fashion

Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri out at Dior

BY MARINE DO-VALE

  • "The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016," Dior said in a statement.
  • Dior announced Thursday that Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was stepping down as artistic director of the French fashion house's women's collection after almost a decade on the job.
  • "The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016," Dior said in a statement.
Dior announced Thursday that Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was stepping down as artistic director of the French fashion house's women's collection after almost a decade on the job.
Dior has boomed since Chiuri took over in 2016, becoming the second-biggest brand in the stable of luxury labels owned by French powerhouse LVMH.
The 61-year-old designer's modernisation and feminist activism helped attract new customers.
Chiuri, who was the first woman to be named Dior's creative director after a career at Italian brands Valentino and Fendi, had long been rumoured to be on her way out.
"The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016," Dior said in a statement.
"After nine years, I am leaving the House of Dior, delighted by the extraordinary opportunity I have been given," Chiuri said in the statement.
Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson, who was named creative director of Dior Men last month, has been tipped as a possible successor, which would make him the first person to head both the men's and women's collections.
If that came to be, it would give "greater consistency" between the men's and women's offerings and would be "impactful for the public and for consumers", said Serge Carreira, an academic specialising in the luxury industry.
Already anticipation is building around Anderson's first Dior menswear show in June.

Chiuri's last show

Chiuri on Tuesday presented Dior Women's 2026 Cruise collection in Rome, the city of her birth, in an 18th century villa.
The show concluded with a standing ovation for the designer. 
Guests including Silvia Venturini Fendi, granddaughter of Fendi's founders and the menswear artistic director of the brand, and Valentino founder Valentino Garavani.
After training at Italy's Istituto Europeo di Design, Chiuri worked for Fendi in the 1990s before joining Valentino in 1999, where she and artistic partner Pier Paolo Piccioli became creative co-directors.
In 2016, she was tapped to succeed Raf Simons at Dior, and "she really wrote a whole chapter in Dior's history", said Carreira, who teaches at Paris's Sciences Po university.
Even if some critics argued that she lacked creativity, he disagreed, saying: "She managed to boost and create a very consistent identity at Dior Women... that she constantly refreshed and fed with new ideas."
Speculation already swirled around Chiuri's future at her last Paris Fashion Week in March. 
Her face was inscrutable at the end of a 25-minute Fall/Winter 2025 show in the Tuileries Gardens, as she briefly acknowledged applause from a crowd that was relatively low on A-list celebrities.

Important to LVMH

Some observers had suggested the classic French house was growing stale.
Its growth is of crucial financial and dynastic importance to LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, who placed his daughter Delphine in charge of Dior in February 2023.
In the Dior statement, Delphine Arnault praised Chiuri's "immense work with an inspiring feminist viewpoint and exceptional creativity".
Speaking to Grazia magazine in February, Chiuri said she had seen the fashion business change greatly over her 40-year career.
"Fashion used to be about family companies and there were small audiences -– clients and buyers," she said. "Now fashion is like a channel. It's something more popular, it's like pop. It's a form of media."
LVMH's global first-quarter results were weaker than expected, with sales over the period dropping two percent against the backdrop of trade uncertainty unleashed by US President Donald Trump's tariffs. 
French group Hermes overtook LVMH as the world's most valuable luxury company in April after shares in the Louis Vuitton maker tumbled following weaker-than-expected quarterly sales.
LVMH shares have been sliding since the end of February.
mdv/rmb/lth

fashion

Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri out at Dior

  • "The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016," Dior said in a statement.
  • Dior announced Thursday that Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was stepping down as artistic director of the French fashion house's women's collection after almost a decade on the job.
  • "The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016," Dior said in a statement.
Dior announced Thursday that Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was stepping down as artistic director of the French fashion house's women's collection after almost a decade on the job.
Dior has boomed since Chiuri took over in 2016, becoming the second-biggest brand in the stable of luxury labels owned by French powerhouse LVMH.
Her modernisation and feminist activism helped attract new customers.
Chiuri, who was the first woman to be named Dior's creative director after a career at Italian brands Valentino and Fendi, had long been rumoured to be on her way out.
"The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016," Dior said in a statement.
"After nine years, I am leaving the House of Dior, delighted by the extraordinary opportunity I have been given," Chiuri said in the statement.
Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson, who was named creative director of Dior Men last month, has been tipped as a possible successor, which would make him the first person to head both the men's and women's collections.
mdv/lth/rmb

Ngugi

Kenya's Ngugi wa Thiong'o, champion of African expression

  • He had already abandoned his "English" name to become Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
  • During his imprisonment, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o decided he would never write in English again, a defiant move that helped put literature in African languages firmly on the map.
  • He had already abandoned his "English" name to become Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
During his imprisonment, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o decided he would never write in English again, a defiant move that helped put literature in African languages firmly on the map.
Ngugi died at the age of 87 on Wednesday, his daughter announced on Facebook. 
"It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong'o this Wednesday morning," wrote Wanjiku Wa Ngugi. "He lived a full life, fought a good fight."
Widely regarded as east Africa's most influential writer, Ngugi sought to forge a body of literature reflecting the land and people from which he came, and not follow in the footsteps of Western tradition.
"I believe so much in equality of languages. I am completely horrified by the hierarchy of languages," he told AFP in an interview in 2022 from California, where he lived in self-imposed exile.
His decision in the 1970s to abandon English in favour of his native Kikuyu, as well as Kenya's national language Swahili, was met with widespread incomprehension at first.
"We all thought he was mad... and brave at the same time," said Kenyan writer David Maillu. "We asked ourselves who would buy the books."
Yet the bold choice built his reputation and turned him into an African literary landmark.
The softly-spoken writer also lived a life as dramatic as his novels.
His criticism of post-colonial Kenya -- describing the violence of the political class and the newly rich as "the death of hopes, the death of dreams and the death of beauty" -- brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities.

'Decolonising the mind'

Born James Ngugi into a large peasant family in Kenya's central Limuru region on January 5, 1938, he spent the first 25 years of his life in what was then a British settler colony.
His early works were heavily influenced by his country's battle against colonial rule and the brutal Mau Mau war of 1952-1960.
In his first collection of essays, "Homecoming", he described himself as a "stranger in his home country".
But his anger would later extend to the inequalities of post-colonial Kenyan society, incurring the wrath of the government.
In 1977, Ngugi and fellow writer Ngugi wa Mirii were jailed without charge after the staging of their play "Ngaahika Ndeenda" ("I Will Marry When I Want").
It was then that he decided to write his first novel in Kikuyu, "Devil on the Cross", which was published in 1980.
He had already abandoned his "English" name to become Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
"I wrote it on the only paper available to me, which was toilet paper," he told US radio broadcaster NPR.
Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience, before a global campaign secured his release from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in December 1978.
As early as 1965, Ngugi's novel "The River Between" embarked on a critical examination of the role of Christianity in an African setting.
"If the white man's religion made you abandon a custom and then did not give you something else of equal value, you became lost," he wrote.
He went into self-imposed exile in 1982 after a ban on theatre groups in Kenya, moving first to Britain then to the United States.
In 1986, he published one of his best-known works, "Decolonising the Mind", a collection of essays about the role of language in forging national culture, history and identity. 

