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Al-Ahram Weekly
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Not to be missed: New Alamein Festival, National Theatre Festival, Ruby, Fouad & Mounib - Music - Arts & Culture
Ahram Online highlights a selection of do-not-miss events this week 16-22 July in Cairo New films across cinemas starting 16 July - Smurfs, starring Nick Offerman, James Corden, Rihanna, JP Karliak, Daniel Levy - 40 Acres, starring Michael Greyeyes, Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O'Connor - El-Shater, starring Amir Karara, Hana Al Zahid, Moustafa Gharieb, Khalid Al Sawi - I Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Madelyn Cline (starting 17 July) Get Salima - theatre play Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 July, 8pm Rawabet Art Space, 5 Hussein Basha Al Meamari, Downtown Cairo Directed by Ahmed El-Sherbiny, the play follows Kawthar and Karim as they struggle to stay afloat amid soaring prices—but life has other plans. From meddling neighbours to a long-overdue promotion, and even a break-in that turns their world upside down, the pressure builds. Will it push Karim to take a leap and change his life? 3rd New Alamein Festival 18 July - 29 August The festival will showcase a stellar lineup of top artists from Egypt and the Arab world, including Amr Diab, Angham, Assala Nasri, Tamer Hosny, Tamer Ashour, Marwan Pablo, Lege-Cy, Wegz, Cairokee, and more. Some are returning from the festival's second edition in 2024, while others will take the Alamein stage for the first time. In addition to concerts, the festival features a wide range of artistic, sports, entertainment, and culinary events. Read more about the festival here. Andromida - music Friday 18 July, 8pm El-Sawy Culturewheel, River hall, 26th of July street, Zamalek, Cairo One of the oldest active rock bands in Egypt, Andromida was formed by Amr Hassan & Ihab Al Qalie (keyboard and vocals). The band also includes Sherif El-Sharqawi (drums and vocals) and Ahmed Anwar (bass and vocals). Founded in Alexandria in 1987, the band is widely known for performing some of Pink Floyd's most well-known songs. Fathy Salama and Sheikh Mahmoud El-Tohamy - music Friday 18 July, 9pm Cairo Opera House, Open-Air Theatre, Zamalek, Cairo Titled Sufism vs Modernism, the concert brings together Grammy-winning musician Fathy Salama and renowned Islamic Sufi chanter Mahmoud El-Tohamy, joined by a diverse lineup of musicians. The project blends Egypt's rich Sufi and folkloric heritage with modern genres—including electronic, pop, hip hop, rock, and jazz—to create a contemporary musical dialogue. The son of legendary chanter Sheikh Yassin El-Tohamy, Mahmoud El-Tohamy is considered a master of traditional Islamic musical art. The concert is part of the Cairo Opera House's Summer Festival. The Mummification Lesson - theatre play Saturday 19 July, 7pm El-Jeeb Studio, Zamalek 'The Mummification Lesson,' a scientific and performative lecture presented by Omar El-Moutaz Bellah and moderated by Hoda Abdel Aziz, explores the ancient ritual of mummification through a dramatic and philosophical lens. The lecture delves into the convergence of religion, biology, magic, and cosmology—where the embalmed body is not merely preserved, but transformed into a vessel of promise that death is not annihilation, but metamorphosis. Combining theory and practice live on stage, the event traces the stages of mummification—material and metaphysical—unpacking its tools, substances, and ritual spells drawn from the Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Far from a purely funerary act, the lecture repositions mummification as a sacred ritual uniting theology, science, and myth in a performance that is both intellectual and immersive. Hanan Mady - music Saturday 19 July, 9pm Cairo Opera House, Open-Air Theatre, Zamalek, Cairo Hanan Mady began singing at a young age and studied violin at the Cairo Conservatory, graduating in 1989. She made her singing debut with the theme song—composed by Omar Khairat—for the 1988 television series El-Leqaa El-Thany (The Second Meeting). Mady went on to perform in several popular TV series, including Yasser Abdel-Rahman's theme for El-Mal Wal-Banon (The Fortune and the Progeny, 1992–1995), and collaborated with renowned composers and lyricists such as Abdel-Azim Abdel-Haq, Helmi Bakr, Ahmad Fouad Negm, Ibrahim Abdel-Fattah, and Reda Amin. Over the course of her career, she released four albums, featuring fan favorites like Leilet Eshq, El-Bahr, Sheddy El-Dafayer, Asfour, and Kan W-Kan. The concert is part of the Cairo