AFP Asia Business

It took Egyptian actor Mona Zaki more than a year’s preparation to take on the hardest role of her career — the iconic singer Umm Kulthum, a legend in the Arab world.Marwan Hamed’s “El Sett” (“The Lady”) premiered this week at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where Zaki told AFP about the daunting task she faced.”I was very scared at the beginning,” she said. “I didn’t know where to start.”Zaki is one of Egypt’s more recognisable actors but her fears were not unfounded.Half a century after her death, Umm Kulthum remains a towering cultural figure across the region, distinguished by her unmistakable voice, marathon-length performances, and signature scarf and sunglasses.So telling the story of a woman in a small Nile Delta village in 1898 who grew up to enrapture millions of listeners proved difficult for Zaki.The 49-year-old actor said she spent 15 months studying the singer’s physicality, posture and vocal timbre, even though she does not sing in her own voice in the film.- ‘Alive among us’ -The film does not open in Egypt but in Paris, where Umm Kulthum took to the stage in 1967 before a sold-out, frenzied Olympia.She begins “Enta Omri”, her most celebrated ballad, as a euphoric fan rushes towards her and collapses before her feet.The singer donated profits from that show to the Egyptian army for its war against Israel, which was then occupying the Sinai Peninsula.The movie then rewinds to her childhood in the Nile Delta, where her imam father would disguise her as a boy to perform religious chants in public.Her father recognised her talent early on, but still feared the ire of an early 20th-century conservative society.”There’s something unbelievable about her journey,” said director Hamed, who like many Arabs grew up mesmerised by Umm Kulthum’s singing.”She has all the elements of a unique story.”Hamed told AFP the singer remains “quite alive among us” half a century after her death.”Not only because of her voice, but also because of what her voice carried for the people,” he said.- Power, vulnerability -Listeners beyond the Arab world have also been mesmerised by Umm Kulthum, with Bob Dylan once calling her “one of my favourite singers of all time”.Her music revolutionised Arabic music, blending classical poetry with grand orchestral arrangements.But her hours-long live performances further set her apart from her peers.”When you watch her on stage, you see a lot of power, but actually behind that was a lot of vulnerability,” Hamed said.”The struggles and the obstacles that she had to go through, her power and her strength were really phenomenal.”After her covert performances in her Egyptian village, Umm Kulthum moved to Cairo in the 1920s and within a decade she rose to fame beyond Egypt.”She is the voice of the Arab people and embodies hope, strength, and resistance,” said Zaki.Hamed lauded Umm Kulthum for forcing “her choices on the audience, whether in Egypt, the Arab world, or beyond”.He said the film would be a celebration of “her legacy and how she created that legacy” for decades beyond her life.”Her journey of transformation is not a simple journey,” he said.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli forces killed a man in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday.”Bahaa Abdel-Rahman Rashid (38 years old) was killed by Israeli fire in the town of Odala, south of Nablus,” the health ministry said in a statement.Shortly before, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled the case of a man “who suffered a critical head injury during clashes in the town of Odala near Nablus, and CPR is currently being performed on him”.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said soldiers operating in the Odala area opened fire and hit one person after “a violent confrontation occurred in which terrorists hurled rocks” in the troops’ direction.Witness and Odala resident Muhammad al-Kharouf told AFP that Israeli troops were patrolling in Odala and threw tear gas canisters at men who were exiting the local mosque for Friday prayer.Rashid was killed by live fire in the clashes that followed, added Kharouf, who had been inside the mosque with him.The Israeli military said Friday it had completed a two-week counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank during which it killed six militants, and questioned dozens of suspects.It told AFP that Rashid was not among the six militants killed over the past two weeks.Dozens of men including Rashid’s father gathered at the nearby city of Nablus’ Rafidia hospital to bid him goodbye on Friday, an AFP journalist reported.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence in the territory has soared since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.It has not ceased despite the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October.Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, many of them militants, but also scores of civilians, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.At least 44 Israelis, including both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday told a United Nations Security Council delegation his country does not want war with Israel, days after civilian representatives from both sides held their first talks in decades.Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, whose militant group refuses to disarm, on Friday backed Lebanon’s pursuit of diplomacy but called the inclusion of a civilian representative in talks with Israel a “misstep”.During Aoun’s meeting with UN Security Council ambassadors, the president said the Lebanese “do not want war again, the Lebanese people have suffered enough and there will be no going back”, according to a presidency statement.Aoun called on the envoys to support the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm non-state groups. The army expects to complete the first phase of its government-approved plan by the end of the year.”The Lebanese army will play its full role… The international community must support and assist it,” Aoun said.He added there was “no going back” on the decision, “even if it requires some time, because the Lebanese are tired of military confrontations”.Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.- ‘Under fire’ -On Wednesday, civilian representatives from Lebanon and Israel joined the meetings of a committee tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, a move Aoun has said was to avoid a second war on Lebanon.In a televised address, Hezbollah chief Qassem said his group supports the state’s decision to choose “diplomacy to end the aggression and implement” the ceasefire, but he strongly criticised the inclusion of a civilian representative.”We consider this measure an additional misstep on top of the sin” of the government’s decision in August to task the army with disarming Hezbollah, he said.”This concession will not change the enemy’s position, nor its aggression or occupation,” he added, urging authorities to reconsider.Aoun emphasised Friday “the need to pressure the Israeli side to implement the ceasefire and withdraw, and expressed his hope for pressure from the delegation”.He said that any outcome from these talks “depends primarily on Israel’s position, upon which the negotiations will either reach practical results or fail”.The committee will hold a new round of talks, with the civilian representatives included, starting December 19.- ‘Clear violations’ -The UN delegation visited Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday and met with Lebanese officials on Friday. It is due to inspect the border area in southern Lebanon the following day, accompanied by US envoy Morgan Ortagus.After meeting with the delegation, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, stressed that “negotiating under fire is unacceptable”.”Stability in the south requires Israel’s adherence to UN Resolution 1701 and the ceasefire agreement by halting its daily violations and withdrawing behind the international border,” he added, referring to a UN resolution that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.On Thursday, Israel struck four southern Lebanese towns, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure including weapons depots to stop the group from rearming.UN peacekeepers called the strikes “clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701”.The peacekeepers also said their vehicles were fired on by six men on three mopeds near Bint Jbeil on Thursday. There were no injuries in the incident.Hezbollah refuses to disarm but has not been responding to Israeli attacks. It has, however, promised a response to the killing of its military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.