'A Kenyan Tolstoy'

When Ngugi returned home on a visit in 2004, he was mobbed by supporters at Nairobi's airport.
"I have come back with an open mind, an open heart and open arms," he declared.
Days later, he and his wife were attacked by armed men: she was raped and he was beaten up. It was not clear whether robbery was the sole motive or whether the assault was politically motivated.
Margaretta wa Gacheru, a sociologist and former student of Ngugi, described him as a national icon.
"To me he's like a Kenyan Tolstoy, in the sense of being a storyteller, in the sense of his love of the language and panoramic view of society, his description of the landscape of social relations, of class and class struggles," she said.
In addition to fiction, the father-of-three, who became a professor of comparative literature at the University of California Irvine, also published essays and three memoirs.
His most recent book was the genre-defying novel-in-verse "The Perfect Nine", which he translated into English in 2020.
It recounted the founding of the Kikuyu people, blending folklore and allegory.
From widening economic inequality to the lingering trauma of racism, the issues raised in the play still persist in Kenya and beyond, a fact not lost on its creator.
"I am an activist, I want to see change," Ngugi told AFP.
"I hope we can continue striving for that world. We cannot give up."
bur/er/phz

art

S.Africa's 'king of kitsch' Tretchikoff sells for new world record

  • "Lady from the Orient" is "part of South Africa's cultural and visual makeup, part of our country's aesthetic history.
  • Vladimir Tretchikoff's iconic painting "Lady from the Orient" has sold for more than $1.7m in a new world record for the Russia-born South African painter, a Johannesburg auction house said Wednesday.
  • "Lady from the Orient" is "part of South Africa's cultural and visual makeup, part of our country's aesthetic history.
Vladimir Tretchikoff's iconic painting "Lady from the Orient" has sold for more than $1.7m in a new world record for the Russia-born South African painter, a Johannesburg auction house said Wednesday.
The 1955 portrait of a glamorous woman in a green and gold silk gown is among Tretchikoff's most recognisable pieces, reproduced the world over on items such as tablecloths to handbags. 
It sold to an anonymous telephone bidder late Tuesday for R31,892,000 (US$1,776,017), the Strauss & Co auction house said.
The final price, inclusive of commission and taxes, "comfortably eclipses" the previous world record for a Tretchikoff work of £982,050 for "Chinese Girl" (1952) sold in London in 2013, it said in a statement.
The painting of the daughter of a Cape Town grocer was a particular sensation in 1960s Britain and is among the most famous images produced by Tretchikoff, who moved to Cape Town in 1946 and died there in 2006.
"It was sold as a reproduction in London from 1962 and it was the second-highest selling print in Britain in 1962 and a massive seller in 1963, '64, '65," senior art specialist at Strauss & Co, Alastair Meredith, told AFP ahead of the auction.
Tretchikoff, whose stylised work -- including the famous "The Dying Swan" (1949) -- led some to call him "the king of kitsch", became wealthy through the reproductions and prints of his pieces.
"Tretchikoff essentially authorised huge numbers of prints of his own paintings to be sold at very cheap prices in department stores and stationery shops all around the world," Meredith said.
"Lady from the Orient" is "part of South Africa's cultural and visual makeup, part of our country's aesthetic history. But it's also a global icon," he said.
Tretchikoff was born in what is now Kazakhstan, and was then Russia, in 1913. He fled with his family to China at the 1917 Russian revolution and grew up in Shanghai, before moving to Singapore and then South Africa.
jcb-br/cw

conflict

Some 380 UK and Ireland writers denounce Gaza 'genocide'

  • The writers, including novelist Elif Shafak and playwright Hanif Kureishi as well as the Scottish and Welsh writers PEN clubs, called for a ceasefire, the "immediate distribution of food and medical aid" in Gaza and sanctions on Israel.
  • Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland, including Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, penned an open letter Wednesday denouncing what they called Israel's "genocide" in Gaza and urging a ceasefire.
  • The writers, including novelist Elif Shafak and playwright Hanif Kureishi as well as the Scottish and Welsh writers PEN clubs, called for a ceasefire, the "immediate distribution of food and medical aid" in Gaza and sanctions on Israel.
Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland, including Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, penned an open letter Wednesday denouncing what they called Israel's "genocide" in Gaza and urging a ceasefire.
The letter called on "our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror," they wrote in a letter published on the Medium website.
"The use of the words 'genocide' or 'acts of genocide' to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organisations," the letter continued.
Israel has repeatedly denied all accusations of genocide in its campaign to crush Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
The letter comes a day after 300 French-language writers, including Nobel Literature prize winners Annie Ernaux and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, signed a similar statement condemning "genocide".
"Palestinians are not the abstract victims of an abstract war. Too often, words have been used to justify the unjustifiable, deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible," the British and Irish writers said.
The writers, including novelist Elif Shafak and playwright Hanif Kureishi as well as the Scottish and Welsh writers PEN clubs, called for a ceasefire, the "immediate distribution of food and medical aid" in Gaza and sanctions on Israel.
International condemnation has grown over Israel's humanitarian aid blockade and relentless strikes after it ended a ceasefire in March and intensified military operations this month. 
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 53,977, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel's offensive since October 2023, when a Hamas attack on Israel triggered the war.
Some 1,218 were killed in the Hamas attack, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
"This is not only about our common humanity and all human rights; this is about our moral fitness as the writers of our time," the writers said.
On Monday over 800 UK-based legal experts, including former Supreme Court justices, wrote to Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying: "Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring.
"Serious violations of international law are being committed and are further threatened by Israel," the lawyers said, adding the UK is "legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide."
aks/jkb/fg

Scotland

Tweed's youthful makeover resurrects symbol of Scottish heritage

BY CAROLINE TAÏX

  • "It's a good thing to keep the tradition going," he told AFP. Tweed is a symbol of Scottish heritage and has "always been part of the culture" on the Outer Hebrides, added Macleod, who hails from the island of Scalpay, which is connected to Harris by a bridge. 
  • "When you see tweed on the runway, you don't expect it to come from here," joked 38-year-old former banker Alexander MacLeod as he set up his loom in a converted barn on the shores of a Scottish loch.
  • "It's a good thing to keep the tradition going," he told AFP. Tweed is a symbol of Scottish heritage and has "always been part of the culture" on the Outer Hebrides, added Macleod, who hails from the island of Scalpay, which is connected to Harris by a bridge. 
"When you see tweed on the runway, you don't expect it to come from here," joked 38-year-old former banker Alexander MacLeod as he set up his loom in a converted barn on the shores of a Scottish loch.
MacLeod became a weaver two years ago, joining residents on the islands of Lewis and Harris, off Scotland's northwest coast, in helping to rejuvenate the tweed industry after a significant period of decline. 
"It's a good thing to keep the tradition going," he told AFP.
Tweed is a symbol of Scottish heritage and has "always been part of the culture" on the Outer Hebrides, added Macleod, who hails from the island of Scalpay, which is connected to Harris by a bridge. 
It's now "an attractive sector to be in", he explained. 
He left the Hebrides for seven years to work in banking but the pull of his roots proved too strong. 
During the day, McLeod now works for a small local cosmetics company. In the evenings, he puts on a podcast, usually about espionage, and patiently begins to weave. 
Only the steady hum of his machine disturbs the calm of the old stone barn.
Harris tweed, traditionally made from 100 percent wool, is the only fabric protected by a 1993 Act of Parliament. 
It must be "handwoven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the Outer Hebrides, and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides".

