At 109 years old, one of the stars of today's screenings at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival might be considered on the elderly side for the red carpet treatment.
Thanks to a facelift that is remarkable even by the standards of Hollywood, though, A Trip to the Moon, the 1902 masterpiece by French filmmaker Georges Méliès, is ready for its close-up.
While the special effects can hardly compete with Star Wars, or even Flash Gordon, this 16 minute silent wonder is regarded as the world's first sci-fi movie, as well as being the genesis of the special-effects industry.
Open any chronological compendium of the greatest movies ever made and it's likely that you'll see the same iconic picture on page one: the Moon, depicted with the features of a human face and a rocket embedded in one eye. The film also features many of what would become staples of the sci-fi genre, including crazed scientists, hostile aliens and out-of-control technology, while at the same time keeping its tongue firmly in its cheek.
This screening, part of the festival's family day and held at the Vox Cinemas at Marina Mall, will be hosted by Serge Bromberg, a French filmmaker with a passion for rescuing and restoring old movies. It will feature Bromberg accompanying films on the piano, includes an early colour film from the creator of Mickey Mouse and The Love Nest, a long-lost comedy short by Buster Keaton.
Bromberg has called his programme "Saved from the Flames", but in the case of A Trip to the Moon, it is more a case of "saved from disintegration". When it was first released in 1902, most prints of the film were in black and white, but a colour version, with each of the 13,375 frames painstakingly hand painted, was also produced for limited distribution.
While the black and white version became the first film to suffer from widespread piracy (and, as a result, sending Méliès into bankruptcy), the colour prints vanished without trace and had long been considered lost until one was discovered in Barcelona in 1993.
Its condition was so poor that there was no possibility of even screening a fragment. Instead the crumbling pieces of ancient nitrate film were slowly picked open and unrolled, to enable digital copies to be made of what remained. A decade later, the technology existed to carry out a full restoration. Costing more than two million dirhams, it was the most expensive restoration in the history of film and involved three different companies, including Bromberg's Lobster Films and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage.
A year after work began on the project at a Los Angeles studio, the film was fully restored in time for the 150th anniversary of Méliès's birth. It was shown for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival with a new soundtrack specially composed by the French electronic band Air.
Elsewhere on the slate, the cinema of Sweden is celebrated with three films by the country's beloved purveyor of doom Ingmar Bergman - once described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist … since the invention of the motion picture camera". From romantic-entanglement comedy Smiles of a Summer Night, to his deeply reflective and existential Wild Strawberries and his final theatrical release, the multi-Academy Award-winning epic Fanny and Alexander, there's enough to delight avid Bergman-philes and newcomers alike.
The "Naguib Mahfouz - Man of Cinema" programme includes no fewer than seven films based on writings by the Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian. Described as Arab cinema's take on 12 Angry Men, 1960s Between Heaven and Earth sees a group of people trapped in a lift for hours - among them an actor, a thief and a pregnant women, they represent a microcosm of Egyptian society.
The 1955 drama Fools' Alley similarly sees the residents of an archetypal Cairo street pitted against one another. The Thief and the Dogs tells the noirish tale of an ex-con bent on revenge, and 1964's Palace Walk looks at the changes in Egyptian social values around the time of the First World War and the country's nationalist revolution.
Also set in the early 20th century, 1986's The Hunger about a man who accidentally kills a local gangster and becomes corrupted by power himself, is an example of Mahfouz's use of Egypt's past to comment on contemporary dictatorships. Finally, two of the writer's stories that were adapted for the Mexican screen, with Mexico City substituted for Cairo, will also play. They are the family drama The Beginning and the End from1993, and the widely celebrated 1995 tale Midaq Alley, which featured one of Salma Hayek's first big-screen performances.
Co-organised with New York's Museum of Modern Art and ArteEast, the "Mapping Subjectivity" programme returns for its second year with two contemporary Arab classics, both about young men dreaming of moving to France. Presenting a portrait of rural Moroccan life, Oh, the Days! from 1978 (the first Moroccan film to screen at Cannes) is about a poor farmer torn between his widowed mother and his hopes of finding a better life for himself overseas. El Madina, from 1999, sees a young Egyptian head to Paris to become an actor, much to the disgust of his father, who wants him to make his fortune in Saudi Arabia.
Finally, the 1964 Indian Bengali picture Charulata, directed by Satyajit Ray, the first Indian filmmaker to become widely recognised outside the subcontinent, will be screened. Intended to mark the 150th anniversary of the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (upon whose novella it is based), it tells the story of a tragic love-triangle in late 19th-century India.
For details of performances and tickets visit www.abudhabifilmfestival.ae
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
RESULTS
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
Winner: Dirilis Ertugrul, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ismail Mohammed (trainer)
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
Winner: Kidd Malibu, Sandro Paiva, Musabah Al Muhairi
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
Winner: Raakezz, Tadhg O’Shea, Nicholas Bachalard
3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
Winner: Au Couer, Sean Kirrane, Satish Seemar
3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
Winner: Rayig, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
Winner: Chiefdom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
Winner: King’s Shadow, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
How England have scored their set-piece goals in Russia
Three Penalties
v Panama, Group Stage (Harry Kane)
v Panama, Group Stage (Kane)
v Colombia, Last 16 (Kane)
Four Corners
v Tunisia, Group Stage (Kane, via John Stones header, from Ashley Young corner)
v Tunisia, Group Stage (Kane, via Harry Maguire header, from Kieran Trippier corner)
v Panama, Group Stage (Stones, header, from Trippier corner)
v Sweden, Quarter-Final (Maguire, header, from Young corner)
One Free-Kick
v Panama, Group Stage (Stones, via Jordan Henderson, Kane header, and Raheem Sterling, from Tripper free-kick)
Central%20Bank's%20push%20for%20a%20robust%20financial%20infrastructure
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3ECBDC%20real-value%20pilot%20held%20with%20three%20partner%20institutions%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EPreparing%20buy%20now%2C%20pay%20later%20regulations%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EPreparing%20for%20the%202023%20launch%20of%20the%20domestic%20card%20initiative%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EPhase%20one%20of%20the%20Financial%20Infrastructure%20Transformation%20(FiT)%20completed%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
More on animal trafficking
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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More on Quran memorisation:
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 3
Fleck 19, Mousset 52, McBurnie 90
Manchester United 3
Williams 72, Greenwood 77, Rashford 79
Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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