One of the most eagerly awaited guests at this year's Middle East Film & Comic Con held at Dubai's World Trade Centre was, undoubtedly, Gillian Anderson, the star of The X-Files, The Fall and Hannibal.
With the recent announcement that The X-Files is being revived for a small-screen run of six episodes – featuring both Anderson and her erstwhile co-star David Duchovny – fans were thrilled to see her and most wanted to ask her about what to expect from it, her experiences of investigating the paranormal and what it was like hanging out with the serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the critically acclaimed The Silence of the Lambs TV spin-off, Hannibal.
It is perhaps understandable, then, that Anderson seemed genuinely shocked when, in the brief time I was allotted to quiz her, I chose a very different opening subject.
Her 2014 film Sold tells the story of a 13-year-old Nepalese girl who is trafficked to India to work in a brothel. For me, it was one of the highlights, as well as one of the most harrowing films, of last year's Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
“Wow. I didn’t know anybody had seen that,” says Anderson. “The film is about the sex trade of young girls in India, but it’s something that happens all over the world, every day, under our noses.”
Anderson says that she had known the film’s writer and director Jeffrey D Brown for some time and was happy to help raise awareness of the issue.
“He sent me the script at a point when the character I played, I think, had no dialogue, but asked if I would jump on board anyway for the sake of the cause and I said yes.”
Anderson’s non-speaking role soon became more vocal.
“Then Emma Thompson came on board as an executive producer,” she says. “And Jeffrey met a humanitarian photographer called Lisa Kristine who had spent the past seven years or so documenting and bearing witness to human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
“It’s a serious, serious, serious issue that is not properly being dealt with or recognised in the world today. Lisa has risked her life many times over to bear witness. So Jeffrey based this character in the story on her and added some scenes and asked if I would still be on board, and it fitted into my schedule, so I got on board and I got the pleasure of going to Kolkata and completely loved it there.
“It’s still showing at festivals, I think, and there’s a specific campaign around it about human- and sex-trafficking. It’s definitely raising awareness and I would ask everyone to look it up and support it.”
Of course, I couldn't let one of the biggest TV stars of the 1990s – and the winner of FHM magazine's coveted award for most beautiful woman in the world in 1996 – go without asking about her most famous role and an update on the revival.
“I am reprising the role of Dana Scully,” she says. “We’re going to do six episodes this year in Vancouver, starting in June. We’re gonna have to be pushed around in wheelchairs – I’m 46 now. It’s Crazy. Really crazy. The fact we were even doing any more episodes was never on the cards, so I think I’m still in denial.”
And why does the show remain so enduringly popular? “It was basically David [Duchovny] and I being the most brilliant characters in the history of television,” she says with a smile.
For more information about Sold and the campaign to end the exploitation of children around the world, visit www.soldthemovie.com
cnewbould@thenational.ae
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
UAE Falcons
Carly Lewis (captain), Emily Fensome, Kelly Loy, Isabel Affley, Jessica Cronin, Jemma Eley, Jenna Guy, Kate Lewis, Megan Polley, Charlie Preston, Becki Quigley and Sophie Siffre. Deb Jones and Lucia Sdao – coach and assistant coach.
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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Tips for entertaining with ease
· Set the table the night before. It’s a small job but it will make you feel more organised once done.
· As the host, your mood sets the tone. If people arrive to find you red-faced and harried, they’re not going to relax until you do. Take a deep breath and try to exude calm energy.
· Guests tend to turn up thirsty. Fill a big jug with iced water and lemon or lime slices and encourage people to help themselves.
· Have some background music on to help create a bit of ambience and fill any initial lulls in conversations.
· The meal certainly doesn’t need to be ready the moment your guests step through the door, but if there’s a nibble or two that can be passed around it will ward off hunger pangs and buy you a bit more time in the kitchen.
· You absolutely don’t have to make every element of the brunch from scratch. Take inspiration from our ideas for ready-made extras and by all means pick up a store-bought dessert.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
DIVINE%20INTERVENTOIN
%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Elia%20Suleiman%2C%20Manal%20Khader%2C%20Amer%20Daher%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Elia%20Suleiman%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%204.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Generation Start-up: Awok company profile
Started: 2013
Founder: Ulugbek Yuldashev
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 600 plus
Stage: still in talks with VCs
Principal Investors: self-financed by founder
Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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Juvenile arthritis
Along with doctors, families and teachers can help pick up cases of arthritis in children.
Most types of childhood arthritis are known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis. JIA causes pain and inflammation in one or more joints for at least six weeks.
Dr Betina Rogalski said "The younger the child the more difficult it into pick up the symptoms. If the child is small, it may just be a bit grumpy or pull its leg a way or not feel like walking,” she said.
According to The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in US, the most common symptoms of juvenile arthritis are joint swelling, pain, and stiffness that doesn’t go away. Usually it affects the knees, hands, and feet, and it’s worse in the morning or after a nap.
Limping in the morning because of a stiff knee, excessive clumsiness, having a high fever and skin rash are other symptoms. Children may also have swelling in lymph nodes in the neck and other parts of the body.
Arthritis in children can cause eye inflammation and growth problems and can cause bones and joints to grow unevenly.
In the UK, about 15,000 children and young people are affected by arthritis.
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Saturday's results
Brighton 1-1 Leicester City
Everton 1-0 Cardiff City
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Watford 0-3 Liverpool
West Ham United 0-4 Manchester City
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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