'Resurgence'

The weaver spoke of his "satisfaction" once the tweed is finished. 
The fabric, once associated with the British aristocracy, then goes to the spinning mill for a quality control check, where the slightest flaw is flagged up. 
Finally, it receives the precious "Harris Tweed" stamp -- a globe topped with a cross -- certifying the fabric's provenance and authenticity, issued by the Harris Tweed Authority (HTA). 
The tweed then leaves the island to be purchased by discerning companies abroad, including luxury brands such as Christian Dior, Chanel, and Gucci. 
Several sneaker brands such as Nike, New Balance, and Converse have also used it for limited edition products. 
The traditional staples are jackets, caps, and bags, but the fabric can also used for furniture. 
There are 140 weavers, according to the HTA, which launched a recruitment campaign in 2023 and offered workshops to learn the trade following a wave of retirements.
This know-how, often passed down from generation to generation, is now being nurtured by a different profile of weaver. 
"It's nice to see younger people coming in," said Kelly MacDonald, director of operations at the HTA.
"When I joined the industry 22 years ago, there was a severe period of decline. I was wondering: 'is there going to be an industry anymore?'"
But the industry is now enjoying a "resurgence" and "significant growth", with more than 580,000 metres of tweed produced in 2024. 
"We are always looking at new markets," she explained, and tweed is now exported to Korea, Japan, Germany, France and other countries. 
It is no longer dependent on the US market, as it once was, and should be largely shielded from the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. 

Slow fashion

Tweed has "modernised", said Cameron MacArthur, who works at Carloway Mill, one of the three spinning mills in the west of the Isle of Lewis. 
He is only 29, but has already worked there for 12 years. 
The mill, with its large machines, looks as if it hasn't changed for decades. But MacArthur has seen it evolve to embrace a younger workforce and newer fabrics, meaning it is no longer just the ultra-classic Prince of Wales check or dark colours that are on offer.
"Nowadays, we're allowed to make up our own colours... and we're just doing different things with it, modernising it, making it brighter," he said, showing off rolls of turquoise blue and fuchsia pink. 
"We're so busy... it never used to be like that," he said, adding that he was "proud" to be working with the local product. 
MacDonald also noted that tweed was an antidote to environmentally unfriendly "fast fashion." 
"How nice to own a product where you can actually look on a map to a tiny island and say, that's where my jacket was made. That's so rare now, and I think people really engaged with that," he said.
"Every stage of the production has to happen here, but from start to finish, it is a really long process. We are the epitome of slow fashion."
ctx/jwp/jkb/phz/fec

theatre

Rocking 'King Lear' to draw young audience in Iran

BY AHMAD PARHIZI AND SEBASTIEN RICCI

  • But despite political tensions between Tehran and the West, many international works still make it to the Iranian stage.
  • An Iranian director is breathing new life into William Shakespeare's "King Lear" with a bold staging in Tehran infused with rock music and a dazzling light show to attract younger audiences.
  • But despite political tensions between Tehran and the West, many international works still make it to the Iranian stage.
An Iranian director is breathing new life into William Shakespeare's "King Lear" with a bold staging in Tehran infused with rock music and a dazzling light show to attract younger audiences.
In Iran, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and playwrights must walk a tightrope to avoid censorship of content the authorities deem inappropriate.
But despite political tensions between Tehran and the West, many international works still make it to the Iranian stage.
Now well-known actress Elika Abdolrazzaghi has taken on the challenge of reimagining "King Lear" for a contemporary audience.
"If I had staged the original version, it would have been too heavy for people -- they would have been bored," the 45-year-old told AFP.
To inject energy into the performance, Abdolrazzaghi has incorporated music from British rock band Muse and German industrial metal group Rammstein.
Vivid costumes and sparkling lights lend the production a festive atmosphere, despite the play's dark core.
First published in the early 17th century, "King Lear" tells the story of a crumbling monarchy and a family torn apart by betrayal, power struggles and hunger for the throne.
An ageing and weary Lear decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, based on how well they flatter him in public.

'No restrictions'

Naive and prideful, Lear disowns Cordelia, his youngest daughter, who refuses to join the charade.
"I transformed many word-heavy sections of the play into movement, imagery, music and dance," Abdolrazzaghi said.
The actors wear richly detailed costumes in bold reds, greens and yellows, inspired by classic fashions from the 17th century.
Reza Yazdani, a household name in Iran's rock scene, performs the Persian-language songs live on stage.
The production has struck a chord with theatregoers.
"We didn't think we could sit through a two-hour play," Amin, a 32-year-old engineer, told AFP.
"But it was really good -- from the actors' performances to the music and set design," he said after going to the play with his wife, Elham.
With a company of around 100 people, including several dozen actors, Abdolrazzaghi and her team spent several months preparing the show.
"In Iran there are many women directing theatre, but few are well known," she said.
Abdolrazzaghi, who has performed in works by Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Durrenmatt from Switzerland and France's Yasmina Reza, says the Iranian authorities impose "no restrictions" on staging foreign plays.

'A more just world'

"Theatre is essentially a Western phenomenon and remains a young art form in Iran," said Abdolrazzaghi.
Ahmad Saatchian, the lead actor and a stage veteran with two decades of experience, calls Lear "the greatest role" of his career.
"Portraying one of the most important characters in literary history is a rare opportunity for an actor," he said.
Tragedies such as "King Lear" are "universal and resonate with people around the world -- that's why Shakespeare remains timeless," he added.
In recent years, many of Shakespeare's works have been performed in Iran.
"Countries that have experienced similar political dynamics -- like Iran or those in Eastern Europe -- tend to connect deeply with Shakespeare's work," said Saatchian.
In the final act, Lear, broken by betrayal, regains clarity before his death.
"In one scene, Lear calls on those in power to expose themselves to the suffering of the poor in order to build a more just world," Saatchian said.
"That's a message that resonates everywhere."
ap/sbr/rkh/srm/ser/fec

Entertainment

At trial former Combs employee alleges kidnapping, death threats

BY MAGGY DONALDSON

  • Shortly after the chaotic series of events in December, in January 2012 Mescudi testified that his car was set aflame -- an act Ventura said Combs had threatened.
  • A former assistant of Sean Combs testified Tuesday that the music mogul often threatened and once kidnapped her in a jealous rage related to his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura.
  • Shortly after the chaotic series of events in December, in January 2012 Mescudi testified that his car was set aflame -- an act Ventura said Combs had threatened.
A former assistant of Sean Combs testified Tuesday that the music mogul often threatened and once kidnapped her in a jealous rage related to his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura.
The assistant, Capricorn Clark, was speaking to jurors on the stand in the federal trial of the once-famed rapper, producer and entrepreneur widely known as "Diddy," who faces racketeering and sex trafficking charges that could put him in prison for life.
Clark said he arrived at her door early one morning in December 2011, having learned that Ventura was seeing the rapper Kid Cudi.
Combs had a gun and demanded Clark get dressed and come with him. 
"We're going to kill" Kid Cudi -- whose real name is Scott Mescudi -- she recalled Combs saying, referring to the rapper who testified last week in the high-profile criminal proceedings in Manhattan.
The alleged incident is core to government prosecutors' case that Combs, once one of the music industry's most powerful figures, was the kingpin of a criminal conspiracy ring that wielded its power including with arson, kidnapping and bribery.
Clark's version of events corroborrated accounts from Mescudi and Ventura. 
Shortly after the chaotic series of events in December, in January 2012 Mescudi testified that his car was set aflame -- an act Ventura said Combs had threatened.

