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Kuwait Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Kuwait Times
Ravers revel in Cannes spotlight with thumping ‘Sirat'
(From left) Spanish actor Sergi Lopez, Spanish actor Bruno Nunez, actor Joshua Liam Henderson, French-Spanish film director Oliver Laxe, French actress Jade Oukid, French actor Richard Bellamy, French actor Tonin Janvier and Italian actress Stefania Gadda arrive for the screening of the film "Sirat" at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France.--AFP Real ravers picked from obscurity to act in Cannes festival hit 'Sirat' said they were delighted Friday to showcase their free-party world of drugs, trance music and travel. Set in Morocco and containing echoes of cult road movie 'Mad Max', genre-twisting 'Sirat' wowed many critics when it premiered on Thursday evening in the main competition. Franco-Spanish director Oliver Laxe, a fan of illegal raves himself, cast real people from the scene in leading roles alongside veteran Spanish actor Sergi Lopez, who is the lead. 'It was just incredible to be able to show who we are -- because this is the world we live in -- and to be able to express ourselves and show people that anything is possible,' Richard Bellamy told a press conference Friday. 'Listening to music, that's what makes us feel alive,' added the heavily tattooed Frenchman. 'It was an intense experience to be both a protagonist and completely lost in the world of cinema,' added co-star Jade Oukid, who plays herself. Featuring a soundtrack of hard trance and rumbling electronic music, film bible Variety said Sirat 'pummels us emotionally and psychologically in ways we can't predict'. The film starts with a vivid portrayal of a sweaty and sun-backed free-party in the Moroccan desert where Lopez's character Luis is searching desperately for his lost daughter. Laxe, who co-wrote the screenplay, said he had always liked the rave scene because of its tolerance and lack of pretension. 'I think that all human beings are a bit broken, we all have a fracture, an injury, but many of us create mechanisms to project an idealised image of ourselves,' he told reporters Friday. 'What I like about the travelling rave scene is the celebration of our injuries, of showing them,' he added. Two of his lead amateur actors, Bellamy and fellow Frenchman Tonin Janvier, both have physical disabilities. The title 'Sirat' means a hair-thin bridge that purportedly connects heaven and hell, the meaning of which becomes obvious at the film's dramatic climax. Grizzled Paris-born Laxe, who lived in Morocco for a decade, said he had purposefully mixed genres and broken some of the rules of cinema story-telling. 'Some people will be amazed, thrilled by the freedom with which we made it. And others won't get it.' Film magazine Screen was not entirely convinced, saying Laxe had maintained tension throughout 'although to frustratingly inconclusive effect and somewhat at the cost of conventional dramatic satisfaction'. It paid tribute to the cast, however, which projected 'a genuine sun-baked, grizzled sense of having knocked around'. German-language film 'The Sound of Falling' by Mascha Schilinski, a multi-generational drama set on a farm in northeast Germany, has emerged as an early critics' favourite in Cannes. The Palme d'Or award for best film, given to Oscar-winner 'Anora' by Sean Baker last year, will be handed out in a ceremony on Saturday May 24.--AFP
Time Out
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Photograph: Quim Vives
An outdoor rave in the desert. The music pounds, distorting the speakers, and the desert sun beats down. These people dance like the damned. Some like they're asking questions; others like they're answering them. Some seem furious; others ecstatic. They all look exhausted, old, like they've been dancing non-stop for 25 years. Some have lost limbs. Think Burning Man, but more like Burnt Man: the embers of the '90s dance scene. Among them wanders Luis (Sergi López) and his young son, Esteban, handing out fliers as they search for his daughter who is rumoured to be in the area. When an international crisis causes the military to start rounding up foreign nationals, a ragtag caravan of ravers breakaway from the convoy and head to the mountains seeking out another rave. Luis and Esteban follow. Wherever they think they're going, they're in for a surprise. The same can be said for us. All you need to know is that the twists and turns of French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe's film are as dangerous as a mountain road. For some, the vertigo they cause will be too much. It's The Wages of Fear meets The Vanishing on shrooms At first, the film plays as a fish-out-of-water comedy as the resolutely middle class Luis finds himself forced to ally himself to the tattooed, drug-fuelled crusties who can show him the way. The sweetness of Luis and Esteban's relationship is matched by the makeshift family of outcasts and wanderers, played almost exclusively by first-timers. Relationships are not always clear, but Stefania Gadda is the matriarch of the group and Jade Oukid is the fixer who repairs the speakers, enjoying their distorted sound which dominates Berlin electronic producer Kangding Ray's all-enveloping soundtrack. Having made his second film, Mimosas, in Morocco, Laxe has an eye for the unworldly beauty of the desert and mountain landscapes. Cinematographer Mauro Herce's camera imbues the film with a feel that is part western – The Searchers, perhaps – and part science fiction, with more than a hint of Mad Max: Fury Road. There's also the political background which the characters are ignoring to their peril. Apocalypse is often simply third world conditions imposed on white people and so it proves here. Much will depend on how far you're willing to go with the wild swings the film takes in its second half, but if you're down for a trip, Sirat is The Wages of Fear meets The Vanishing on shrooms; startlingly original, jarringly hilarious and deeply disturbing.
