In 2013, American filmmakers are making a concerted effort to tackle slavery. Three major films are set during that dark period of American history when black people stolen from Africa and their descendants were treated as possessions.
The first two to arrive on our UAE screens could not be more different. The first is Lincoln by Steven Spielberg, which deals with the political shenanigans that President Abraham Lincoln had to overcome in order to secure the vote to abolish slavery. The second is Django Unchained, a pulpy exploitation western directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Jamie Foxx as a fighting slave. Later in the year, probably making its debut at the Cannes International Film Festival, will be Twelve Years a Slave, the only one of the major slavery films directed by a black man (albeit one born in London), the Shame director Steve McQueen.
The odd thing about all these slavery films arriving like ships in the night is that traditionally, slavery has been a taboo topic in cinema. One of the reasons for this is that what for many is considered to be the first ever narrative feature film, DW Griffith's celebrated silent classic The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman, after its source novel), a film about how two families cope with the consequences of the American Civil War, has been criticised for its underlying racism and scenes that seemingly celebrate the Ku Klux Klan.
The African-American filmmaker Spike Lee was almost kicked out of film school for protesting at the showing of the Griffith classic as part of a film course. He even made a short film at NYU titled The Answer which imagined a scenario where a black filmmaker was handed a blockbuster budget to remake Birth of a Nation. To make a film about slavery, especially for a white American filmmaker, seemed to be a sure way to come in for a heavy amount of criticism and it seemed that most filmmakers felt the subject too loaded to essay.
Spielberg clearly has a thick skin on these matters. When Amistad, about a mutiny by slaves on an African slave ship, came out in 1997 the director was criticised for historical inaccuracies, failing to give a black perspective and telling a black story through the eyes of white protagonists. This was a commonly made and more understandable criticism that was slung around in the days when a black man directing a movie was an event in itself.
However, such arguments seem more lacklustre now that more black filmmakers are working. One of the first films that touched upon slavery and was universally acclaimed was Edward Zwick's Glory, about the first all African-American battalion to fight in the American Civil War. Zwick was not scared to shy away from showing the brutal treatment that black men suffered in America at the time and Denzel Washington put in an Oscar-winning performance.
In Lincoln, Spielberg sets his stall out by making a film that clearly is about the behaviour of white politicians who want to prevent reform. He makes a clear point about the mentality of the time by showing the furore that surrounded a suggestion that women may at some point in the future get the vote.
Slavery is the main topic of Lincoln, but by keeping the arguments to the debating chamber, he does not have to show the everyday reality suffered by slaves.
However, the director seems clearly aware that the story would lack power without showing the strides being made by African-Americans at the time and the film starts with a black soldier counselling Daniel Day-Lewis's president Lincoln to abolish slavery.
Django Unchained has no such qualms about showing violence. Quentin Tarantino, when asked about the brutality he has depicted, said: "Nothing I show in my film is as terrible as what actually happened." He shows slaves being kept in boxes for days, chained and beaten with whips. The director has also voiced his surprise that American filmmakers have been allowed to get away with not dealing with an important part of the nation's history for so long. His treatment may be a pulpy and funny homage to the 1975 picture Mandingo, but he does not shy from realities and he has a black man, played by Foxx, as the hero.
The British filmmaker Steve McQueen has never been one to shy away from controversy, and with the excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Solomon Northup in McQueen's adaptation of Twelve Years a Slave, it ensures that 2013 is likely to be the year that cinema finally starts to get to grips with slavery.
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Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
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yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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FIGHT%20CARD
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India squads
Test squad against Afghanistan: Rahane (c), Dhawan, Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Karun, Saha, Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Umesh, Shami, Pandya, Ishant, Thakur.
T20 squad against Ireland and England: Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Raina, Pandey, Dhoni, Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Pandya, Kaul, Umesh.
ODI squad against England: Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Shreyas, Rayudu, Dhoni, Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Pandya, Kaul, Umesh
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
Playing records of the top 10 in 2017
How many games the top 10 have undertaken in the 2017 ATP season
1. Rafael Nadal 58 (49-9)
2. Andy Murray 35 (25-10)
3. Roger Federer 38 (35-3)
4. Stan Wawrinka 37 (26-11)
5. Novak Djokovic 40 (32-8)
6. Alexander Zverev 60 (46-14)
7. Marin Cilic 43 (29-14)
8. Dominic Thiem 60 (41-19)
9. Grigor Dimitrov 48 (34-14)
10. Kei Nishikori 43 (30-13)
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Champions League Last 16
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) v Bayern Munich (GER)
Sporting Lisbon (POR) v Manchester City (ENG)
Benfica (POR) v Ajax (NED)
Chelsea (ENG) v Lille (FRA)
Atletico Madrid (ESP) v Manchester United (ENG)
Villarreal (ESP) v Juventus (ITA)
Inter Milan (ITA) v Liverpool (ENG)
Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid (ESP)
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
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What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