Threats, lie-detector test

Clark is the highest-profile employee thus far to testify in the trial against her former boss.
She described rising through the ranks in Combs's business empire, working as his personal assistant before assuming top roles at his fashion brand, Sean John.
Clark repeatedly shed tears on the stand, describing having herself received death threats from Combs, including when he insisted she help him evade police investigation over the incident connected to Mescudi.
She described a moment early in her career when she says she underwent a harrowing five-day long lie detector test after Combs suspected she had stolen diamond jewelry.
The defense sought to poke holes in her chronology of events as well as her credibility as an employee who continued to go back to work for Combs despite having experienced what she described as disturbing labor abuse.
Clark said that aside from one year when she worked at Jive Records before returning to work for Combs, she found it impossible to find employment elsewhere.
She said he made clear "that I would never work again," Clark said. "That he would make me kill myself."
Clark said her work for Combs was complicated: at times it was an inspiring "form of business school," but was undergirded by threats and fear.
She described witnessing Combs beat and kick Ventura amid the Mescudi love triangle.
"Each kick she would crouch more and more into the fetal position," Clark said.
Earlier in the trial, Ventura gave hours of testimony about incidents of alleged abuse. She alleged Combs flew into a violent rage after he learned of her romance with Mescudi, lunging at her with a wine corkscrew. 
He allegedly threatened to make public sexually explicit footage of her, after she says he coerced her into filmed "freak-off" sex marathons with male prostitutes for years.
Jurors were shown a message from Ventura to Clark in which the former described that threat.
But some of the messaging was mixed: Clark at points appeared critical of Ventura's skills, talent and work ethic.
She also sobbed as she said Ventura played a role in her firing, "wanting her gone" in the love triangle's aftermath -- but then, she said Ventura was partially responsible for getting Clark a new job years later.
The government next plans to call a police officer and arson investigator, both from Los Angeles. Stylist Deonte Nash and an alleged victim who was also one of Combs's former employees are also expected.
Now in its third week of testimony, the trial is expected to last well into the summer.
mdo/sla

Anak

Filipino 'Anak' singer Aguilar dies aged 72

  • Aguilar converted to Islam in 2013 at age 60 so he could marry Albao-Aguilar, then only 16 years old, under the country's Muslim Family Code. 
  • Filipino singer-songwriter Freddie Aguilar, best known for his chart-topping international hit "Anak", died in Manila aged 72 on Tuesday, local media reported.
  • Aguilar converted to Islam in 2013 at age 60 so he could marry Albao-Aguilar, then only 16 years old, under the country's Muslim Family Code. 
Filipino singer-songwriter Freddie Aguilar, best known for his chart-topping international hit "Anak", died in Manila aged 72 on Tuesday, local media reported.
He had been receiving treatment at the Philippine Heart Center, according to social media posts uploaded by his wife, Jovie Albao-Aguilar. 
The one-time street musician was one of the leaders of the locally based Original Pilipino Music movement that emerged in the 1970s, and was known for his political activism, often tackling social issues through song. 
In the 1980s, he lent his voice to the People Power Movement that overthrew then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, with his rendition of the traditional patriotic ballad "Bayan Ko" (My Country) serving as an anthem. 
According to his profile on music service Spotify, he got his start in the business performing cover tunes for American military personnel stationed in the archipelago nation. 
"This is not goodbye, just farewell for now," Albao-Aguilar posted on her Facebook page. 
"It was a good fight because we are fighting together."
Aguilar converted to Islam in 2013 at age 60 so he could marry Albao-Aguilar, then only 16 years old, under the country's Muslim Family Code. 
In a special 2018 resolution, the Philippine Senate lauded him for "lifetime outstanding contributions to Philippine arts and culture."  
He was the "only singer and composer who broke into the Western market and gained massive global recognition, bringing pride and honor to our country," the resolution said. 
"Anak", a Tagalog-language song about the struggles of raising a problematic child, sold more than 30 million copies.
cwl-pam/st

celebrity

S.Africa's 'Tsotsi' star Presley Chweneyagae dies

  • "It is with profound sadness that we confirm the untimely passing of one of South Africa's most gifted and beloved actors, Presley Chweneyagae, at the age of 40," the MLASA artist agency said in a statement on its website.
  • South African actor Presley Chweneyagae, star of the Oscar-winning South African film "Tsotsi", has died at the age of 40, his agent announced Tuesday.
  • "It is with profound sadness that we confirm the untimely passing of one of South Africa's most gifted and beloved actors, Presley Chweneyagae, at the age of 40," the MLASA artist agency said in a statement on its website.
South African actor Presley Chweneyagae, star of the Oscar-winning South African film "Tsotsi", has died at the age of 40, his agent announced Tuesday.
Chweneyagae gained international fame in 2006 when the movie set in the criminal underworld of Johannesburg's sprawling township of Soweto scooped the best foreign film award.
"It is with profound sadness that we confirm the untimely passing of one of South Africa's most gifted and beloved actors, Presley Chweneyagae, at the age of 40," the MLASA artist agency said in a statement on its website.
It did not give the date or cause of death.
Presley was a "powerful and authentic voice in African cinema" and his career spanned theatre, television and film, it said.
In his most famous film, Chweneyagae plays a "tsotsi" -- a colloquial term for thug -- who tries to do the right thing when he unwittingly carjacks a vehicle with a baby in the backseat.
The 2005 film is based on a novel by acclaimed South African playwright Athol Fugard who died in March this year at the age of 92. 
"It's a story about hope, it's a story about forgiveness, and it also deals with the issues that we are facing as South Africans: AIDS, poverty and crime," Chweneyagae said in 2006 as South Africa celebrated the Oscar.
"But at the same time, it could take place anywhere in the world," he said.
Chweneyagae was born in 1984 in the small North West Province town of Mafikeng and joined drama classes at the age of 10, his agents said.
He also had roles in the blockbuster "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" (2013), based on Nelson Mandela's autobiography, and South Africa's award-winning television series "The River" (2018).
clv/br/ho/fg

film

Filmmaker Panahi cheered on return to Iran after Cannes triumph

BY STUART WILLIAMS

  • Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.
  • Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was given a hero's welcome by supporters on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed.
  • Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was given a hero's welcome by supporters on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed.
After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films underground and enduring spells in prison, Panahi attended the French festival in person and sensationally walked away with the Palme d'Or for his latest movie, "It Was Just an Accident".
With some fans concerned that Panahi could face trouble on his return to Iran, he arrived without incident in the early hours of Monday at Tehran's main international airport, named after the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.
One person could be heard shouting "Woman. Life. Freedom!" -- the slogan of the 2022-2023 protest movement that shook the Iranian authorities. 
On exiting, he was greeted by around a dozen supporters who had stayed up to welcome him, according to footage posted on Instagram by the Iranian director Mehdi Naderi and broadcast by the Iran International Channel, which is based outside Iran.
Smiling broadly and waving, he was cheered, applauded, hugged and presented with flowers. "Fresh blood in the veins of Iranian independent cinema," Naderi wrote.
"He arrived in Tehran early this morning" and "has returned home," French film producer Philippe Martin told AFP, citing his entourage.
"He has even learned that he has obtained a visa to go to a festival in Sydney in about ten days' time," he said. The Sydney Film Festival has a retrospective of his work called "Cinema in Rebellion".