Morocco World
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Morocco World
Abla Ababou Galerie to Open New Exhibition 'Sous le même ciel' in Rabat
Rabat – Abla Ababou Galerie has announced its upcoming exhibition 'Sous le même ciel,' which will run from April 18 to May 30, 2025, in Rabat. The public opening takes place on April 19, with an evening vernissage on Friday, April 18, at 6:30 p.m. The exhibition brings together the works of artists Florence Arnold and Christophe Mirailles. Though their artistic languages differ, the two artists are in constant search for meaning through light, material, and memory. Arnold, born in France in 1975, spent much of her childhood in sub-Saharan Africa, a formative experience that continues to shape her artistic vision. She now lives and works in Casablanca, where her practice has found resonance locally and internationally. Her work has appeared in numerous galleries across Morocco and abroad, which has earned recognition for its immersive and sensory approach. Miralles, a French-Spanish artist born in 1970, divides his time between Burgundy and Casablanca. Winner of the Azart Prize, he has held several solo exhibitions in France and beyond, with his work entering a range of private and public collections. His artistic language fuses Mediterranean traditions with the textures and impressions he has gathered through his relationship with Morocco. This exhibition stands as an encounter between two worlds that share a quiet, emotional depth beyond the mundane. Arnold's art offers an immersive exploration of the two slippery notions of space and perception. Her installations draw from personal memory, particularly her childhood in Africa, while echoing the influence of artists like James Turrell and Chiharu Shiota. She does not simply shape light; she treats it as a living element. 'Art allows me to give form to what cannot be seen, my emotions, my thoughts,' she explains in the press statement. 'It becomes a way to translate experience into something others can feel.' Christophe Miralles, in contrast, focuses on painting as a threshold to the invisible. His canvases often carry the weight of silence, charged with the influence of Goya, Veláquez, even French literary giant Baudelaire. Instead of relying solely on spectacle, he paints mystery into stillness. 'Creation settled into my life like a breath of air,' he says. 'I began listening to the silence before dawn, that hour when anything seems possible.' Two collaborative works created together by the artists show their ability to meet and respond to each other's vision. Neither dominates, instead, their differences give shape to something new. The art of 'Sous le même ciel' resists being shoved into categories. It moves between painting and installation, between figuration and abstraction. At its core, the exhibition invites visitors into an emotional conversation, quiet, reflective, and rich in contrasts. With works that speak through light, texture, and emotion, this exhibition pulls you into a world where the visible and invisible meet. It's bold, intimate, and not to be missed. What are you waiting for? Head to Abla Ababou Galerie and let yourself be swept into the conversation. Tags: Abla AbabouAbla Ababou Galleryart MoroccoMorocco art scene
The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Amadou Bagayoko obituary
One of the most extraordinary success stories in the history of African music began in 1978 in the south of the Malian capital, Bamako, in the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles, a school for young blind people. It was there that Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia began to make music together. Over two decades later, by now married and known as Amadou & Mariam, 'the blind duo of Mali' (as they were once billed) became an award-winning commercial triumph, headlining at festivals and concerts around the world. Amadou, who has died aged 70, played the electric guitar, sang with Mariam, and wrote or co-wrote many of their songs. They had enjoyed a lengthy, sometimes difficult career together when their lives were transformed by a collaboration with the French-Spanish globally-influenced pop star Manu Chao. He heard one of their songs on the car radio while driving through Paris, and offered not just to produce their next album but to co-write and sing on some of the tracks, adding his slinky, rhythmic style to the duo's rousing blend of African R&B. The result, Dimanche à Bamako (2004) introduced the duo to a new global audience, selling half a million copies worldwide and reaching No 2 in France. Blending