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The people who make the things, the places and the arguments worth reading about.
Forced to direct her actors from a production van in conservative Riyadh, Haifa Al Mansour keeps her sense of humour. She needs it: she still does not know how to screen her film where public cinemas remain illegal.
When interior designer Alberto Pinto passed away this November, he left behind a legacy of opulent homes, amongst them a magnificent villa in Kuwait completed in the final year of his accomplished forty-year career.
Chakib Richani is celebrated for his architecture, yet his custom-made furniture is sought after in its own right. Nadine Khalil enters the Lebanese architect's boutique to find pieces both bold and understated, monolithic and strikingly proportioned.
Not yet thirty, Sotheby's specialist Lina Lazaar Jameel has pushed contemporary Arab art to the fore of the global scene. Tunisian-born, Riyadh-raised and Geneva-schooled, she opens our conversation, improbably, with mathematics and the nature of truth.
From the Louvre to the Metropolitan and the Victoria and Albert, the great institutions have long guarded Islamic art's heritage. Now their gaze is shifting decisively towards the vibrant contemporary art of the region.
Founded by Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of defence, Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Living Oceans Foundation devotes its time and resources to conserving and restoring our increasingly stressed marine life.
He deserves praise, even if he plainly dislikes it. In Medgulf's executive suite overlooking Solidere and the sea, John Andrews coaxes a reluctant Lutfi Fadel el-Zein to reflect on building the region's largest insurer.
Five hundred million of us now broadcast our every mood, insight and outrage in tweets, warned that silence means falling behind. A spirited meditation on social media's grip and the quiet pleasures of switching off.
Decades ago, 1999 looked impossibly futuristic on screen. Yet here we remain, in jeans, eating ordinary food, still earthbound. A wry reflection on technology, prophecy and how stubbornly familiar tomorrow always turns out to be.
Why do men of a certain age and standing suddenly deem it acceptable to fling a tie over the shoulder before dining? Not at informal desk lunches, but at fine restaurants, no less.
Borrowing Henri Nouwen's words on those who share our pain rather than offer cures, this tender reflection honours the friend who can sit with us in despair, tolerate not knowing, and simply stay through our grief.
Just as the Impressionists overturned painting and paved the way for the Cubists, trailblazers like Alain Senderens reinvented the kitchen. We trace how Nouvelle Cuisine's daring pioneers transformed fine dining into a creative movement.