'Gesture of resistance'

The warm welcome at the airport contrasted with the lukewarm reaction from Iranian state media and officials to the first Palme d'Or for an Iranian filmmaker since "The Taste of Cherry" by the late Abbas Kiarostami in 1997.
While evoked by state media including the IRNA news agency, Panahi's triumph has received only thin coverage inside Iran and has also sparked a diplomatic row with France.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called his victory "a gesture of resistance against the Iranian regime's oppression" in a post on X, prompting Tehran to summon France's charge d'affaires to protest the "insulting" comments.
"I am not an art expert, but we believe that artistic events and art in general should not be exploited to pursue political objectives," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.
The film is politically charged, showing five Iranians confronting a man they believe tortured them in prison, a story inspired by Panahi's own time in detention.
After winning the prize, Panahi made a call for freedom in Iran. "Let's set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country."
Fellow Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who presented his politically-charged latest film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" at the 2024 festival after fleeing Iran, paid tribute to Panahi.
"It won't be long before 'It Was Just an Accident' reaches its primary audience: the people of Iran," Rasoulof wrote on Instagram, adding that "the decayed and hollow machinery of censorship under the Islamic Republic has been pushed back".
sjw/ekf/phz

Global Edition

Filmmaker Panahi cheered on return to Iran after Cannes triumph

BY STUART WILLIAMS

  • Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.
  • Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was given a hero's welcome by supporters on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed.
  • Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was given a hero's welcome by supporters on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed.
After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films underground and enduring spells in prison, Panahi attended the French festival in person and sensationally walked away with the Palme d'Or for his latest movie, "It Was Just an Accident".
With some fans concerned that Panahi could face trouble on his return to Iran, he arrived without incident at Tehran's main international airport, named after the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the early hours of Monday.
"He arrived in Tehran early this morning" and "has returned home," French film producer Philippe Martin told AFP, citing his entourage.
"He has even learned that he has obtained a visa to go to a festival in Sydney in about ten days' time," he said.
Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.
One person could be heard shouting "Woman. Life. Freedom!" -- the slogan of the 2022-2023 protest movement that shook the Iranian authorities. 
On exiting, he was greeted by around a dozen supporters who had stayed up to welcome him, according to footage posted on Instagram by the Iranian director Mehdi Naderi and broadcast by the Iran International Channel, which is based outside Iran.
Smiling broadly and waving, he was cheered, applauded, hugged and presented with flowers. "Fresh blood in the veins of Iranian independent cinema," Naderi wrote.

'Gesture of resistance'

The warm welcome at the airport contrasted with the lukewarm reaction from Iranian state media and officials to the first Palme d'Or for an Iranian filmmaker since "The Taste of Cherry" by the late Abbas Kiarostami in 1997.
While evoked by state media including the IRNA news agency, Panahi's triumph has received only thin coverage inside Iran and has also sparked a diplomatic row with France.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called his victory "a gesture of resistance against the Iranian regime's oppression" in a post on X, prompting Tehran to summon France's charge d'affaires to protest the "insulting" comments.
"I am not an art expert, but we believe that artistic events and art in general should not be exploited to pursue political objectives," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.
The film is politically charged, showing five Iranians confronting a man they believe tortured them in prison, a story inspired by Panahi's own time in detention.
After winning the prize, Panahi made a call for freedom in Iran. "Let's set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country."
sjw-as/ekf/js

Floyd

Discarded protest art preserves George Floyd legacy

BY BEN TURNER

  • The stories they have to tell are still heard, and that people understand there's still a lot of work to be done," Zellner-Smith said.
  • Kenda Zellner-Smith hauled up a corrugated metal door to reveal hundreds of wooden boards covered with graffiti, each telling a story of the protests that followed George Floyd's killing by a US police officer.
  • The stories they have to tell are still heard, and that people understand there's still a lot of work to be done," Zellner-Smith said.
Kenda Zellner-Smith hauled up a corrugated metal door to reveal hundreds of wooden boards covered with graffiti, each telling a story of the protests that followed George Floyd's killing by a US police officer.
The 28-year-old has collected and archived the panels that once protected businesses from rioting in Minneapolis, aiming to preserve the legacy of the 2020 murder that shocked the United States.
Five years on, Zellner-Smith said the boards -- kept in a storage unit by an industrial site two miles (three kilometers) from where Floyd died -- still evoke powerful emotions.
They range from blank plywood with text reading "I can't breathe" -- the final words Floyd said as Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck -- to colorful murals depicting rainbows and love hearts. 
"Every time I look at them there's something different I notice," she told AFP. "They reignite an energy or a fire that was felt years ago during the uprising."
Then a university graduate in Minneapolis, Zellner-Smith was among millions of Americans who joined the Black Lives Matter rallies in 2020 that swept US cities. 
The threat of vandalism saw many businesses protect themselves with wooden boards -- which became canvases for protesters' slogans and drawings demanding justice.

'Resistance'

Zellner-Smith said she decided to start collecting the boards after seeing one taken down after the protests and thinking "'Oh my god, these are going to disappear just as fast as they showed up.'"
"Every single day after work, I'd grab my dad's pickup truck and I would just drive around searching for boards," said Zellner-Smith, who searched alleyways and dumpsters. 
Today, her project called "Save the Boards" counts over 600 in its collection, with each stacked vertically in a pair of storage units measuring 10 by 30 feet (three by nine meters).
But with Floyd's legacy under the spotlight on the fifth anniversary of his death as many hoped-for reforms to address racism have not been met, she said the boards are crucial to sustaining the protest movement.
"Art serves as a form of resistance and storytelling, and it speaks to real, lived experiences, and that's what these are," Zellner-Smith said.
Her next challenge is finding a long-term home for the boards as grants that covered storage costs are running dry. 
A handful are already being exhibited -- including in a building restored after it was damaged by arson during the 2020 protests -- and most have been photographed to be archived online. 
"My biggest push is just to make sure they're still seen. The stories they have to tell are still heard, and that people understand there's still a lot of work to be done," Zellner-Smith said.

