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
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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FINAL LEADERBOARD
1. Jordan Spieth (USA) 65 69 65 69 - 12-under-par
2. Matt Kuchar (USA) 65 71 66 69 - 9-under
3. Li Haotong (CHN) 69 73 69 63 - 6-under
T4. Rory McIlroy (NIR) 71 68 69 67 - 5-under
T4. Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP) 67 73 67 68 - 5-under
T6. Marc Leishman (AUS) 69 76 66 65 - 4-under
T6. Matthew Southgate (ENG) 72 72 67 65 - 4-under
T6. Brooks Koepka (USA) 65 72 68 71 - 4-under
T6. Branden Grace (RSA) 70 74 62 70 - 4-under
T6. Alexander Noren (SWE) 68 72 69 67 - 4-under
MATCH INFO
Rajasthan Royals 158-8 (20 ovs)
Kings XI Punjab 143/7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals won by 15 runs
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
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England v South Africa Test series:
First Test: at Lord's, England won by 211 runs
Second Test: at Trent Bridge, South Africa won by 340 runs
Third Test: at The Oval, July 27-31
Fourth Test: at Old Trafford, August 4-8
Results
STAGE
1 . Filippo Ganna (Ineos) - 0:13:56
2. Stefan Bissegger (Education-Nippo) - 0:00:14
3. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) - 0:00:21
4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - 0:00:24
5. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) - 0:00:30
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - 4:00:05
2. Joao Almeida (QuickStep) - 0:00:05
3. Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep) - 0:00:18
4. Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) - 0:00:33
5. Adam Yates (Ineos) - 0:00:39
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 268hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: CVT auto
Fuel consumption: 9.5L/100km
On sale: now
Price: from Dh195,000
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How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
Tips to avoid getting scammed
1) Beware of cheques presented late on Thursday
2) Visit an RTA centre to change registration only after receiving payment
3) Be aware of people asking to test drive the car alone
4) Try not to close the sale at night
5) Don't be rushed into a sale
6) Call 901 if you see any suspicious behaviour
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The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