Opera House's Summer Festival. Ruby & Ahmed Saad - music Saturday 19 July Beach Resort, Marassi Ruby, the Egyptian singer and actress who rose to fame in the early 2000s, is known for her bold music videos and distinctive performance style. Beyond music, she has appeared in a range of film and television roles, demonstrating her versatility across romantic and dramatic genres. Ahmed Saad is a prominent Egyptian singer best known for his emotional ballads. Launching his career in the early 2000s, he quickly became a fixture in Egyptian film and television soundtracks, blending traditional Arabic vocals with modern pop and electronic elements. He often collaborates with major stars, including his brother, actor Amr Saad. The concert featuring both stars is part of Layali Marassi, a summer series showcasing leading singers at the Marassi Beach Resort. The concerts are held every Saturday through the end of August. 18th Egyptian National Theatre Festival 20 July - 6 August Launched in 2006, the Egyptian National Theatre Festival has grown into the country's largest annual event dedicated to the theatre movement. This year's lineup features a wide range of performances from troupes affiliated with various sectors of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Cultural Palaces, the Art House for Theatre, the Academy of Arts, private theatres, and university and student groups from the Higher Institute of Theatrical Arts. Many of the plays have already premiered to critical and audience acclaim, while others are being introduced to wider audiences for the first time. Read more about the festival here Fouad & Mounib - music Sunday 20 July, 8pm Cairo Opera House, Open-Air Theatre, Zamalek, Cairo The story of Fouad and Mounib began in 2015, when the two musicians met on Facebook and started exchanging music. A few months later, they gave their first concert at Alexandria's Creativity Centre. Their popularity quickly grew, leading to performances at major venues such as the Cairo Opera House and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Arts Centre, as well as tours in Morocco and Austria. Over time, the duo pursued more ambitious projects, with Mounib arranging music for various ensembles and orchestras. The concert is part of the Cairo Opera House's Summer Festival. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
USA Today
15-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Everything Texas Longhorns safety Michael Taaffe had to say at SEC Media Days
The rise from walk-on to All-American makes Texas safety Michael Taaffe a special player. His remarkable story has captivated fans and media members across the country. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian called Taaffe's journey, "Probably the coolest story on our team right now is Michael Taaffe." Taaffe's return to the 40 Acres for his senior year was a huge boon for the Texas defense. Taaffe was one of the three players Texas took to SEC Media Days. Here is the transcript from Taaffe's question and answer period at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, thanks to the Southeastern Conference media department: Q. What's the biggest challenge for the Texas secondary this year, and what are the differences you noticed between the two leagues? MICHAEL TAAFFE: The first answer, how are we going to handle success? So we obviously had a lot of success. We had the Thorpe Award winner in our back end. We had a second-round draft pick in our back end. And we had a couple of guys returning. So, how are we going to handle success? And are we going to be complacent with that success or are we going to raise the bar and raise the standard? What I'm always trying to do is I'm trying to raise the standard and understand that there's a bar and we've got to reset that every single year to keep chasing greatness because at the end of the day, if you want your name to be remembered, you've got to keep going and keep doing more. The leagues, the second question is it's different, right? It's a lot different. There's different speeds. There's different atmospheres. There's different weather. But I know in the SEC, what I can tell you about the SEC is you have to be physically prepared every single game. Your body has to be prepared every single game. There's no game where you can take it lightly. Q. Sark has said a few times this offseason how Arch has taken on more leadership responsibilities. He's taken that role by the horns, so to speak. How have you seen that? Is there an example where you came away maybe impressed of where he's making those strides? MICHAEL