'Murals gave me hope'

Her initiative is similar to another, more expansive one in Minneapolis called Memorialize the Movement.
That nonprofit exhibited around 50 boards during a memorial event held Sunday on a recreation ground near George Floyd Square, the name given to the area where the 46-year-old was killed. 
With Afrobeat music booming from speakers, dozens of people scanned the display that included one piece with squares of black and brown, each filled with phrases like "We matter" and "Protect us."
Another mostly bare wooden board had just a black love heart with "No justice, no peace" written in the middle. 
"I think it is absolutely vital that these murals and this story that they tell are preserved for future generations," said Leesa Kelly, who has collected over 1,000 pieces while running Memorialize the Movement.
Asked what drove her to start the project, the 32-year-old replied: "I didn't do this because I was motivated or inspired, I did it because I was experiencing trauma."
"A Black man was killed. The murals gave me hope," said Kelly, who also collected many of the boards herself during the 2020 protests.
Darnella Thompson, 43, was one of those looking at the boards on a warm, sunny day, stopping to take a photo in front of one saying "Speak up" and "Hope."
"It's overwhelming," she told AFP. "As a person of color who has experienced quite a bit here in this country, it definitely resonates very much with me."
"It brings up more so sadness than anything because this is continuous," Thompson added.
bjt/des

Canada

Disney's 'Lilo & Stitch' crushes Memorial Day debut in N.America

  • Disney's family-friendly "Lilo & Stitch" earned an estimated $183 million, a record for the four-day Memorial Day weekend, according to Variety. 
  • Theaters across North America are enjoying an exceptional Memorial Day holiday weekend, with two new much-anticipated blockbusters bringing in an estimated box office totaling well over $250 million, analysts said Sunday.
  • Disney's family-friendly "Lilo & Stitch" earned an estimated $183 million, a record for the four-day Memorial Day weekend, according to Variety. 
Theaters across North America are enjoying an exceptional Memorial Day holiday weekend, with two new much-anticipated blockbusters bringing in an estimated box office totaling well over $250 million, analysts said Sunday.
Disney's family-friendly "Lilo & Stitch" earned an estimated $183 million, a record for the four-day Memorial Day weekend, according to Variety. 
The film has already taken in an additional $158 million internationally, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations reported. 
"This is a sensational opening," placing the film among the top three Disney live-action remakes, said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. 
Maia Kealoha (as Lilo), Hannah Waddingham, Courtney B. Vance and Zach Galifianakis star, while Chris Sanders again provides the voice of the chaos-creating blue alien Stitch. 
Paramount's new spy thriller "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning" -- the latest, and ostensibly last, in the hugely successful Tom Cruise series -- opened to an estimated $77 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada.
Gross called that an "excellent" opening, probably the best ever in the series. Ticket sales, however, need to make up for a huge production budget estimated at $400 million.
In third, dropping two spots from its opening last weekend, was Warner Bros. and New Line's horror film "Final Destination: Bloodlines," at $24.5 million. 
Kaitlyn Santa Juana stars as a young woman who has to deal with the grisly aftereffects of her grandmother having long ago cheated Death.
Fourth place went to Disney and Marvel's superhero film "Thunderbolts," at $11.6 million. Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan lead a motley bunch of misfits and antiheroes. The film has taken in more than $350 million worldwide.
And in fifth was Ryan Coogler's vampire thriller "Sinners," raking in $11.2 million. The film has now earned $259 million domestically to become one of the highest-grossing R-rated films ever, according to Variety.
Rounding out the top films were:
"The Last Rodeo" ($6.3 million)
"Friendship" ($5.7 million)
"A Minecraft Movie" ($2.9 million)
"The Accountant 2" ($2.5 million)
bur-bbk/sst

film

Trier misses out on top Cannes prize again

BY FIACHRA GIBBONS

  • "I think I was my destiny to win the Grand Prix," a rueful Trier told reporters afterwards -- a reference to the failing fictional director portrayed in the film, who had also won the same prize in 1998.
  • Director Joachim Trier, who won the Grand Prix second prize at the Cannes film festival Saturday, makes Scandinavian movies that can melt the chilliest of hearts.
  • "I think I was my destiny to win the Grand Prix," a rueful Trier told reporters afterwards -- a reference to the failing fictional director portrayed in the film, who had also won the same prize in 1998.
Director Joachim Trier, who won the Grand Prix second prize at the Cannes film festival Saturday, makes Scandinavian movies that can melt the chilliest of hearts.
"Sentimental Value", his moving story about a quietly fractured Norwegian family with Elle Fanning got an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation when its Cannes premiere ended in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Even the director found himself crying behind the camera as he shot it, he told AFP.
"It sounds cheesy, but I wept a lot making this film because I was so moved by the actors," he said of his cast, which play members of an arty family in Oslo who struggle to communicate.
"The actors are my friends. I know that they were being halfway a character and halfway themselves. And that they were also dealing with stuff," said the maker of "The Worst Person in the World".
That film landed the Norwegian two Oscar nominations and won then-newcomer Renate Reinsve the best actress award at Cannes in 2021.
Many critics said it also should have won the Palme d'Or top prize. And many thought Trier should have won it again Saturday, with some calling "Sentimental Value" a contender for best film of the year.
"I think I was my destiny to win the Grand Prix," a rueful Trier told reporters afterwards -- a reference to the failing fictional director portrayed in the film, who had also won the same prize in 1998.
"I am almost as good as him now," Trier joked.
Fanning said "The Worst Person in the World" -- which brought Trier to her attention -- is "easily one of the best films in the last decade or even longer. It is just perfect," she told AFP.
It was the last film in his "Oslo Trilogy" of intelligent, bittersweet explorations of life in the Norwegian capital.

'Crying and crying'

Trier is famous for the rapport he builds with his actors.
"We were a family too," he told AFP of the shoot for "Sentimental Value", rehearsing his script around the kitchen table of the beautiful old wooden home in Oslo where the film was shot, itself a character in the story.
The heads that keep butting in Trier's on-screen family are the absent father, an arthouse filmmaker who has long been put out to grass, played by Swedish legend Stellan Skarsgard, and his stage actress daughter (Reinsve).
"I think a lot of families carry woundedness and grief," Trier said.
"And talk often doesn't help. It gets argumentative. We get stuck in our positions, the roles we give each other unconsciously."
The bad old dynamics are changed by the arrival of an American star -- Fanning playing someone only millimetres from her real self -- a fan of the father.
She comes bearing lots of Netflix dollars to revive one of his long-stalled scripts.
"We don't get too many Hollywood stars wanting to be in small Norwegian-language films," Trier joked of Fanning's interest in his films.
"When Joachim sent me the script, I read it and I was just crying and crying by the final page," Fanning told AFP.
"It is so emotional. It's a very personal piece for Joachim and you can just feel that rawness in it."