gutsy blues-rock and impressive guitar work from Amadou on the song Coulibaly with a stomping dance piece, La Réalité, or the cheerfully rousing Beaux Dimanches, this was crossover music that appealed to rock and pop fans as well as enthusiasts for African music. When I asked Amadou about his guitar style, he told me: 'I love English music and started out listening to Alvin Lee, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour and Bad Company – and trying to find a link between them and our Bambara culture.' Amadou & Mariam now had a chance to show a wider audience that they were great live performers, with years of experience behind them. Their live shows in the UK after the album's success included the 2006 African Soul Rebels package tour, and an appearance at Glastonbury in 2007 as part of Damon Albarn's Africa Express. Here, backed by the Kick Horns, they provided a rousing opening to an extraordinary show that included Baaba Maal, Toumani Diabaté and the desert blues exponents Tinariwen, who were joined by Amadou on guitar. Albarn co-produced their follow-up album, Welcome to Mali, in 2008, which continued their Africa-pop crossover success. It included Sabali, a swirling electro-pop ballad co-written by Albarn, and guest appearances from the Somali hip hop star K'Naan and others, but was dominated by Amadou's guitar work, as on his collaboration with the kora virtuoso Diabaté. It was nominated for the Grammy award for best contemporary world music album. In 2012, the duo's album Folila included yet more 'special guests', including Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, and a rousing guitar-rock song, Dougou Badia, featuring Santigold. By now their live appearances were becoming equally adventurous. In 2009 they played in Oslo when Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel peace prize, and in the same year gave a charity show for the homeless in London, at which they were joined by Gilmour. In 2011 they staged a series of Eclipse concerts in the dark, to remind their audiences of what it was like to experience music when blind. They supported rock bands including Blur, Coldplay and U2, and in 2019 toured the UK with the American gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama, with whom they collaborated on several songs, with Amadou showing off his guitar skills on a thoughtful treatment of the Tom Waits song Down in the Hole. In 2017 they released La Confusion, now joined by Malian ngoni and kora players rather than international guests. This was followed in 2024 by the compilation set La Vie Est Belle, which included a slinky and charming new song, Mogolu. Last year they also played at the UK Womad festival and at Somerset House in London – with Amadou still on rousing form, especially on the old favourites from Dimanche à Bamako. The son of a bricklaying instructor and a civil servant, Amadou was born in Bamako. He suffered from congenital cataracts, with his sight deteriorating throughout his childhood, and compensated by developing an acute sense of hearing. He learned to identify the sound of different types of guitar, and as a young guitar prodigy himself, he joined one of Mali's greatest bands, Les Ambassadeurs du Motel, then including the singer Salif Keita. He quit in 1978, when the band moved to Abidjan in the (then) Ivory Coast to record, and with another former band member, Idrissa Soumaoro (who is not blind), moved to the blind school as teachers, and for Amadou to learn braille. There they set up a band, L'Eclipse, in which they were joined by the school's finest singer, Mariam, who was then 20. She had lost her sight through measles at the age of six. In 1981 she and Amadou were married. They started another band, Mirya, consisting only of blind musicians, then began performing as a duo, becoming so successful that Amadou found it hard to continue teaching. In 1986 he and Mariam set off for Abidjan, then the musical mecca of West Africa, where they stayed for six years, recording cassettes that became successful across West Africa – and among Africans living in France. In 1998 they released their first of three albums recorded in France, and Amadou's love song to his wife, Je Pense à Toi, became a hit on French radio. But it would be the collaboration with Manu Chao that finally brought Amadou and Mariam international success. With Mariam, Amadou won several awards, including France's Victoire de la Musique twice and the BBC World Music award in 2006. He is survived by Mariam and their three children. Amadou Bagayoko, singer-songwriter and guitarist, born 24 October 1954; died 4 April 2025
