particular, as he believes he thrives in fight sequences, there is still one role that Emam dreams of playing more than any other — to star as his father in an Adel Emam biopic.
“I think I could do it. I really intend to try,” says Emam. “There’s another side to him that people don’t see: The father. The man that I know best. Really, I love him so much. I truly admire him. He’s my idol. I would love to be able to tell that story myself.”
FORMENTERA: “We’ve spent the last two years looking at the cultural identity in the Arab world from a sociological perspective,” says Mona Al-Abdallah, co-curator of “Re-composing,” an exhibition at the Palazzo Bembo in Venice dedicated to Saudi-based artists. Al-Abdallah, her sister Maya (the other co-curator of “Re-composing”) and their mother co-founded the 369 Art Gallery in Jeddah in 2014, which is moving to Riyadh this year.
“We chose to look at Saudi-based artists for this exhibition because Saudi Arabia is alive and has a voice. It’s both ancient and new. I’m 41 years old and there are artists who are only 18 in this show. I’m amazed by their proximity to Saudi’s process of becoming and what this says about the regeneration of Arab culture.”
While it can often seem like the same handful of artists constantly appear in Saudi biennials, many of the artists participating in this exhibition are lesser known, such as the pop-culture-influenced Saudi millennial who goes by the name Rexchouk, whose “Pass the Bukhoor” (2022) places lime-green, wide-eyed men and women in traditional garb against a palm tree-lined setting, where they cleanse themselves with ‘bukhoor,’ the scent burner used at home and in ritual gatherings across the Arabian peninsula.
Then there’s Mariam Almesawi, an artist who is also a “braille language practitioner and mental health disability specialist,” according to her statement, but who you will be hard-pressed to find anything about online. Her deceptively simple video “Folkor Al-Arab” (2022) depicts a rotating female figure wearing a plain, white djellaba with black braids covering her face.
Obaid Alsafi, who emerged last year with a Misk Art Grant, combines new media, artificial intelligence and Arabic poetry in his art practice. His work “Desert Insight” (2022) is an imaginary clock framed with a circle of sand. At its center is a programmed monitor showing figures in kaleidoscopic form — an evocation of both geological time and what the artist calls “virtual time.” Meanwhile, in a comment on rapid urban development and migration within the Kingdom, Saeed Al-Gamhawi’s “My Mother’s Rug” (2021), an intricate projection which was exhibited at Noor Riyadh 2021, digitizes an old family rug in an effort to preserve time.
The theme of “Re-composing” evokes an ephemeral idea of fluid identities or the sense of a musical arrangement, and re-arrangement, but there’s a strong sense of materiality and material culture in the exhibition. “Agar” (2022), by filmmaker Deyaa Youssef, for example, is a haunting, textural video with a devotional quality, featuring a woman wearing an embroidered abaya, touching on water as sacred, while Khulod Albugami’s sculpture “Terhal” (2021) is a woolly figure on wooden legs, inspired by tent structures and desert adaptation. Albugami — among the more established artists in the show — draws from her Bedouin cultural heritage. In a similar vein, Swiss-Syrian-Moroccan Houda Terjuman creates a miniature palm tree floating above a green bed using copper plaster sponge and sawdust wire (“Uprooted Palm,” 2021).
There are some dramatic sculptural aesthetics on show. Abha-born Syrian artist Hatem Al-Ahmad ties tongue depressors together in a wall-sized flowing sculpture called “Shlonak” (2022), indexing illness (in the 19th century, depressors were used as a sign of the plague).
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“This was a deeply collaborative process,” Al-Abdallah explains. “We thought that the work needed to be a fluid form, like a tongue that reflects the fluidity of language.” Interestingly the question, “Shou lonak?” - meaning what is your color — which developed as a colloquialism during that time has evolved into “Shlonak?” (How are you?)
In “Connection” (2019), Hmoud Al-Attawi evokes pixelated fingers touching, inspired by Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam.” He uses Islamic rings that measure the number of prayer beads, since the work represents a connection to the divine through fingers and counting. “Al-Attawi and Saad Howede, who share Wasm studio in Riyadh, are very research-driven,” Al-Abdullah says. “Sometimes they work on a project conceptually for a year before executing it. We believe in them and think they are going to be the next big thing.”
