Latest news with #Arze
Straits Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Film picks: The documentary Black Box Diaries, a record a journalist seeking justice for her sexual assault
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Arze stars Diamand Abou Abboud as a single mother looking for money to buy her son a scooter. Arze (NC16) 92 minutes, opens at The Projector on Aug 15 Lebanese writer-director Mira Shaib's debut feature tells the story of Arze (Diamand Abou Abboud), a single mother living in Beirut searching for the money to buy a scooter for her son's 18th birthday. Her efforts lead to an adventure that uncovers the secrets that have held her family together. Her family's history, in turn, is tied to the history of Lebanon, a country marked by conflict and the often tense co-existence of diverse Muslim, Christian and Druze communities. The film was Lebanon's official entry to the Best International Feature Film category at the 2025 Academy Awards, but was not nominated. A review in entertainment news publication Variety says 'Shaib's directorial debut has the growing pains of a first feature', bu t ' as it gradually explores its political backdrop, its drama transforms in intriguing, even exciting ways'. Black Box Diaries (NC16) 103 minutes Some years ago, journalist Shiori Ito was sexually assaulted by a bureau chief at a Japanese broadcasting network. He had connections with highly-placed government officials. Through the use of security footage, news clips and Ito' s r ecordings, the documentary follows her journey to find justice in a nation where the police are known to discourage women from reporting rape and to treat cases of sexual violence lightly, or drop sexual assault cases without giving reasons, forcing victims to seek redress in civil court. Through her work, Ito became a key figure in Japan's #MeToo movement, which made her a target of online trolls. Despite this, she persisted and in 2017 published a memoir, on which this documentary is based. The film has received numerous prizes, including a Peabody Award, given for outstanding work in broadcast and online media, and a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards. There will be a virtual question-and-answer session with director Ito after the July 27 screening. Where: The Projector at Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road MRT: Somerset When: July 27, 1.30pm Admission: $17.50 (standard tickets), discounts are available for students, seniors and others Info: Singapore Film Society Special Presentation: Hong Kong Horror Classics Centipede Horror will be screened on Aug 2 and Sept 5. PHOTO: SINGAPORE FILM SOCIETY When the craze for martial arts movies tapered off in the 1980s, Hong Kong's film factories pivoted to the other staple of exploitation cinema: horror. The Singapore Film Society presents two classics of the genre, restored in 4K, uncut and in their original Cantonese, screened here for the first time. Centipede Horror (1982, M18, 93 minutes, screens on Aug 2 and Sept 5, 7pm) capitalises on the fascination Hong Kongers used to have for South-east Asian black magic. It features actor Hussein Abu Hassan playing a bomoh (Malay shaman) with the ability to summon the centipedes of the title for deadly purposes. When Wai Lun (Michael Miu) investigates his sister's death, he uncovers a generational curse that involves creepy-crawlies. The Sept 5 screening will include a post-screening talk about the film's representation of South-east Asian black magic, led by Assistant Professor Yeo Min Hui, a scholar in East and South-east Asian film and cultural studies at Nanyang Technological University. Red Spell Spells Red (1983, R21, 93 minutes, screens on Aug 1 and Sept 6, 7pm) also rides on the craze for South-east Asian black magic. A film crew shooting a documentary about the paranormal in Borneo unleashes a ghost. The result is an R21-rated spectacle of gore and nudity, which the Monster Zone horror appreciation website calls 'a brazen, gonzo, shameless piece of exploitation film-making'.
Arab News
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Toronto Arab Film Festival screens searing ‘Arze'
DUBAI: The Toronto Arab Film Festival, running from June 20- 29, screened the scathing yet poignant Lebanese film 'Arze,' directed by Mira Shabib. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ The ambitious 'Arze' — which means "cedar" in Arabic — follows the story of Arze, a single mother supporting her teenage son and love-struck sister through a homemade pie delivery business. In an effort to improve their lives, she steals and sells her sister's jewelry to buy a scooter for her son to use for deliveries. But when the scooter is stolen, mother and son embark on a frantic journey across Beirut to recover it. On the surface, 'Arze' tells a story that resonates deeply with many Lebanese families caught in financial limbo. It explores the emotional toll of such hardship, with questions arising as to whether one should leave the country or give up remnants of a once-comfortable life to survive Lebanon's shifting socio-economic landscape. Beneath the family drama lies sharp satire. Even the film's title that references the cedar tree, a national symbol of Lebanese identity, carries layered meaning. Like the character herself, that identity appears fragmented, constantly lost amid the country's sectarian divides. This is where the film truly shines: Arze, portrayed with emotional depth by Diamand Abou Abboud, dons various religious symbols and disguises to navigate Beirut's fractured neighborhoods. Shabib excels in exposing the farce of sectarianism, insinuating that Lebanon's religious divisions are not deeply rooted but socially constructed and performative. Arze's ability to blend into different communities simply by changing her appearance highlights how fragile and superficial these boundaries truly are. In this sense, the film excels in its portrayal of a fourth main character: Beirut itself. Through Shabib's lens, we are taken on a tour of a city so diverse it borders on overwhelming. Yet this diversity, rather than being a source of division, becomes a stage for a pointed critique, one that targets society's fixation on appearances and its preference for the performative over lived reality.
