Critics are predicting awards season glory for Selma, a powerful new film about the civil-rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
Co-starring Oprah Winfrey and the rising British star David Oyelowo, the film received a standing ovation in Hollywood as the industry journal Variety forecast "considerable box-office and awards-season gold".
The film, due for limited release in the United States on December 25 to qualify for the Oscars, focuses on a short period after the 1964 passage of the Civil Rights Act, the law that abolished segregation and discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin in the US.
Despite their new rights, African-Americans still faced bullying to prevent them from registering to vote.
The movie opens with a racist bomb attack on a church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four black schoolgirls. The attention then rapidly turns to Selma, another town in the southern US state that is known as the cradle of the civil-rights struggle.
The former talk-show queen Winfrey plays Annie Lee Cooper, a modest and dignified nurse who is blocked and humiliated by a small-town official as she tries to register to vote.
King – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 – heads to Selma to lead demonstrations and a celebrated march in the Alabama capital, Montgomery.
The violent clampdown on what came to be known as Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, sparked a national outcry and triggered a movement that forced president Lyndon Johnson to introduce the Voting Rights Act later that year.
Co-produced by Pathé, Winfrey and Brad Pitt's Plan B production company, the film has Oyelowo – who appears in Interstellar and the forthcoming film A Most Violent Year – playing King as determined and charismatic, yet human.
It depicts the US Secret Service’s attempts to trip him up by bugging his conversations, shadowing him and trying to get at him through his wife, Coretta Scott King, played by Carmen Ejogo.
Coretta was in fact harassed by the FBI with anonymous racist threats and also with recordings of her pastor husband allegedly frolicking with other women.
King’s doubts, struggles and disagreements with other civil-rights leaders, including Malcolm X and student activists in Selma, are also portrayed in detail.
“David [Oyelowo] is the reason I came on board,” says Winfrey.
She says they had become "fast friends" on the set of The Butler, a film by the director Lee Daniels, who is due to attend the Dubai International Film Festival next month to head up the jury for the Muhr Feature Awards. The Butler was widely tipped for Oscar glory but in the end failed to earn any nominations.
Oyelowo, who is of Nigerian origin, says he dreamed in 2007 that he would one day play Martin Luther King Jr.
The Selma director Ava DuVernay says the film shoot, which mostly took place in Selma itself, resonated strongly with local people.
“Everybody knew Annie Lee Cooper there,” she says.
Speaking about seeking inspiration for the soundtrack, the American rapper Common says: “I just had to turn on the TV and see what was happening in Ferguson,” the Missouri town torn by racial unrest in the past few months.
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The specs: Aston Martin DB11 V8 vs Ferrari GTC4Lusso T
Price, base: Dh840,000; Dh120,000
Engine: 4.0L V8 twin-turbo; 3.9L V8 turbo
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic; seven-speed automatic
Power: 509hp @ 6,000rpm; 601hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 695Nm @ 2,000rpm; 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.9L / 100km; 11.6L / 100km
The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The team
Photographer: Mateusz Stefanowski at Art Factory
Videographer: Jear Valasquez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Model: Randa at Art Factory Videographer’s assistant: Zanong Magat
Photographer’s assistant: Sophia Shlykova
With thanks to Jubail Mangrove Park, Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
'Ashkal'
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US' most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was first created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out projectiles, namely ballistic missiles, as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles both inside and outside of the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 93 miles above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then deployed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Fly Etihad or Emirates from the UAE to Moscow from 2,763 return per person return including taxes.
Where to stay
Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.
Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5