In “Tola Petroleum” (2019), Howede creates a grid consisting of rows of oud bottles filled with petroleum, a sharp look at traditional signifiers of Arabian culture and their interchangeability. It is a neat encapsulation of how this exhibition — as a snapshot of contemporary art practice in Saudi Arabia — indicates that ancestral traditions form a significant part, existing side-by-side with cultural change.
DUBAI: Action-thriller “The Gray Man” cost Netflix a reported $200 million, making it the streaming giant’s most expensive film yet. As each slickly executed international set-piece blows by, it’s tempting to try and work out how many subscribers were needed to pay for any particular scene. The hit in a glamorous Bangkok nightclub; a last-ditch escape from an on-fire airplane; the central (admittedly awesome) Prague firefight complete with a derailed tram… Are you not entertained?
Well, yes. And no. Directors the Russo brothers bring their considerable blockbuster pedigree to bear on this high-adrenaline visual cacophony, throwing everything they can at a by-the-numbers conspiracy-thriller screenplay that seems tailor-made for a video-game adaptation. Who needs emotional connection when there are this many bullets flying?
Ryan Gosling is “The Gray Man” of the title — codename Sierra Six, a freelance assassin who does work so dirty not even the CIA — who recruited him out of prison (he killed his abusive father, but only to protect his brother; he’s a good guy really) — can afford to have a paper trail of it. But when one of Sierra’s dying targets hands him an encrypted memory stick, that’s pretty much what’s on it: Proof of atrocities sanctioned by the agency. So the CIA gives evil mercenary Lloyd Hansen carte blanche (and an unlimited budget) to kill Sierra and retrieve it. Cue teams of hired assassins chasing our hero across Asia and Europe.
If you enjoyed Gosling’s deliberately downbeat performance in “Drive,” then you’ll love him here. His face remains practically emotionless throughout the film, even when getting stabbed.
To be fair, he’s still a charismatic hero that will have you rooting for him. Evans, in contrast, does just about all the acting he can think of, often in a single scene, in his chew-the-scenery, psycho-killer bad-guy routine as Lloyd Hansen — a man whose love of himself is outdone only by his love of too-tight sports-casual clothing. As two-dimensional screen villains go, he’s pretty good — trading blows and snarky quips with Sierra in equal measure.
This is an efficient action film, efficiently executed. Provided you’re willing — and have enough knowledge of the genre — to flesh out the stuff that the writers have given the thinnest of outlines for, then it’s a fun, if instantly forgettable, couple of hours packed with thrills but not heart.
DUBAI: Dubai Racing Club (DRC) has announced that it will launch a one-of-a-kind NFT artwork collection in the horse racing industry that offers online and real-life benefits for owners, Emirates News Agency reported.
“Guided by our visionary leadership, Dubai continues to support technology innovation in various fields, and today we are proud to pioneer virtual assets in the horse racing industry that offer all our fans a new way to celebrate the sport,” Sheikh Rashid bin Dalmook Al-Maktoum, Chairman of DRC, said.
Sheikh Rashid continued: “The Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that we are issuing can be utilized both in the real world and online.
“Horse racing has always been an integral part of the DNA of Dubai, a city that is shaping a glorious future with foresight, innovation and excellence. We believe it is time for us to take the sport to a whole new level from a technological point of view.
“A first in the industry, the initiative that we will be launching in the upcoming season will be available to everyone,” he added.
The first set, the “Dubai Sprinters,” which will be released with both publicly available artwork and limited-honorary NFTs, is followed by the “Hall of Fame” and the “DWC Runners” in DRC's new collection of NFT digital artwork.
The Dubai Sprinters collection will include exciting deals and benefits related to the real world in addition to a metaverse project that the Dubai World Cup organizers plan to debut soon.
The new NFT project is in line with the Dubai government's initiatives to support the development of digital assets that can enhance various sectors in the UAE.
Dubai unveiled a new strategy earlier this week with the goal of tripling the number of blockchain and metaverse businesses operating in the city.
The UAE has implemented a series of business and regulatory enablers to make the nation a world leader in cutting-edge digital technologies.
In recent years, NFTs have taken asset ownership to a whole new level and many users now possess a variety of virtual assets, including music videos, artwork, and graphics, which they have purchased online with cryptocurrencies.
Non-fungible tokens cannot be traded for one another, and once they have been created or “minted,” they cannot be further fractionalized.
The NFT project from Dubai Racing Club will debut during the upcoming racing season at Meydan Racecourse, which starts on November 4.