A documentary starring Quincy Jones and 24 of the region’s musical stars will have its world premiere at Diff.
In November 2011, the charity single Tomorrow/Bokra, produced by Jones and starring guest vocalists from across the Arab world, was released to raise funds for youth charities around the world. The song went on to top regional download charts and the video has been viewed more than 11 million times on YouTube.
Directed by the Emirati filmmaker Ahmed Abdulqader, Bokra the Film is a feature-length documentary about the all-star recording sessions that spawned the hit and the effect the song has had on young people in the region.
"I am enormously proud that the people of the Middle East and North Africa so warmly embraced the themes expressed in Tomorrow/Bokra and I can think of no better place to premiere the film of the making of this historic recording than the Dubai International Film Festival," says Jones, who is a frequent visitor to the UAE.
The film was co-produced by Jones, the Emirati social entrepreneur Badr Jafar and Ali F Mostafa, the Emirati director of From A to B, which opened the Abu Dhabi Film Festival last month.
Bokra the Film will screen on the closing night of Diff, December 17, at Madinat Jumeirah. For more information, visit www.dubaifilmfest.com
rgarratt@thenational.ae
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For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
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It was founded in 2018 and originally called the Brexit Party.
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Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson became its first MP after defecting in March 2024.
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