TAAFFE: Arch is obviously one of my best friends. I was his host when he was a recruit here on his OV. Ever since then, we hit it off. I think the one thing that I respected about him is he would look like an average Joe if you were walking across the halls, besides that he looked exactly like his uncles and his granddad. But he's such a down-to-earth guy. How he leads is he gets the respect of the locker room. It's not always the rah rah guy. You can be a leader so many different ways. But how he leads is he makes a personal relationship with every guy in the locker room and tries to get respect from them. That's leading by example. That's leading with intention by sitting with different people at lunch. That's going out of his way to show people, hey, it's nice and it's good to go thank people for holding the doors or thank people for cleaning up our locker room. So he leads by example, and he tries to set a standard for the guys, which is really cool. Q. What's the most common question you get about him? I'm sure you get a ton of them. MICHAEL TAAFFE: That's a great question. The most common question I get about Arch is -- oh, man, that's a good question. It's usually more generic, like, how is Arch looking? Is Arch the real deal? That's probably the biggest question I get: Is Arch Manning the real deal? My answer to that always is, just let his film do all the talking. Q. What's the most complicated pass offense you played against within those two conferences and then through your career, because you were in the playoffs last year against the eventual national champion Ohio State? MICHAEL TAAFFE: Every offense that I've gone against has given me some type of trouble, some type of misdirection, some type of scheme. That's a respect to our defense because they do stuff on film that's different than what they've shown. So I think that's a respect to our defense because we give them something that they've clearly never seen. But probably the hardest offense that I've gone against is Washington. When Michael Penix was there, Rome Odunze was there, Ja'Lynn Polk was there -- Kalen DeBoer, Coach DeBoer was the head coach there. That was probably the game that was toughest for me. Q. What did playing in the A&M-Texas game mean for you last year? And where did that interception you had in that game rank among your favorite football moments? MICHAEL TAAFFE: Top moment, hands down. I was telling my friends the other month, I think that was the coolest moment of my life. It's up there for moments of life. But I think it's so important to know that we had 13 years of no Texas-versus-Texas A&M rivalry. And then all of a sudden we get it back, and it's in College Station, it's at Kyle Field. And people argue that that's the best atmosphere in all of college football. To believe that it wasn't rockin' you would be a fool, because that place was -- I saw five fields when they were running out of the tunnel. It was shaking. It was loud. It was crazy. And it's so good for the great state of Texas, so good for college football, because in Austin there's no pro team. We are the pro team. The Texas Longhorns are the professional team. And in College Station, obviously the same. It's a rich tradition of just Texas fans going back and forth, and it's so fun for us as competitors. Q. Piggybacking off of that, you said "the best moment of your life," how much are you looking forward to this year that game being in Austin? MICHAEL TAAFFE: For sure, because I know that they got a taste of being able to scream for their fans. So the proud and few, the brave Longhorns that went to that stadium, I don't know how they did it. But I'm happy for them that they get to get a sea of burnt orange this next time that we go around. It's such a fun game. It brings out so much competitive nature out of you, brings out so much rich tradition and history and rivalry. That's what college football is all about, the rivalry games like Texas versus Texas A&M. And Marcel Reed, heck of a player. The guy they've got on offense, heck of a player, I'm excited. Q. Do you mind explaining a little bit about your tie? MICHAEL TAAFFE: For sure. My tie, the Texas floods happened this past week. And Camp Mystic is a girls church camp that was impacted pretty seriously. So all these initials are all the victims at Camp Mystic that lost their lives in the tragic flooding this past weekend. It's all the daughters, the 8-year-old girls that passed away in the cabins and their two counselors who gave their lives being heroes trying to save those daughters and those girls, and then the camp director who