Most in the UAE will have to wait until Monday morning to find out the big winners at this year's Cannes Film Festival, with directors including Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake) and Paul Verhoeven (Elle) among the top contenders for the coveted Palme d'Or.
Outside of the main competition, however, prizes have already begun to be handed out, and there was good news for titles from the region.
In the Semaine de la Critique (Critic Week) awards, Oliver Laxe's drama Mimosas, which was filmed in Morocco and co-produced with funding from Morocco and Qatar, took the top gong, the Nespresso Grand Prix. Turkish satire Album, from director Mehmet Can Mertoglu, took the Prix Révélation France 4.
Lebanese movie Tramontane, directed by Vatche Boulghourjian and part-funded by Dubai Film Market's Enjaaz fund, picked up a Rails d'Or award, presented to promising young directors.
The Un Certain Regard section prizes were also handed out on Saturday. There were high hopes that Mohamed Diab's Egyptian political drama Clash would take home a prize in the segment, but it fell short.
Check out Arts&Life tomorrow for our round up of the winner of the Palme d’Or and the other main prize winners.
artslife@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
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.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950