A still from Iranian director Panah Panahi’s 'Hit the Road', which has won top prize at the BFI London Film Festival. Photo: IMDb
A still from Iranian director Panah Panahi’s 'Hit the Road', which has won top prize at the BFI London Film Festival. Photo: IMDb
A still from Iranian director Panah Panahi’s 'Hit the Road', which has won top prize at the BFI London Film Festival. Photo: IMDb
A still from Iranian director Panah Panahi’s 'Hit the Road', which has won top prize at the BFI London Film Festival. Photo: IMDb

Culture

Film

Iranian and Lebanese films win at BFI London Film Festival

Iranian director Panah Panahi’s debut feature 'Hit the Road' took home top prize

Samia Badih
Samia Badih

October 18, 2021

  • English
  • Arabic

An Iranian film about a chaotic family on a road trip won the top prize at BFI London Film Festival on Sunday.

In 2020, that accolade went to Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round, which also went on to bag the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

Written and directed by Panah Panahi, Hit the Road is the Iranian director's debut feature. He is the son of Jafar Panahi, one of the most respected Iranian filmmakers and who is currently banned from engaging in filmmaking in his home country.

The film, which first premiered in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, has received excellent reviews since its screening. It follows the story of a family who are getting ready to say goodbye to one of its own. In the back seat of their borrowed vehicle is the dad, who has a broken leg, while the mother tries to laugh when she's not holding back tears. The youngest keeps bursting into car karaoke and the older brother, who is leaving the country, remains quiet.

Hit the Road has been described as tender and touching, as it follows the dynamics of a family of four while masterfully switching emotions throughout the film.

The Sutherland Award for First Feature Film went to Belgian director Laura Wandel’s Playground, while the Grierson Award for Best Documentary went to Liz Garbus’s Becoming Cousteau, on the life of French explorer Jacques Cousteau.

Mounia Akl’s drama Costa Brava, Lebanon, starring Nadine Labaki and Saleh Bakri, won the festival’s Audience Award.

Full list of awards at BFI London Film Festival

Official Competition (Best Film Award): Hit the Road by Panah Panahi

First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award): Playground by Laura Wandel

Documentary Competition (Grierson Award): Becoming Cousteau by Liz Garbus

Immersive Art and XR Competition: Only Expansion by Duncan Speakman

Short Film Competition (Short Film Award): Love, Dad by Diana Cam Van Nguyen

Audience Award: Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs

A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.

The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.

Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.

Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.

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Updated: October 18, 2021, 12:03 PM
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