Trier 'magic'

The director comes from a family steeped in the Scandinavian film industry. He dedicated his Grand Prix at Cannes to his grandfather, Erik Lochen, a member of the Norwegian resistance during World War II.
"He was captured and his way to survive after the war was to play jazz and to make films," Trier said.
Lochen's film "The Hunt" also competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, in 1960. It didn't win either. It was beaten by a film called "La Dolce Vita".
Trier admitted that that history, which is alluded to in his new movie, made it all very "meta".
"You're making a film about a family with your filmmaking family. And you've got a meta Hollywood star," he said.
But there are not that many parallels with his biological family.
"It's not like I'm throwing anyone under the bus. My whole family has actually seen the film and are very supportive," he said.
The filmmaker father, he insisted, is a mash-up of great auteurs such as Ingmar Bergman, Krzysztof Kieslowski and John Cassavetes.
The "magic" that Fanning said Trier creates on set comes from taking your time, he told AFP, taking on the big themes with a light, humorous touch.
"Anyone who's had experience of therapy -- and I have -- will know that it's about the silences and letting things arrive. Very often (that) is also the case with actors," said Trier.
"We had quite a few moments like that in the film actually. Renate would look at me and I look at her and I say, 'What was that? That was interesting.' And we don't talk about it anymore.
"But when people see it in editing, they go, 'Wow!'"
fg/adp/jhb

France

'It's in our blood': how Vietnam adopted the Latin alphabet

  • Huyen, 35, takes weekly calligraphy classes alongside six others at her teacher's tiny home as "a way to relax after work".
  • At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam's unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule.
  • Huyen, 35, takes weekly calligraphy classes alongside six others at her teacher's tiny home as "a way to relax after work".
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam's unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule.
The history of romanised Vietnamese, or "Quoc Ngu", links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonisation by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party.
It is now reflected in the country's "bamboo diplomacy" approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world's major powers.
A month after China's Xi Jinping visited, French President Emmanuel Macron will arrive on Sunday.
Huyen, 35, takes weekly calligraphy classes alongside six others at her teacher's tiny home as "a way to relax after work".
"When I do calligraphy, I feel like I'm talking to my inner self," she told AFP, her head bent in concentration. 

Missionaries, civil servants

On Monday, Macron is due to visit Hanoi's star attraction, the Temple of Literature, whose walls and explanatory panels are decorated with calligraphy in both traditional Chinese-influenced characters and Quoc Ngu. 
Colonisation led to the widespread use of Quoc Ngu -- which uses accents and signs to reflect the consonants, vowels, and tones of Vietnamese -- but it was created two centuries earlier on the initiative of Catholic priests. 
When the Avignon-born Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes published the first Portuguese-Vietnamese-Latin dictionary under his own name in 1651, it was primarily intended for missionaries wishing to spread their religion in what was then called "Dai Viet". 
The French then spread the Latin alphabet while training the civil servants who helped them govern Indochina, explained Khanh-Minh Bui, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, specialising in 19th- and 20th-century Vietnamese history.
Another motive was "severing connections with an older civilisation, which has greatly influenced the elites", in this case China, she said.

Artistic freedom

Compared to the characters that had been in use for centuries, Quoc Ngu was far easier to learn. 
Its adoption fuelled an explosion in newspapers and publishing which helped spread anti-colonial ideas that ultimately led to the rise of the Communist Party.
"Quoc Ngu carried the promise of a new education, a new way of thinking," said Minh.
When Ho Chi Minh proclaimed independence in 1945, it was "unthinkable" to turn back the clock, she added. 
Today, a Western tourist lost in the alleys of Hanoi can read the street names, but would have a hard time pronouncing them correctly without understanding the diacritics used to transcribe the six tones of Vietnamese.
Calligraphy teacher Nguyen Thanh Tung, who has several young students in his class, says he has noticed rising interest in traditional Vietnamese culture.
"I believe that it's in our blood, a gene that flows in every Vietnamese person, to love their traditional culture," he said.
Calligraphy in Quoc Ngu offers more artistic freedom "in terms of colour, shape, idea" than that using characters, he believes.
"Culture is not the property of one country, it's an exchange between regions," added Tung, 38.
"English and French borrow words from other languages, and it's the same for Vietnamese."
bur/aph/slb/dhw/rsc

film

Iraq's first ever director in Cannes wins best feature debut

  • He later shared the stage with dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who won the festival's Palme D'Or top prize for his "It Was Just an Accident", the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail. 
  • Hasan Hadi, the first filmmaker from Iraq to be selected for the prestigious Cannes Festival, on Saturday won a top prize for his childhood adventure under economic sanctions in "The President's Cake".
  • He later shared the stage with dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who won the festival's Palme D'Or top prize for his "It Was Just an Accident", the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail. 
Hasan Hadi, the first filmmaker from Iraq to be selected for the prestigious Cannes Festival, on Saturday won a top prize for his childhood adventure under economic sanctions in "The President's Cake".
His first feature-length film follows nine-year-old Lamia after her school teacher picks her to bake the class a cake for President Saddam Hussein's birthday or risk being denounced for disloyalty.
It is the early 1990s, the country is under crippling UN sanctions, and she and her grandmother can barely afford to eat.
The pair set off from their home in the marshlands into town to try to track down the unaffordable ingredients.
Hadi dedicated his Camera d'Or award, which honours first-time directors, to "every kid or child around the world who somehow finds love, friendship and joy amid war, sanctions and dictatorship.
"You are the real heroes," he said.
He later shared the stage with dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who won the festival's Palme D'Or top prize for his "It Was Just an Accident", the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail. 
"The President's Cake" has received excellent reviews since premiering last week in the Directors' Fortnight section. Cinema bible Variety called it a "tragicomic gem".
Deadline said it was "head and shoulders above" some of the films in the running for the festival's Palme d'Or top prize, and "could turn out to be Iraq's first nominee for an Oscar".

Palestinian films

Also from the Middle East, Palestinian director Tawfeek Barhom received his award for his short film "I'm Glad You're Dead Now".
After giving thanks, he took the opportunity to mention the war in Gaza.
"In 20 years from now when we are visiting the Gaza Strip, try not to think about the dead and have a nice trip," he said.
US President Donald Trump sparked controversy this year by saying he wanted to turn the war-ravaged Palestinian territory into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
Outside the main competition, Gazan twin brothers Arab and Tarzan Nasser on Friday received a directing award in the Certain Regard parallel section for "Once Upon A Time In Gaza".
One of them dedicated the award to Palestinians, especially those living in their homeland of Gaza, which they left in 2012.
He said that, when they hesitated to return to Cannes to receive the prize, his mother had encouraged him to go and tell the world about the suffering of people in Gaza.
"She said, 'No, no, no, you have to go. Tell them to stop the genocide'," he said.
Amnesty International last month said Israel was carrying out a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza, claims Israel dismissed as "blatant lies".
ah/adp/jj

film

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Panahi wins Cannes top prize

BY ADAM PLOWRIGHT, ALICE HACKMAN AND FIACHRA GIBBONS

  • - Politics - Panahi has won a host of prizes at European film festivals and showcased his debut film "The White Balloon" in Cannes in 1995 which won an award for best first feature. 
  • Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival on Saturday, using his acceptance speech to urge his country to unite for "freedom".
  • - Politics - Panahi has won a host of prizes at European film festivals and showcased his debut film "The White Balloon" in Cannes in 1995 which won an award for best first feature. 
Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival on Saturday, using his acceptance speech to urge his country to unite for "freedom".
The latest film from the 64-year-old, "It Was Just an Accident", tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail. 
The core of the provocative and wry drama examines the moral dilemma faced by people if they are given an opportunity to take revenge on their oppressors.
Panahi, who was banned from making films in 2010 and has been imprisoned twice, used his own experiences in jail to write the screenplay.
"Let's set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country," he told the VIP-studded audience on the French Riviera. 
The leading light in the Iranian New Wave cinema movement has vowed to return to Tehran after the Cannes Festival, despite the risks of prosecution. 
When asked on Saturday evening if he was worried about flying home, he replied: "Not at all. Tomorrow we are leaving."
Iran was shaken by the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests in 2022 sparked by after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly flouting dress rules for women.
The demonstrations were quashed in a crackdown that saw thousands detained, according to the United Nations, and hundreds shot dead by security forces, according to activists.

