Syria Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. The Berlinale is nearly upon us and plenty has been going down in the film and TV world this week. Read on.

A suspected Isis fighter insists that he has the right to return home to the UK. Ibrahim Ageed, 29, says he now regrets his actions after joining the terrorist group aged 21.

People in West Lothian who want to donate essential items to help victims of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria can drop them off at a local charity base.

Former Love Island and Dancing On Ice contestant Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu says that some of her family members have been "sleeping outside" following the Turkey-Syria earthquake. The reality TV star who is of Turkish decent says that she has donated cash to the relief effort and wants to go over and volunteer.

Three British Nationals have been confirmed missing following the catastrophic earthquake which struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria yesterday morning.

The fate of a teenage TikTok cooking star has captured the attention of Turkish media after the devastating earthquakes in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria.

At least 1,300 people have died and 6,000 are injured after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday. Several buildings were destroyed during the 40-second tremor, with thousands of rescue teams working to free people still trapped under rubble.

A Turkish TV reporter fled from a collapsing building during a live report on the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the country in the early hours of Monday morning.

Tourists planning a trip to Turkey should know that the UK Foreign Office (FCDO) has updated the country's travel advice.

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival unveiled its 2023 lineup today, featuring 250 feature films set to screen across 10 days, with highlights including Isabella Carbonell’s thriller Dogborn, starring Swedish rap star Silvana Imam, and Hlynur Pálmason’s well-received period piece Godland. Other stand-out titles include Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, which pops up in the International Competition, and Mia Engberg’s latest Hypernoon in the Documentary Competition.

Allen Media Group’s Freestyle Digital Media has acquired the North American DVD and VOD rights to Lamya’s Poem, an animated film about Syrian refugees. The film will be available to rent/own on digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms starting February 21, 2023. Watch the trailer in the video posted above.

A West Lothian man is fronting a new campaign from a national mental health programme to help more veterans open up about their mental health.

Barbara Starr, the longtime Pentagon correspondent for CNN, is departing the network.

In The Corridors of Power, filmmaker Dror Moreh takes a bracing look at the factors that kept America — the sole remaining superpower in the immediate post-Cold War era — from intervening in global instances involving genocide, war crimes and other large-scale atrocities.

Eami means “forest” in Ayoreo. It also means “‘”world.” When director Paz Encina traveled to the land of the indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode people, she found that they do not make a distinction between these things: The trees, the animals and the plants that have surrounded them for centuries are all they know and now they live in an area – the Chaco plain – that is experiencing the fastest deforestation on the planet.

When director Darin J. Sallam came to make her feature debut with Farah, she always knew what the subject matter would be: as a little girl, Sallam’s mother used to tell her the story of a teenage girl who was locked up in her room during the partition of Palestine in 1948. “She was locked up by her father to protect her life,” Sallam recalls. “She survived [the conflict] and she made it to Syria, where she met a Syrian girl and shared her story with her. This Syrian girl grew up, got married and had a child, and she shared the story with her daughter—and this daughter happened to be me.”

Gunnar Vikene’s War Sailor tells the forgotten story of the 30,000 Norwegian civilian sailors who were conscripted at the beginning of World War II to serve on convoys keeping Allied supply chains open.

Steve Clarke says his Scotland stars have no problem with the heightened security that has seen armoured military vehicles based outside their team hotel in Turkey and armed guards following their movements.

Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman who recently announced that she has left the Democratic party, is joining Fox News as a paid contributor.

EXCLUSIVE: Leading Arab world distributor MAD Solutions has acquired pan-Arab rights to Ameer Fakher Eldin’s upcoming picture Yunan about a disillusioned, exiled writer who travels to a remote island in the North Sea.

The International Film Festival Of India (IFFI) has announced the 15 films that will screen in competition at this year’s edition of the annual event, including recent festival favourites such as Maha Haj’s Mediterranean Fever and Lav Diaz’ When The Waves Are Gone, and three Indian films, including recent Busan premiere The Storyteller. 

East and west clash in Rheingold, the latest feature from Fatih Akin, which takes him back to the streets of urban Germany after 2019’s controversial serial-killer drama The Golden Glove. This too, though, is a biopic of sorts, with a similarly notorious subject matter: Kurdish rapper, record label boss and sometime jailbird Giwar Hajabi, AKA Xatar. 

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studios has acquired all North American rights to the feature documentary Refuge from levelFILM, Katie Couric Media and Artemis Rising Foundation. The multi-platform entertainment distribution and production arm of Shout! Factory plans to release the film in theaters and across all major digital platforms early next year.

Larsa Pippen has taken a bit of a step back with her popular OnlyFans account — and it’s all because of her father!

King Charles III looked to be in great spirits as he donned a kilt to greet scores of people waiting to catch a glimpse of him in Aberdeen. The new King met crowds on Union Street during a visit to Aberdeen Town House to meet families who have settled in Aberdeen from Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine.

Liza Foreman CANNES – REinvent International Sales has sold the refugee drama ‘Lost’ to AMC Networks for Spain and Portugal. The Scandi production-distribtion shingle is presenting the title to buyers at this week’s Mipcom TV market in Cannes. Created by Ulf Ryberg (“Headhunters,” “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”), the drama thriller tells the story of a truck driver smuggling a group of Syrian refugees into Sweden in his truck. An upsetting phone call from his soon to be ex-wife, leaves the refugees struggling for air, when his mind wanders off them.

The European Union police agency Europol said Friday that Spanish police have dismantled an organized crime group believed to have been running Europe’s biggest "narco-bank," used to launder proceeds from international drug trafficking. Europol said the group, composed mainly of Syrians, operated out of a restaurant in an industrial park in the central Spanish town of Fuenlabrada.There, customers could deposit or collect bulk cash and have their earnings laundered by the internationally structured financial network, Europol said. Europol said the group provided financial services to crime gangs linked to drug trafficking in more than twenty countries across the world.