Glen Powell is working with Ryan Murphy once again!
07.12.2023 - 09:53 / variety.com
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iraqi director Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji — who in 2022 won the Red Sea Film Festival‘s top prize with “Hanging Gardens” — will next direct black comedy ”Madness and Honey Days,” in which an audacious theatre director offends Saddam Hussein on stage and winds up in a psychiatric hospital to avoid a punishment of tongue-cutting followed by the death sentence. Segueing from “Hanging Gardens,” in which a 12-year-old boy finds a discarded American sex doll amid the Baghdad trash and then becomes caught in military crossfire, Al-Daradji is continuing to work with tropes that stem from the absurdities and atrocities of his home country’s recent past.
Speaking on the sidelines of this year’s Red Sea Fest, the director recalled how the story for “Madness and Honey Days” came to him. “When I was in Baghdad not long ago, I remembered one of my aunts who lost her mind after her husband was killed in the war,” he said adding that when “her mental health got complicated, my parents would not let me visit her.
Then I remembered that there is this deep stigma in the Arab world about being mad.” In “Madness and Honey Days,” after offending Saddam Hussein on stage, a 27-year-old theater director named Salem manages to escape death and the punishment of tongue-cutting by convincing the Ba’athist court of his insanity. He is then exiled to a Baghdad psychiatric hospital, where he must continue to prove his insanity while facing execution if they declare him mentally fit.
Embracing madness, Salem spends months in the psych ward where he falls in love with Adyan, a 25-year-old doctor who is attracted to his talent and skills. She helps him stage a play inspired by “Hamlet,” with the other hospital
.Glen Powell is working with Ryan Murphy once again!
Ariana Grande is continuing to tease fans with the promise of new music.
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Ariana Grande is getting fans very excited!
Ariana Grande has shared a series of new photos from a recording studio that seemingly teases a new music project is on the way soon.Grande shared a series of photos and muted videos on Instagram today (December 7) that show her working in a recording studio. In many of the photos, Grande can be seen sitting at a computer while looking at audio files on screen.Grande didn’t caption the posts but her friend and frequent collaborator Victoria Monet commented “she’s home!” while Grande’s Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo wrote in a comment: “no one is ready”, adding: “I’m so freaking proud of you…This project is so freaking special!”You can see the post here:A post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande)Back in August, Grande paid tribute to Mac Miller in the video for a new version of the pair’s 2013 track ‘The Way’.
Ariana Grande is back in the studio. The musician and performer has shared various photos of herself working on some new music, getting her friends and fans excited over the possibility of a new record. Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater are living together in New York: ReportAriana Grande’s alleged surprise return to the recording studio amid ‘Wicked’ commitmentsA post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande)The photos were shared on Instagram and featured no caption.
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Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has boarded Saudi Arabian multi-hyphenate Fatima Al-Banawi’s feature film debut “Basma” which tackles the theme of mental illness in her country. The groundbreaking film is set in Jeddah, the city on the Red Sea’s eastern shore where Saudi’s Red Sea Film Festival is currently underway.
Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall has given her an experience unlike any other she’s had over her 15-year career — one that includes winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. “I would say that the job I’ve been doing since May is a job that I had never done before. It’s a new craft entirely,” she says. Anatomy of a Fall, which she co-wrote with her partner Arthur Harari, eschews the traditional courtroom drama to explore familial relationships when an ambitious, sexually self-assured novelist, played by Sandra Hüller, is put on trial for the suspicious death of her husband Samuel at their home in the French Alps.
Rachel Leviss is ready to speak her truth! And she hopes LOTS of people will listen!
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