The Arts Edit: Arab film in Venice and Toronto

Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Edit, my weekly newsletter from The National's Abu Dhabi newsroom rounding up this week's most noteworthy arts and culture stories.

IN FOCUS

This is a significant week for Arab cinema on the world stage, with Venice Film Festival in full swing and Toronto International Film Festival set to begin on Thursday.

In Italy, there are several notable debuts. Today, Egypt will return to the festival for the first time in 12 years with the film Seeking Haven for Mr Rambo, directed by Khaled Mansour.

On Thursday, Aicha, the second feature from Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Barsaoui, will have its public premiere. The film tells the story of a young woman who flees her village to start a new life after a near-death experience.

Find out more about films from the Middle East and North Africa that are set to screen here, and keep an eye on The National for in-depth coverage of both of these films this week.

One of the most fascinating projects in Venice had its premiere on Friday – the documentary Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958–1989.

Directed by Swedish filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson, it’s a curated look at footage from decades of reports by Sweden’s national public broadcaster SVT. It is both a revelatory historical document as well as an intriguing dissection of supposedly objective journalism.

The reports vary wildly in their perspective on Palestine. In euphoric early segments, Israel is presented as a utopia and Palestinians are not even mentioned. As time goes on, sections that include frank interviews with Palestinian figures, as well as dissenting Israeli figures, tell a very different and considerably more painful story.

At one point, Yasser Arafat, the former head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, wonders aloud why the Swedish people do not support the Palestinian cause as much as they did the Vietnamese one. The answer, viewers are left to speculate, is to be found in the way things were presented more than a decade earlier, a paradigm that was seemingly repeated around the world.

And while so much of the film can be excruciating, it is also inspiring. Through it all, the spirit of the Palestinian people shines. They, by and large, have an unwavering clarity of purpose throughout each era, regardless of whatever biased perspective it is presented.

Hopefully this movie helps the efforts towards peace for all involved. Find my five-star review here.

Olsson told The National how the project was in the works for years, though took on urgency when he saw footage of the Israel-Gaza war. “It was just sadness and a horror,” Olsson said. “The only thing I wanted in relation to the film and the events during and after October 7 was to get it to the audience as quickly as possible."

Find more from Razmig Bedirian’s conversation with Olsson here.

In Toronto, several of the year’s best Arab films are set to screen, both fiction and documentary. Find more on each project here.

What's most notable across both festivals is the diversity of the line-ups, each featuring untold stories set across the Middle East and North Africa. Each year, the world sees more clearly that, while the Arabic language unites the region, Arab cinema represents a medley of perspectives.

The hidden histories of New York's Arab and Muslim immigrants

Since the days of Ellis Island, New York City has been known as a gateway for immigrants to America. But few know the stories of the Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrants who came to the city, with some setting up Arabic-language shops, mosques and churches in Lower Manhattan.

Asad Dandia, raised in a Pakistani community in Coney Island, is now attempting to change that. Through his project New York Narratives, he takes public and private groups around different parts of the city and points out what other historians might have missed, such as the former Little Syria neighborhood.

"If you don't know where you came from, you don't know where you're going. Having a sense of history gives you a sense of place, gives you a sense of belonging," Dandia told Melissa Gronlund.

“I wanted to tell the stories of people like me and my family. I don’t want people to see the city as some undifferentiated mass of buildings. I want them to feel a part of the city, and the best way to do it is to take them on the street level and show them that they have a story here.”

Find more on his project here.

The responsibility of representing Emirati women

Each week, people worldwide tune in to The Real Housewives of Dubai for a glimpse of what life in the UAE is like for those in the upper echelon.

But for those yearning to get past the glitz and glam to learn about the multifaceted experience of being an Emirati woman, there is only one representative on the show: Sara Al Madani.

Understandably, that puts a lot of pressure on her but the entrepreneur, 38, was keenly aware of the responsibility that she was putting on her shoulders by signing up. In fact, she welcomed it, she told The National.

For Al Madani, the reason was simple: she has lived her life unconventionally, constantly and intentionally bucking the expectations outsiders have of women from the Gulf. By doing the show, she hoped to dispel some of those misconceptions so that other Emirati women could forge their own paths more easily.

“That’s what I love about this,” said Al Madani. “I started this show because it is a window to access the West, to show them that all of the stereotypes and misunderstandings they have about the Middle East are wrong. This is not the place they think it is.

“This is not a place of suppressed women. We’re not all put in a room to leave our dreams dead on our pillows. We’re so much more, and I’m glad the West finally gets to see that – I view this show as a marketing tool for the country and its people.”

Al Madani, however, does not think she alone can represent the totality of what it means to be an Emirati woman. In her mind, that’s something that would be impossible for any one person to do. Rather, she believes that by being herself, she is encouraging others to do the same – exemplifying that diversity of spirit is what makes her country special.

“It’s a big responsibility, but I’m comfortable in this because I don’t represent anybody but myself," she added. Her full interview can be found here.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

· Tyga at Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai – October 19

· Guy Manoukian at Dubai Opera – November 3

· Lionel Richie at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai – December 31