went back into the floods to try to save those girls' lives. I wanted to remember those victims because they deserve a light like this. What they did, they should be heroes, they should be remembered. Q. You mentioned your relationship with Arch and a lot has been made about your friendship with Cade, growing up in high school and stuff. Those are two of the top Heisman favorites going into the season. I'm not asking you to make a pick, if you had a vote, but what do you make about their cases for that award this year? What are they going to have to do to maybe put one over the top of the other? MICHAEL TAAFFE: Obviously this quarterback class is so talented this year. All the quarterbacks in the SEC are really talented alone, but bringing in guys like Klub, Cade Klubnik, makes this roster, this class of quarterbacks so unique, so competitive, a lot of juice. But the similarities that Arch and Cade have is they know how to take over a team. And they know that the team embodies their personality. So both of them walk on the field, it's, like, all right, it's game time, every time they step on the field. That's why I respect both of those guys because they have that sense of competitiveness that's, like, all right, nobody can stop me. It's really inspiring. Q. You played against Ohio State last year and Jeremiah Smith. What were your impressions of him, and how does he rank, maybe, in the athletes you've competed against? MICHAEL TAAFFE: I can't even rank him yet because I've got to play him again. But he, man, what he does on that football field, it doesn't seem like a real human's doing that, because he's just so unique. He's inspirational in all the talent, and he still is only 19 years old. So it's going to be really fun going against him because he's a freak of nature. I've watched a lot of his routes, almost all of them, dang near, from last year, and seeing how he gets in and out of breaks, seeing how he runs full speed, seeing how he stacks DBs, and obviously the best thing about him, one of his attributes, is going up and getting the football. You can put three DBs on him, but if you get it up in the air, he's going to go get it, which is really cool. Q. When did you know Colin Simmons was going to be special, and what is one eye-popping moment for you, you're kind of like, wow? MICHAEL TAAFFE: The second that he stepped on campus, I knew Colin Simmons would be the guy. He's one of the guys coming in that he's a three-year-and-out, first-round type of guy. I don't want to put too much pressure on him, but I know that's the expectation for himself. One of the plays, he wears this long towel in practice, it's like a shower towel. I'm like, what is this guy doing? All of a sudden he runs up with the 1s, one of the first weeks he's out here, and said, hut. A second later, he's getting back to the quarterback and he's giving our left and right tackles a heck of a day. It's definitely easier to play DB playing man coverage when you've got him going after the quarterback. It shocked my eye. It was like, is it that sweaty outside right now. Like, why is he wearing that towel? But then I watched him and he got after the quarterback. I was like, you can do whatever you want as long as you're getting to the quarterback like that.
USA Today
14-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Longhorns baseball commits Gavin Fein, Kayson Cunningham drafted in 1st round of MLB Draft
Two of the centerpieces of Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle's 2025 recruiting class are likely going pro before ever arriving onto the 40 Acres. Both Gavin Fein and Kayson Cunningham were drafted in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft. Third baseman Fein was drafted No. 12 by the Texas Rangers. Cunningham, a shortstop, was drafted No. 18 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Fein, of The Temecula (Calif.) Great Oaks, has been committed to the Longhorns for nearly four years. As a senior, he hit .358 with 16 RBIs and five home runs. In 2024, his brother Dylan was drafted in the seventh round by the A's. Cunningham, a San Antonio Johnson product, committed to the Longhorns in June of 2024. He hit an astounding .509 as a senior, with 27 RBIs and 39 runs scored. He also stole 21 bases on 25 attempts. Cunningham was both the Gatorade Player of the Year and USA Baseball Player of the Year. Neither player is expected to end up playing for the Longhorns now. First round money in the MLB Draft is higher than any college baseball player could make via NIL. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @LonghornsWire.
