Arabs & Arabian Records Aggregator. Chronicler. Milestones of the 25 Countries of the Arabic Speaking World (official / co-official). AGCC. MENA. Global. Ist's to Top 10's. Records. Read & Enjoy./ www.arabianrecords.org
Movie by Finnish-Somali writer-director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed won the Stallion of Yennenga grand prize at the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou.
A little more than one month after it won the Amplify Voices Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Gravedigger’s Wife has scooped Africa’s top film prize.
The drama, by Finnish-Somali writer-director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, won the prestigious Stallion of Yennenga Grand Prize for Best Film at the Pan African Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Sunday.
Filmed in Somali in Djibouti, the tenderly moving story of love and devotion follows Guled (Omar Abdi), a man who makes a precarious living from loss.
The film took home the 20 million franc ($35,714) CFA prize money and the golden stallion statue, beating 16 other African films to the top prize. The films in competition were made by directors from 15 different African countries.
It was also Somalia’s first official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2021 Academy Awards, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in July.
source/content: thenationalnews.com
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Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, left, Yasmin Warsame, centre, and Omar Abdi attend ‘The Gravedigger’s Wife’ photocall during the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. / AFP / thenationalnews.com
It is commemorated every year on the anniversary, which is, however, not a public holiday.
The day is marked by schools, government offices, businesses, and individuals hanging the national flag outside their homes and workplaces.
The veteran Emirati diplomat, Abdullah Mohammed Al Maainah, had designed the symbol of the country’s unity, pride and dignity when he was only a teenager 19 years old.
Al Maainah’s design was chosen among more than 1,030 entries submitted as part of a nationwide contest.
Later, the winning flag was raised on December 2, 1971 — the Foundation Day of the UAE.
On December 2, it will be exactly 50 years since the UAE flag was first hoisted to mark the country’s union.
Curiously, he did not know his design had been selected until he saw the flag fluttering at Mushrif Palace in Abu Dhabi with his own eyes.
“It was an overwhelming feeling. All of us were happy because we had unified as one country. However, I was overjoyed the most,” said the veteran diplomat, as he recalled how he found out about the contest and prepared for it with barely any time or resources.
“One of the arrangements related to declaring the establishment of the UAE at that time was to design a flag for it. A committee was formed to look into the matter and an advertisement was put out in the Al Ittihad newspaper inviting submissions from various artists,” he reminisced.
Al Maainah said he stumbled upon the advertisement just three days before the deadline was to expire.
“It was a race against time, as I didn’t have any drawing tools or colouring pencils. I rushed out to get them and worked all night to come up with the design. It was a happy feeling staying awake for the sake of designing the flag for my beloved country,” he added.
Only two flags were raised on December 2, 1971, to mark the formation of the nation – one in Abu Dhabi, the other at Union House in Dubai.
Al Maainah said the colours of the UAE flag were not chosen randomly.
“Every colour has an innate meaning. White symbolises peace, goodness and purity, black represents solidarity, green stands for hope, prosperity and development while red denotes bravery and courage,” he added.
Later, he was awarded 4,000 riyals as prize money, as the UAE dirham was yet to be introduced as the legal tender.
Al Maainah, who has travelled around the world as the UAE’s ambassador to several foreign missions, cherishes the honour bestowed on him by the country’s wise and visionary leadership for his design of the flag.
A tasty Guinness World Record was broken at Expo 2020 Dubai , four days after the initial attempt was postponed due to a tropical storm in the region.
A warm, sweet scent filled the air inside the Swedish Pavilion at the world’s fair, as an attempt to create the world’s “longest cinnamon bun train” got under way.
Fifteen hundred sticky and delicious buns, made from about 6kg of butter, 11kg of sugar and 36kg of flour, were placed in a spiral pattern on a large circular table.
All ingredients used to make and connect the buns – which were comically referred to as the “original gangsters of Swedish bakery” by the chefs – had to be edible, so no glue, tape or sticks were used.
“To bake our way into the record books is a testament to the hard work, agility and dedication that you see every day in our 22 cake shops,” said Tushar Fotedar, a director at Mister Baker.
The world record commemorates Fika, which is a Swedish social phenomenon that brings together colleagues, family members and friends over coffee and pastries.
source/content: thenationalnews.com
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A tasty Guinness World Record was broken at Expo 2020 Dubai on Friday, four days after the initial attempt was postponed due to a tropical storm in the region. All photos by Khushnum Bhandari / The National / thenationalnews.com
Nadifa Mohamed , FRSL. (aka) Nadifa Maxamed .Somali British Novelist.
Nadifa Mohamed became the first Somali person to be short-listed for the Booker Prize with new novel, The Fortune Men.
Almost two decades ago, Somali-British author Nadifa Mohamed was interning for a film company in London when she came across the story of a Somali seaman named Mahmood Mattan from Cardiff’s port community of Tiger Bay.
She didn’t know at the time, the discovery would lead her to write what’s now become the first novel written by a Somali person to be short-listed for the Booker Prize.
source/content: abc.net.au
Other Books/Novels:
Black Mamba Boy (2010)
The Orchard of Lost Souls (2014)
The Fortune Men
Awards:
Betty Trask Award (2010)
Somerset Maugham Award (2014)
Prix Albert Bernard (2016) etc..
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Nadifa Mohamed is the first Somali author to be short-listed for the Booker Prize for her novel The Fortune Men.(Supplied: Nadifa Mohamed) / abc.net.au
Moroccan-Spanish model Sarah Loinaz was crowned Miss Universe Spain 2021 at the Los Olivos Beach Resort in Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Canary Islands, on October 16.
The gala was hosted by Sofia del Prado, the former crowned Miss Universe Spain in 2017, and finalist of Miss Universe 2017.
