Syria Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Guy Lodge Film Critic The international scope and grueling human cost of the global refugee crisis lends itself to contemporary epic filmmaking of a particularly sober stripe, as seen mostly recently in Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” and Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano.” Shorn of their ripped-from-the-headlines urgency, such stories of humans crossing vast distances and facing hostile odds in pursuit of a better life are as old as time itself. A muscular, assured debut feature from U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan, leads the way in nominations for the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab films, winners of which will be announced during the Cannes Film Festival. The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes’ official selection, “Goodbye Julia” is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the currently war-ravaged country.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for two popular African holiday destinations after reports of explosions in the Middle East.

Lise Pedersen “The Landscape and the Fury” by Switzerland’s Nicole Vögele took the Grand Jury Prize in the International Feature Film Competition at Swiss doc festival Visions du Réel on Friday. Shot on the Bosnian-Croatian border, which is also the European Union border, the film unveils the struggle of refugees being chased away by police and navigating a terrain still contaminated with mines from the Bosnian War.

Jon Cunliffe's line of work has taken him worlds away from his birthplace of Bury.

UK residents with plans to head to Dubai are being urged to stay vigilant, following a fresh warning from the Foreign Office.

Mhairi Black has clashed with Rishi Sunak over Iran's drone attack on Israel.

The Foreign Office has issued new travel warnings for 16 countries today following. In light of the recent drone attack on Israel by Iran, those planning to visit destinations including Morocco and the United Arab Emirates are strongly advised to check travel advice before making their journey.

The Foreign Office has issued a new urgent travel warning for 18 countries, including popular Mediterranean holiday destinations. The government's latest advisory cautions travellers about an increased risk of terrorist attacks in countries around the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East due to heightened tensions following recent events in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

If Italian artist Marco Perego-Saldaña’s transition to film comes as a surprise, it is only to those outside his own household. “I always wanted to make a film. I’m a little obsessed. I watch one film Monday to Friday,” he says. “Sunday, actually,” corrects his wife Zoe Saldaña, with a laugh.

Immigration has often been a topic that sparks strong emotions around the globe, and it is an especially hot topic this election season, particularly when you have a U.S. presidential candidate characterizing undocumented immigrants not as “human” but rather as “animals” and using phrases such as “they are poisoning the blood of our country” at campaign rallies. Now seems to be a perfect time for a powerful new film, The Absence of Eden, to perhaps help lower the temperature and show the human side of those trying to cross the border into a new and hopefully better life.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon has acquired world rights for Beirut-set dramedy series Self Modulation from producers Falcon Films and Arna Media, in its first ever Arabic TV series acquisition.

Shamima Begum has lost an initial bid to challenge the removal of her citizenship at the Supreme Court.

Three hundred and fifty people gathered to acknowledge a fearless adventurer dedicated to helping those wronged. The funeral of former British paratrooper, Daniel Burke, took place earlier this month.

A convicted terrorist who helped radicalise Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi could be freed from jail within weeks. Abdalraouf Abdallah, who was jailed for nine and a half years in 2016 for helping people going to Syria to join the Islamic State group, was a childhood friend of Abedi in south Manchester.

EXCLUSIVE: Last month, when Brandt Andersen’s debut feature film The Strangers’ Case won the Amnesty International Film Award at Berlinale, it marked the recognition of a long and impassioned journey for the writer, director and long-time producer as he sought to marry film with his extensive activism background. 

Aramide Tinubu In aristocracies across the globe, rank and title are paramount. Set in the same world as his 2019 film of the same name, Guy Ritchie‘s new Netflix series, “The Gentlemen,” is a brilliant show about legacy, family and the thrills of self-discovery. While the TV show boasts a brand new cast of characters, the series’ concept focuses on a similar criminal underworld that Ritchie depicted in his film —no prior knowledge of the movie is necessary.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor-producer Esha Bargate is launching a production company that aims to challenge how Hollywood views and portrays Indian culture and society.

Morgan Matthews‘ upcoming road movie 500 Miles, starring Academy Award nominee Bill Nighy and buzzy teen actor Roman Griffin Davis, has sold to multiple territories for Beta Cinema, following its launch at the Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM) last month.

The Doha Film Institute (DFI) kicked off its 10th Qumra talent and project incubator meeting on a somber note on Friday as its organizers spoke out about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Michael Fassbender is in negotiations to star in “The Department,” an espionage thriller series directed by George Clooney. Set to start shooting in London this spring, “The Department” is based on “The Bureau,” the hit French spy show created by Eric Rochant. It has already been given a straight-to-series order by Showtime.

Shamima Begum has been described as "untrustworthy and shows no remorse" by a Tory peer. It comes after she lost her latest attempt to overturn the Government's decision to take away her British citizenship.

Shamima Begum has lost her challenge over the removal of her British citizenship at the Court of Appeal. Ms Begum travelled to Syria in 2015 aged 15 and her citizenship was revoked on national security grounds shortly after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.

Shamima Begum has lost her appeal against the decision to strip her of her British citizenship. Begum went to Syria when she was just 15 years old.

Catherine Bray Aïcha (Salha Nasraoui) and her husband Brahim (Mohamed Hassine Grayaa) live on a farm in northern Tunisia. It’s a modern rural environment of goats, trucks, home cooking and tight-knit families. In Meryam Joobeur‘s feature-length debut “Who Do I Belong To,” an early sequence of Aïcha shaving Brahim’s face — an act of intimacy and trust — introduces a key part of the director’s aesthetic strategy: DP Vincent Gonneville’s frequent use of extreme close-ups on the actors’ faces.

EXCLUSIVE: Beloved French actor Omar Sy stars in the debut feature from longtime producer Brandt Andersen in The Strangers’ Case, a searing and international ensemble that is world premiering at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday. Watch an exclusive clip above.

Shamima Begum is waiting to hear if she has won her appeal against the removal of her British citizenship.

Christopher Vourlias Following on the heels of his Oscar-shortlisted “Refugee,” veteran U.S. producer Brandt Andersen (“Everest,” “Lone Survivor”) makes his feature directorial debut with “The Strangers’ Case,” a kaleidoscopic and deeply felt portrait of the refugee crisis that world premieres Feb. 23 as a Berlinale Special Gala.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Aslı Özarslan’s “Elbogen” (“Elbow”), an adaptation of Fatma Aydemir’s award-winning novel of the same name, tells the story of Hazal (played by Melia Kara), a young woman in Berlin struggling to find a job and start a life of her own. After a violent incident on her 18th birthday, she flees to Istanbul, a strange city in a country she doesn’t know and where she is forced to survive. Produced by Jamila Wenske‘s Berlin-based Achtung Panda!, the film premieres in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus.

Jessica Kiang The kids in Ilkay Idiskut’s third grade class are, as they let you know within about five minutes of Ruth Beckermann‘s delightful Berlin Encounters documentary “Favoriten,” very much their own people. These 25 boisterous, funny, clattering seven-year-olds attend the largest elementary school in Vienna and for the most part hail from migrant family backgrounds from Turkey or Syria or Serbia. Diminutive in form but outsized in personality, they are also, however, eminently recognisable and relatable, and you can find all the various versions of your own grade-school self in one or other of them at some point.