The Arts Edit | The National

Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Edit, the weekly newsletter from The National's Abu Dhabi newsroom rounding up this week's most noteworthy arts and culture stories. IN FOCUS The Red Sea International Film Festival concluded at the weekend, capping off what has been an excellent year for Arab film. Throughout the 10-day event, the Jeddah festival was a celebration of Arab voices both established and emerging. Plenty of regional films held their premieres there. Many are titles you are likely to hear more of come awards season. My standout was To a Land Unknown by Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel . The director was awarded the prize for Silver Yusr Feature Film by jury head Spike Lee, who joyously called Fleifel up with the words: "Palestine, come back on the stage!" In his acceptance speech, Fleifel cited Lee as an inspiration, to which Lee responded: "You inspire me. I feel inspired." Speaking to The National , Lee made it clear that, even at 67, his words on stage were not mere hyperbole – he is currently more driven to create than ever before, even after two dozen films and an Academy Award. "I still have a lot to prove to myself," said Lee. "I have to continue the level of filmmaking. I want to be like Kurosawa. I want to be in my eighties and still making great cinema. So that's the challenge for me." The Golden Yusr Best Feature Film prize went to the Tunisian film Red Path from director Lotfi Achour. Ahead of the win, he told us that he was excited about how important the regional festival is to him: “We felt that we are seen and heard and understood.” The Best Actress award went to Mariam Sherif , who stars in the Egyptian film Snow White . She plays Iman in a spirited turn as a woman who refuses to be cowed despite the challenges she faces due to her height. Sherif, who had little previous acting experience, said she wanted to send a message to audiences with the film. “They should know that little people are just real people, but just a couple of centimetres different," she added. "This was my main motive to take part.” Another standout from the festival was the documentary Yalla Parkour , which follows members of the Gaza parkour team from 2014 until just months before the Israel-Gaza war began last year. Director Areeb Zuaiter told how, for her, the documentary was emblematic of the Gazan spirit. She said: “Gaza parkourist Abdallah Al Qassab told me: ‘Whenever I jumped up in the sky, I felt like I'm free. I'm breathing. I'm living. I come down and I am back on Earth, and I see all these real-life obstacles'. We're living in the definition of the sport itself. It's jumping from one point to the to the other and defying obstacles.'" There were several other notable screenings including Iraqi-born Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub's film Mond (Moon) ; Netflix film The Sand Castle starring Nadine Labaki; Netflix series Echoes of the Past starring Asser Yassin; the documentary series Lost Worlds with Bettany Hughes: The Nabataeans ; and the Saudi ocean tragedy Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage . This year's festival was also its most star-studded yet , featuring international celebrities both walking the red carpets and attending conversation sessions. During their time in Jeddah, our reporters sat down with American actor Brendan Fraser , Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and American actor and filmmaker Johnny Depp , to name just a few. Depp, who screened his second directorial effort that was supported by the Red Sea Film Fund at the event, told of his plans to create paintings with Saudi artist Ahmed Mater, to which Mater responded on social media: "Let's go!" I'll leave you with a quote from our conversation with Depp: “There's this endless eternal battle between commerce and art, and it doesn't matter. Ultimately, art will win.” Before his breakout single Big Dawgs topped global charts, Indian rapper Hanumankind realised he had finally made it during a show in his home state of Kerala earlier this year. “It was some kind of festival, and there were about 5,000 people in the audience,” he told The National ahead of his Sunday performance at Sole DXB . "That was the first time my mum actually realised what I do. “I remember she was taking it all in, seeing the fans and then she understood. The funny thing is that she immediately switched and told me: ‘You now have a responsibility in this world, and you shouldn’t take it for granted.’ I remember thinking: ‘Hold on, not long ago you were telling me I was being irresponsible for considering a life in music.’” It is one of the many misconceptions 32-year-old Hanumankind, real name Sooraj Cherukat, continues to break as part of the surging career led by his single, which has more than 170 million streams on YouTube since October and topped Spotify’s Global Top 50 charts. Find more here . As the hopeful blaze that has consumed Syria for the past fortnight continues to smoulder, the nation’s creative scene is stepping up, filled with excitement for new beginnings. After almost half a century of restrictions, limitations and oppression, Syria’s creatives can now breathe again as they seek to restore its cultural position in the region. Out in the jubilant streets of Damascus , The National spoke to leaders in the nightlife and art scenes about the downfall of Bashar Al Assad . Michael Atallah is an electronic music pioneer and founder of “Siin Experience”, which hosts music events in spectacular locations such as the Krak des Chevaliers fortress, about 40km west of Homs. He feels a weight has been lifted after Al Assad fled. “The feeling was immense that in the end we were no longer forced to constantly compromise or we were always scared, we couldn't talk to each other about our true feelings, I started remembering the protests in Al Hasakah in my university days," said Atallah. “Straight away I felt a relief, with a bit of fear for all our people because we didn’t know exactly was happening. It’s a strange feeling but one of true freedom, and something that you only live once in your life. We haven’t slept for the last 10 days.” Find more here . DATES FOR YOUR DIARY · Lionel Richie at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai – December 31 · Andrea Bocelli at Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Abu Dhabi – December 31 · Haifa Wehbe at Palazzo Versace, Dubai – December 31 OTHER HIGHLIGHTS