Sarah Loinaz will compete at the Miss Universe 2021 pageant, which will be held in Israel, in December 2021.
The Moroccan-Spanish model made her runway debut for a fashion show for VIDDA in April 2019 in Las Palmas, Spain.
In 2017, she represented Spain at the Miss Universe Spain 2017 competition where she placed second behind model Sofia del Prado.
The CineGouna projects awarded cash and other prizes this year were 13 projects in development, 6 films in post-production, in addition to one guest film in post-production.
The CineGouna SpringBoard jury included Mohamed Soueid, the Lebanese producer and film critic; Nina Lath Gupta, former CEO of the NFDC; and Ismaël Ferroukhi, the Moroccan director and screenwriter.
The jury gave a special mention to Abo Zabaal 1989 (Egypt) by Bassam Mortada for its ability to create a home for memories and surpassing the filmmaker’s own understanding of his life’s events, which were portrayed from the perspectives of his parents.
A Quarter to Thursday in Algiers (France) by Sofia Djama won the Best Project in Development award with a cash prize of $15,000; a CineGouna Platform certificate; and US $2,000 worth of in-kind services from Clackett.
They Planted Strange Trees (Palestine) by Hind Shoufani won the Best Film in Post-Production award with a CineGouna Platform certificate; a cash prize of $15,000; and The Indie Deer’s cash grant of $10,000.
Fifty Meters (Egypt) by Yomna Khattab won multiple cash prizes: a $10,000 full film promotion package from The Cell Post Production; a $10,000 cash grant from Trend VFX; a $10,000 from Synergy Films; a US $15,000 cash grant for script development from Mariam Naoum and Sard Writing Room; a $5,000 worth of post-production services from BEE Media Productions; a $10,000 from Cult; a $1,000 for locations services from Clackett; and a $7,000 Master’s Degree US scholarship from Gemini Africa.
This project also won a chance from Arab Cinema Center to participate in Rotterdam Film Lab.
Haysh Maysh: False Drama (Morocco) by Hicham Lasri won $30,000 as a minimum guarantee on film distribution from MAD Solutions and Ergo Media Ventures as well as a $5,000 cash grant from Malmö Arab Film Festival.
Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore (Egypt) by Morad Mostafa won a $5,000 cash grant from Gemini Africa as well as EGP 50,000 from The Cell Post Production, and was selected for IEFTA’s Global Film Expression initiative.
Women of My Life (Iraq, Switzerland) by Zahraa Ghandour won a $10,000 cash grant from Maqam Production Films and was also selected for IEFTA’s Global Film Expression initiative.
Searching for Woody (Egypt) by Sara Shazli won a $5,000 cash grant from BEE Media Productions in addition to $2000 worth of services from Clackett.
The $50,000 cash grant per sale from OSN prize went to A Song for Summer and Winter (Syria, Denmark, Germany, United States) by Talal Derki and Ali Wajeeh. The film also won $10,000 worth of a full DCP package from The Cell Post Production.
Hanging Gardens (Iraq, United Kingdom, Palestine) by Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji won a $30,000 worth of services and color-grading package from Mercury Visual Solutions, while Hyphen (Lebanon) by Reine Razzouk won a $10,000 cash grant from Clackett.
Happy Lovers (France, Morocco) by Hicham Lasri won a $10,000 cash grant from Rotana, while Arab Radio and Television Network (ART) gave its $10,000 cash grant to SINK (Jordan, Sweden, Canada, France) by Zain Duraie.
My Father’s Scent (Egypt) by Mohamed Siam won a $10,000 cash grant from New Black, while The Blind Ferryman – Al Baseer (Iraq, Switzerland) by Ali Al-Fatlawi won a $5,000 worth of post-production services by Hecat Studio.
Lina Ghotmeh. Humanist Architect . Founder of Lina Ghotmeh – Architecture, France
French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh recently received the “Tamayouz” prize, which rewards the excellence of women architects in the Middle East and North Africa.
An additional recognition for this architect, who has won several other international awards.
Dana Ballout, the Lebanese-American Emmy-nominated producer of “Trafficked with Mariana Zeller,” knows the exact moment she started paying attention to what was going on in the world. It was February 14, 2005.
Ballout was a senior in high school in Beirut, and as she sat in class that Valentine’s Day morning, a bomb went off just down the block, sending the building’s shatter-proof windows into convulsions. Lebanon’s recently-resigned prime minster, Rafic Hariri, had been assassinated.
She spent years covering the war in Syria as a reporter for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, but it was in podcasts and documentaries that she fully found her voice, allowing her to journey in depth into people’s lives in a way she never could before.
Ballout is a storyteller, but the stories she chooses to tell are ones that few are brave enough to tell. Often they can be harrowing, including the latest documentary she co-produced, “Groomed,” which follows a woman returning to her hometown in search of answers about the man who abused her as a child.
In “Trafficked,” recently renewed for a third season at National Geographic, Ballout and company travel across the world to profile the global underworld, sitting down with the titans of illegal industries such as scamming, steroids, counterfeiting and poaching.
source/content : arabnews.com
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Ballout had grown up in a household with a newspaper on the table every morning. (Supplied) / arabnews.com
Rawdah Mohamed. Somali Origin – Norwegian. Social media influencer, model, blogger, activist, healthcare professional.
Mohamed landed the role as Vogue Scandinavia’s Norway fashion editor earlier this year.
The magazine launched last week with Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg on the front cover.
At the beginning of her modeling career, Mohamed juggled the job with working with autistic people and people with different mental disabilities.
She continues to volunteer in mental health care to this day and has been working with patients at overstretched hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
source/content: arabnews.com
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Rawdah Mohamed is the first hijab-wearing editor of color at a western fashion magazine. (Ole Martin Halvorsen) / arabnews.com
