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A little over 12,000 kilometres separate the Dolby Theatre (home of the American Academy Awards) from the village of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. When it was announced that the best documentary award went to ‘No Other Land,’ about the brutal displacement of Palestinian villagers by t…
The name Emmanuelle was forever changed by cinema – following the release of the 1974 soft porn film, it became the byword for desire, forbidden lust and fancy wicker furnishing. For those of a certain age the name still carries those connotations, but now the award-winning director Aud…
The Saudi art scene is booming right now, but behind the hot-topic exhibitions and international showcases are some incredible curators such as Jumana Ghouth, who has put together a multitude of shows over the years, from thought-provoking spotlights on single artists to large group sho…
Lyna Khoudri has her work cut out for her in Wes Anderson’s ‘The French Dispatch’. In the king of kook’s latest film, a love letter to journalism, France and all things quintessentially Anderson, the little-known French-Algerian actress first has to stake a claim for herself in an insan…
“What I love about poetry is the freedom that comes with the page and what you can do with the blank spaces. You can do almost anything – even defy the confines of grammar – it’s like the abstract art of the literary world,” says Danielle Badra, the latest winner of the Etel Adnan Poetr…
“A fikra started while I was living in New York,” says Mikey Muhanna, who grew up in an expatriate community in Cyprus before attending high school in Lebanon and then moving to the U.S. for college, where he remained for another ten years after graduation. “Its genesis was born out of …
Where other girls of 21 might still be wondering what to do with their lives, Yousra Mohsen has already achieved her goal of making it as a professional dancer. But it wasn’t easy. Her achievement of becoming the first Middle Easterner to join the Crazy Horse in Paris, sparked an …
Fresh off the heels of his role as Aladdin in the blockbuster Hollywood film, Mena Massoud is speaking out about the lack of diversity in Hollywood, saving the planet and his new Hulu series ‘Reprisal’, a neo-noir thriller set to launch this December. ALADDIN EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS A…
Lebanese novelist and playwright Hanan Al-Shaykh’s work often challenges traditional women’s roles in the Arab world and was initially banned in many Arab countries. Her most recent book, ‘The Occasional Virgin’ is no exception. In her elegant London apartment overlooking Grosvenor Squa…
It might seem incongruous to deface a bag that costs more than a lot of people’s monthly salaries, but when Dubai-based artist Janan Shihadeh (@jananstudio) does it, you might actually be making it worth more than you paid for it. Using permanent, waterproof and bendable paint to custom…
Born in Moscow and raised in Syria, Dina Saadi has been transforming walls around the world with her large-scale murals for the best part of five years. Part pop art and part poetry, they’ll leave you with plenty to reflect on. Based in Dubai since 2012, Dina Saadi is an artist, i…
One day in 2004, the Iraqi-Dutch filmmaker Mohamed Jabarah Al Daradji was filming scenes for his first feature film, ‘Ahlaam’, on Haifa Street in Baghdad when he and his crew were abducted by an Iraqi militia affiliated with Al Qaeda. “They accused us of working with the Americans,” Al …