German-language movies will be the focus of a new film festival that is taking place for the first time in the UAE. Held in collaboration with the German Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region and Cinema Akil in Dubai, the event runs from Thursday to Saturday, November 19 to 21 and takes place at Cinema Akil, but will also be live-streamed throughout the UAE and Bahrain.
The festival will open with the award-winning film Undine by Christian Petzold, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival, where Paula Beer who plays the titular role won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.
In the film, Petzold reimagines the myth of Undine, as a modern love story. The mysterious water spirit, who as the myth story goes, becomes human when she falls in love with a man but is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her.
Acclaimed director Andreas Dresen's Gundermann is a biopic based on the story of Gerhard Gundermann, a struggling singer/songwriter raised in former East Germany who spent time as a coal miner and an informant for the state before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Byambasuren Davaa's Veins of the World is a drama set in Mongolia about a young boy who turns grief into a source of power after the sudden death of his father. This was Davaa's feature debut and also premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
First-time director Nora Fingscheidt's System Crasher is about a nine-year-old girl called Benni who is described as a "system crasher" by child protection services because of her out-of-control behaviour. The film looks very closely at how the child welfare system can fail children they're meant to protect. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won both the Alfred Bauer and Reader Jury's prize.
Haifaa Al Mansour's The Perfect Candidate is a Saudi-German co-production that follows the story of a young female doctor who decides to run for municipal office in a largely patriarchal society. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year.
David Nawrath's The Mover is a powerful feature film debut about a former weightlifter named Walter, who works as a hauler for forced evictions. Walter ignores the increasing pain caused by his physically demanding job just as he refuses to see the pain of the people his work surrounds him with.
One-Way to Moscow by Micha Lewinsky is a tragicomedy take on the political surveillance of Swiss citizens towards the end of the Cold War.
Filmmaker and actress Maryam Zaree's documentary Born in Evin follows her quest to discover the violent circumstances surrounding her birth inside one of the world's most notorious political prisons.
A Hidden Life by Terrence Malick tells the true story of an Austrian farmer Franz Jagerstatter who refused to fight for the Nazis. Written by Malick, the film is inspired by the letters exchanged between Jagerstatter and his wife Franziska once he was imprisoned. A resistance drama, it reflects on courage in the battle against evil.
Finally, the festival will close with Dust by Udita Bhargava, which also premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival 2020. It is an Indo-German co-production and is set around a young German who visits rural India after the death of his Indian photojournalist girlfriend.
The Gulf German Film Festival runs from Thursday to Saturday, November 19 to 21, www.goethe.de
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Arrogate's winning run
1. Maiden Special Weight, Santa Anita Park, June 5, 2016
2. Allowance Optional Claiming, Santa Anita Park, June 24, 2016
3. Allowance Optional Claiming, Del Mar, August 4, 2016
4. Travers Stakes, Saratoga, August 27, 2016
5. Breeders' Cup Classic, Santa Anita Park, November 5, 2016
6. Pegasus World Cup, Gulfstream Park, January 28, 2017
7. Dubai World Cup, Meydan Racecourse, March 25, 2017
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
