Film director Amal Al Agroobi has never been afraid to speak her mind. She first came to the public's attention when her debut, short documentary Half Emirati, became the most watched film at 2012's Dubai International Film Festival.
The film dealt with the challenges faced by children of mixed heritage, who are half Emirati.
Her next documentary, 2013's The Brain That Sings was among the first films to offer a glimpse into the lives of young people in the UAE living with autism. She won the Diff People's Choice Award for her work.
More recently, Al Agroobi has turned to fiction filmmaking, but is still tackling unique and sometimes tricky subjects. Her 2016 fiction debut, Under the Hat, told the story of an aspiring young Arab heavy-metal star who fills in for the local muezzin after a throat infection puts the leader of the mosque's job to sing the call to prayer and home at risk. In her 2019 film Vanish in Smoke, she tackled the horrors of hi-tech pedophilia.
Al Agroobi has spent a lot of time in Europe in recent years. And about this decision, she says in her typically forthright fashion: “It’s fine to be in the UAE and have that big-fish-in-a-small-pond thing, but the pond is much bigger than that. We [Emirati filmmakers] are in the film world and we want to be doing international work on an international scale.”
Al Agroobi is now about to shoot her latest film, Ladies Coffee, in London. For the short the director is working with European producers, some of which she met at Berlin's film festival.
Despite working in the UK and Europe, she insists she has not forgotten her roots. Al Agroobi says she is now better placed to tell the Arab stories the world needs to hear. "Everything I do has an Arab spin on it," she says.
"I wrote a sci-fi that is entirely based on Islamic folklore. Reading the script, you would think it's Star Wars. It's really important for me to create work with an Arab narrative, because our voice is being lost."
About her latest film, Al Agroobi says that even something as seemingly innocuous as a horror film can fit into her mission to bring Arab stories to a global audience through delving into the distinctly Arabic world of coffee-cup reading – a traditional regional form of fortune telling. “Throughout the story, the coffee cup gives access to the world of the unseen,” she says.
Plus, the director plans to subvert the western standards of the genre. “We’ve seen everything. We’ve seen witches. We’ve seen ‘the power of Christ compels you’. We’ve seen Catholicism and horror. We have not seen Islam and horror,” she says.
It's really important for me to create work with an Arab narrative, because our voice is being lost
While production in Abu Dhabi has restarted, Ladies Coffee will be among the first post-Covid films to enter production in the UK, which was badly hit by the virus.
This means a series of new safety measures and restrictions that could push up both the cost and length of filming.
“There are protocols in place from the UK government, from Screen Skills, from the British Film Institute. We need to sanitise everything, including equipment, before we leave the set. There are even these little disinfectant grenades. You launch them like bombs and they disinfect the entire set before you come on.”
Crew members are also doubling up on tasks to keep numbers down on set, with a script supervisor also acting as second-assistant director, and a first-assistant director filling a dual role as production manager.
It’s not an ideal situation, and Al Agroobi says she expects the measures to add about 50 per cent to her costs, despite the reduced crew, but she is realistic about the challenges of the Covid world.
“It’s going to take longer on a film set, but you do what you need to do,” she says. “The sooner we can get back to shooting, the sooner we can get back to making stuff, and that is great for us as filmmakers, and great for audiences too.”
In a life-imitating-art twist, to help with the extra costs, Al Agroobi is running a Kickstarter campaign through which she herself will give contributors a coffee reading over Zoom.
- Initially we incorrectly named Amal Al Agroobi’s short film ‘Vanish in Smoke’ and incorrectly reported the protagonists in ‘Ladies Coffee’ were Swedish. We apologise for the errors.
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Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
The biog
Name: Shamsa Hassan Safar
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Degree in emergency medical services at Higher Colleges of Technology
Favourite book: Between two hearts- Arabic novels
Favourite music: Mohammed Abdu and modern Arabic songs
Favourite way to spend time off: Family visits and spending time with friends
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.”
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Asia Cup Qualifier
Venue: Kuala Lumpur
Result: Winners play at Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29: Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6: Final
Asia Cup
Venue: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Schedule: Sep 15-28
Teams: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, plus the winner of the Qualifier