Fairytale

Among the other Cannes awards, Brazil's Wagner Moura -- best known for playing Pablo Escobar in "Narcos" -- picked up the best actor award for his performance in police thriller "The Secret Agent".
Its director, Kleber Mendonca Filho, also won the best director prize, making it a good evening for Brazil.
France's Nadia Melliti continued her fairytale fortnight in Cannes by clinching the gong for best actress.
Melliti, who had never appeared in a film before, plays a 17-year-old Muslim girl struggling with her homosexuality in Hafsia Herzi's "The Little Sister".
The keen football player of Algerian descent was spotted by a casting agent near a shopping mall in central Paris.
"Sentimental Value" by Norway's Joachim Trier, a moving family drama given a 19-minute standing ovation on Thursday, picked up the second prize Grand Prix.

Sabotage

Saturday's closing ceremony was the final act of a drama-filled day in Cannes that saw the glitzy seaside resort suffer a more than five-hour power cut.
The outage knocked out traffic lights and had visitors and locals scrambling for paper money because cash machines were out-of-order and restaurants were unable to process card payments.
Local officials said a suspected arson attack on a substation and vandalism of an electricity pylon had caused the disruption.  
"Who is going to do my hair? There's no electricity, oh my God, I'm like in a panic attack," Mahra Lutfi, Miss Universe UAE, told AFP as she prepared to walk the red carpet. 
German director Mascha Schilinski joked that she had "had difficulty writing her speech" because of the black-out as she accepted a special jury prize for her widely praised "Sound of Falling".

Politics

Panahi has won a host of prizes at European film festivals and showcased his debut film "The White Balloon" in Cannes in 1995 which won an award for best first feature. 
The head of the Cannes 2025 jury, French actress Juliette Binoche, paid tribute to "It Was Just an Accident".
"This is a film that emerges from a place of resistance, a place of survival, and it felt essential to bring it put it on top today," she told reporters afterwards.
Iran's state IRNA news agency hailed Panahi's award, which is the second for an Iranian director.
"The world's largest film festival made history for Iranian cinema," it report, recalling the first win in 1997 by Abbas Kiarostami, who was also banned and jailed.
Panahi has always refused to stop making films and his efforts to smuggle them out to foreign distributors and film festivals has become the stuff of legend.
A year after being handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking in 2010 he dispatched a documentary with the cheeky title "This is Not a Film" to the Cannes Festival on a flash drive stashed in a cake.
"I'm alive as long as I'm making films. If I'm not making films, then what happens to me no longer matters," he told AFP this week. 
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US

'Palme d'Or whisperer': US distributor Neon picks Cannes winner again

  • The company was founded by Tom Quinn who spent decades working in indie films with producers including Harvey Weinstein before deciding to branch out on his own.  adp/ah/jj
  • An independent movie distributor founded eight years ago has picked the winning film at the Cannes film festival for a stunning sixth consecutive time.
  • The company was founded by Tom Quinn who spent decades working in indie films with producers including Harvey Weinstein before deciding to branch out on his own.  adp/ah/jj
An independent movie distributor founded eight years ago has picked the winning film at the Cannes film festival for a stunning sixth consecutive time.
Neon, a New York-based movie outfit, has been dubbed "the Palme d'Or whisperer" for its extraordinary track record.
After "Parasite", "Titane", "Triangle of Sadness", "Anatomy of a Fall" and last year's winner "Anora", it struck gold again on Saturday by buying the US rights for Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident".
Neon locked up the Iranian director's latest feature before Saturday night's awards ceremony in a deal on the French Riviera. 
"The Dream Team," the company wrote on X, listing its six previous hits.
Neon purchases -- and more recently, has produced -- movies that it then distributes to theatres, as well as running marketing and awards campaigns for the films.
It also picked up the North American rights to "Sentimental Value" by Norway's Joachim Trier, which won the second prize Grand Prix on Saturday.
The winner of a special jury prize, rave-themed road trip movie "Sirat", will also be released by Neon. 
The company was founded by Tom Quinn who spent decades working in indie films with producers including Harvey Weinstein before deciding to branch out on his own. 
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film

Cannes best actress Melliti is football player spotted in street

BY ALICE HACKMAN AND JULIETTE RABAT

  • "I've never done any theatre or cinema," Melliti told AFP during the festival.
  • Nadia Melliti, who won best actress at the Cannes Festival Saturday for her first-ever role in a film, is a French student and amateur football player who was spotted in the street.
  • "I've never done any theatre or cinema," Melliti told AFP during the festival.
Nadia Melliti, who won best actress at the Cannes Festival Saturday for her first-ever role in a film, is a French student and amateur football player who was spotted in the street.
Melliti beat Hollywood stars Jennifer Lawrence and Elle Fanning to the award, with many critics also lauding Japanese child revelation Yui Suzuki in "Renoir".
Before walking the red carpet for the premiere of Hafsia Herzi's "The Little Sister", the 23-year-old was preparing for exams.
In the coming-of-age tale, she plays 17-year-old Fatima, a Muslim girl in Paris struggling with her identity and religion as she explores her homosexuality.
"I've never done any theatre or cinema," Melliti told AFP during the festival.
But she said she immediately empathised with the character when she read the script, based on a partly autobiographical novel of the same name by French writer Fatima Daas.
"I identified hugely with Fatima, her surroundings and origins. My mother hails from an immigrant background," she said. "My roots are Algerian. I also have sisters."
The role required her to show a wide emotional range, from scenes involving homophobia in a rough Paris school to intimate family conversations and sex with a variety of partners. 
Melliti said she specifically related to the film's theme of "emancipation".
"When I was younger I wanted to play football. I still do today," said the actor. "I wanted to take up the sport, one people say is masculine and in which men are overrepresented.
"And when I took that home, there was this emancipation -- even if for Fatima it was different, more linked to her intellect and sexuality," she added.
She is seen showing off her skills, repeatedly heading a football, in the final shots of Herzi's third film as a director.

'I hope you are very proud'

Melliti said she couldn't believe her luck when she was spotted by a casting agent near a large shopping mall in central Paris.
"I was walking in the street and (she) called out to me," she said. 
At first "I thought she was a tourist and I wondered if my English would be up to scratch."
Marseille-born Herzi, 38, also has no formal acting training and was the revelation of French director Abdellatif Kechiche's 2007 hit "The Secret of the Grain".
She sobbed openly as an emotional Melliti accepted the prize and spoke confidently to the Cannes audience, which included some of world's biggest movie figures.
"I have such a feeling gushing through me right now," Melliti said. "I can't describe it but it's really incredible." 
"Thank you Mum. I know you're watching and I hope you are very proud and happy," she added.
"The Little Sister" also won the unofficial Queer Palm on Friday for films that spotlight LGBTQ themes. 
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