CBC
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
For a science-fiction thriller, 40 Acres feels remarkably authentic
Social Sharing 40 Acres is the highly anticipated feature film debut from Canadian director R.T. Thorne, whose previous work includes projects like The Porter. Now in theatres, 40 Acres follows a Black-Indigenous family trying to survive in a famine-decimated near future — and protect their farmland against new threats trying to take it. The film has been praised for its performances, and its creative interpretation of Canadian history. Today on Commotion, culture critic El Jones and film critic Jesse Wente join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss the film's Black-Indigenous themes, and what its release could mean for BIPOC Canadian filmmaking moving forward. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: I would have liked to say that as a post-apocalyptic movie, things start to go wrong when the teenage son starts to sneak out to be a teenager. But really, things start to go wrong from the very beginning. We're introduced to the stakes in that opening sequence of they are beset by forces trying to take their land. El, I want to talk about the fact that it's not just set in a dystopian Canadian future. 40 Acres is trying to also do some reminding of history that I think is really difficult to do, right? So the Freeman family here, their roots in this farmland go back to the 1850s, and specifically to the story of an African American ancestor who fled slavery to come to Canada, escaping from a Georgia slave plantation. Briefly, what do you think people should know about the real history of African American migration to Canada before they watch a movie like this one? El: Well, I'm speaking to you from Halifax/Kjipuktuk, Nova Scotia, which of course African Nova Scotians have been here for over 400 years — the first Black settlement and contact in Canada. So of course many people still don't realize the depth of Black contribution and land in this country. Similarly in Alberta, which I think this very closely references, we had many farmers coming up from the U.S. in the same time period; places like Amber Valley have been settled by African American farmers. And then of course in Ontario, people are probably familiar with the Underground Railroad, and those kinds of settlements … that you still see are very close to the States — this history of liberated Black people attempting to find safety in Canada, but then also being met with white supremacy and violence. So I think part of the film is this meditation on, you know, Canada's supposed to be this safe place for Black people, the end of the Underground Railroad. But we know that when Black people came here, as in Nova Scotia, there were race riots against Black people. We have suffered from white supremacist violence, and we've integrated with Indigenous communities as well. So it really does pick up that history, and encourage us to think about what it really means. Elamin: Jesse, the story centres on a blended Black and Indigenous family. How did you feel about the ways that these histories and these two racialized identities, with entirely different relationships to the land, to colonialism — how do you feel like their relationship intersected as one family in this movie? Jesse: Oh, I thought it was really quite beautifully portrayed. It feels like a film that was made for us, by us, in the most generous way. And that's because it's in the subtle things — it's in the use of language, the foods they eat, which I thought was a really fantastic depiction there…. Our histories as peoples are very much intertwined on these lands, both in terms of our experience of colonialism and our continued survival in the face of it, how we resist and what that looks like. And also, our ability to form communities with one another through that shared experience, that I think is in this movie. It's so interesting, Elamin, when you talked about that when the son goes out, things go wrong. In some ways, things start to go right when the son goes out because what happens is they broaden … a sort of insular vision that's really the result of colonial pressures and violence, that has made people like, "We're here, and we're not gonna trust the outside." And yet one of the things we see over the course of the film, through the mother's character and her transformation, is that the son wants to have a bigger community. At the heart of this film (and at heart of a lot of post-apocalyptic films), the apocalypse they're imagining is the end of colonialism and capitalism, these systems. That community is the thing that we will need to both survive this current moment, but also what will allow us to build in the future…. So I loved it in terms of the way they communicated. It all felt so real and lived in, in the best possible way. I thought they nailed that part of the story.
CBC
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
R.T. Thorne's post-apocalyptic thriller 40 Acres is a love letter to his mom
The Canadian filmmaker discusses his feature film debut in a conversation with Q's Tom Power CBC Arts · In R.T. Thorne's directorial debut, 40 Acres, the Canadian filmmaker imagines a post-apocalyptic world where food is scarce, society is in ruins and your family is under threat. It's an intense movie about fighting for survival, but it also explores the complicated relationship between a mother and a son. Thorne joins Tom Power to share how his mother's experiences as a Trinidadian immigrant in Canada shaped the mother-son relationship in the film, and how his background making music videos still informs his work today. WATCH | Official trailer for 40 Acres:
