TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2016 l i f e s t y l e

MUSIC & MOVIES

De Niro to get key award at Sarajevo Festival rganizers say Robert De Niro will present Martin Scorsese’s Orestored “Taxi Driver” at the opening night of the 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival and receive the festival’s first lifetime achievement award. Festival organizers said yesterday that De Niro, who has won the Golden Globe, two Oscars and was nominated for another five Oscars, will receive the first honorary Heart of Sarajevo life- time achievement award for his extraordinary contribution to the art of film. The festival, which opens Friday, will offer viewers 223 movies from 61 countries over nine days. The Balkan region’s most important film festival draws more than 100,000 people each year and has come a long way from its humble beginnings in a city roamed by snipers and blasted by mortar shells during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. — AP In this file photo actor Robert De Niro (From left) Indian actors , and pose with British actress Amy Jackson during the trailer attends a news conference in Macau. —AP launch of their home production film ‘Freaky Ali’ in Mumbai.— AFP Dee Snider’s granddaughter Israel’s relationship with Palestinian born on California freeway ocker Dee Snider’s granddaugh- Dee Snider tweeted Sunday that ter has wasted no time coming Patty delivered Parker while Jesse filmmakers sees Rinto the world: She was born in a drove, adding , “Way to get attention!” vehicle on a Los Angeles-area freeway. Snider shot to fame in the 1980s as the Jesse Snider posted an Instagram wild-haired lead singer of metal band ups and downs video from his car alongside his wife, Twisted Sister. The group is best known Patty, on Sunday just after Parker Pryde for its hits “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and hriving in spite of rising conservative pres- Snider’s birth. He says, “We waited a lit- “I Wanna Rock.” — AP sures, Israeli cinema is back at Locarno fes- tle too long to leave.” Jesse Snider says Ttival with Israeli and Palestinian projects, a the baby is healthy and already breast- year after facing widespread threats of a cultural feeding. boycott, proving that it still boasts a liberal industry. At Locarno, Israel is being showcased at the Match Me forum, along with Brazilian and Chilean producers. It’s not surprising that one of the three producers chosen by Locarno to repre- In this file photo, Shad Moss, also known by his stage name, Bow Wow, attends the BET sent Israel is a Palestinian one: Baher Agbariya, Experience - 106 and Park Live in Los Angeles. — AP the producer of Maha Haj’s “Personal Affairs” which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. Whereas its TV landscape is vastly dominated by Israelis, its film industry owes its international Bow Wow retiring from rap, says profile and recognition in festivals to both Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers. But amid the current turmoil shaking up the next album will be his last Arab world and tensions with Israel’s right-wing government, the relationship of Palestinian pro- he rapper formerly known as Bow 1990s. Snoop gave Moss the stage name ducers and directors with Israel is being put to Wow says his upcoming album will be “Lil’ Bow Wow.” The 29-year-old Moss says test. “(Politically-speaking), we’ve been in a This last. Shad Moss announced his on Twitter that it’s a “blessing to have made deadlock for a long time with Palestinians, and retirement from rap on social media over millions and can retire before 30.” His post- that’s reflected in our relationship with filmmak- the weekend. He says Snoop Dogg will be retirement plans include a focus on acting ers: There are ups and down,” said Katriel Schory, the executive producer on his final album, and hosting. Moss also says he’s producing the executive director of the Israel Film Fund, titled “NYLTH.” two TV shows this year. — AP adding that Jerusalem film fest had even collab- In this file photo Dee Snider of Twisted Sister performs during the Hell and Heaven Snoop Dogg took Moss under his wing orated with Ramallah festival back in 2010 — an music festival in Mexico City. — AP when Moss was a pint-size emcee in the initiative that is not concevable today.

Right-wing conservative Indeed, the Israeli film industry is currently at a crossroads, creating a volatile climate. The minister of culture and sports, Miri Regev, an Film premiere of ‘Spaceman’ outspoken right-wing conservative, has threat- ened to cut funding for that are being criti- cal of the state of Israel. Meanwhile, the national budget allocated to culture, including film, is being renegotiated next year for 2018-2022 which raises the stakes of current debates. “So far there has only been talks, no actions,” said Schory at Jerusalem film festival in July. The exec, who’s been heading the Israel Film Fund for 17 years, pointed the budget for culture could get cut by 10% to 15% at most. But the biggest blow carried by Regev was her decision to impose Palestinian movies that are supported by Israel to be credited as Israeli rather than Israeli-Palestinan pics. That policy was enacted following the scandal caused by Suha Arraf, a Palestinian director who refused to list her film “Villa Touma” - which was selected at Venice-as Israeli even though it had been partly financed by Israel. Agbariya said the new rule was “unfair” to Palestinian directors, not only ethically-speaking but also because it makes it more difficult to have their movies travel in the Arab world. Apart from a few exceptions, like “Personal Affairs,” which was selected at Beirut Film Festival, movies that are partly financed by Israel are blacklisted in most of the Arab mar- kets.

Effective change Yet, the support of the Israeli funds is a driv- ing force behind the new generation of Palestinian filmmakers, Agbariya admitted. “For the new generation, their only choice is to be Singer Fergie attends the Los Angeles premiere of supported by Israeli funds: The Arab world gives Actor Josh Duhamel Winter Ave Zoli no money to young, unknown directors; they ‘Spaceman’ in West Hollywood, California. — AFP captions give money to big names, and they prefer not to help directors who have the Israeli citizenship,” added Agbariya. While the Israel Film Fund and the Rabinovich fund are NGO’s and are not con- Michael Koch’s ‘Marija’ flies Swiss Flag at Locarno sidered government agencies, Regev seeks to exert greater control over their policies. Even ichael Koch’s feature debut “Marija,” a vision of Luxbox. Real Fiction Filmverleih and Frenetic Films es on people and their often contradictory needs in a without an effective change in policy, Agbariya just what an immigrant is prepared to do to have picked rights for Germany and Switzerland formally rigorous way, telling stories of people strug- says he fears film funds increasingly have Msee her dreams come true, belongs to a respectively. “The whole film is told from Marija’s per- gling with inner, hidden conflicts,” he adds. Regev’s threats in mind when selecting projects. prominent strain of highly-researched fiction which spective, often in sequence shots. With our visuals, He mentions other Swiss helmers - Nicolas Steiner, “Negev is succeeding: When funds read the make little concessions to its audience. One of two we’ve tried to translate a sense of Marija’s determina- Basil da Cunha, Matthias Gunter, Andy Herzog and scripts they think about her and they are being Swiss international competition entries this year at tion, her focus and inability to analyse her situation Tobias Nolle - as examples of directors who “formally more and more cautious about financing radical Locarno, -alongside Milagros Mumenthaler’s “The Idea with any kind of distance,” Koch told Variety. and substantively are following new paths and do not films,” said Agbariya, who nevertheless noted of a Lake”- migrant drama “Marija” portrays a young Director-screenwriter Koch began his film career as chum up with the audience.” Koch is now preparing that Schory was one of the last standing gate- Ukrainian woman who cleans hotel rooms in an actor, co-starring in Swiss romantic comedy hit his next project: “As in ‘Marija’ it’s also based on keepers of the industry who fights for the free- Dortmund Nordstadt, a former blue-collar neighbor- “Ready, Steady, Charlie!” A student at Cologne’s detailed documentary research. My films’ develop- dom of every filmmakers. — Reuters hood in the Ruhr region (Germany), but doesn’t aban- Academy of Media Arts (KHM), he directed several ment work is always about ‘finding’ and not ‘inventing,’” don her dreams to have her own hair saloon. To shorts and documentary “We Are the Faithful,” a Prix he said. Its subject? “Again, I am focusing on a person achieve her goal, she’s ready to pay any prize. Canal Plus winner at France’s Clermont-Ferrand shorts who meshes very different and contradictory needs. It Produced by Cologne-based Pandora Film and festival in 2006. Koch’s graduation short, “Polar,” took is a movie about love and death and life, set in the HugoFilm, and co-produced with Zurich’s Little Shark, the German Short Film Prize in 2009. “I’m interested in Swiss mountains.” — Reuters Ben Lyons “Marija” world sales are handled by Paris-based a cinema that shows and does not explain, that focus-