In Olivier Assayas’ two-hour feature film, Clouds of Sils Maria, which opens in Toronto on April 10, the alluring Juliette Binoche plays the role of Maria Enders, a successful French actress in her late 40s who’s torn by doubts about her acting abilities. Tired and preoccupied with divorce proceedings, she looks old and frumpy when the […]
Having harshly criticized the nuclear framework agreement signed by Iran and the six major powers in Switzerland on April 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a campaign to ensure that the final accord, due to be signed on June 30, will be substantially strengthened by iron-clad guarantees and safeguards. Netanyahu’s fears are understandable. […]
On April 2, gunmen from the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab attacked Garrisa University College in Garissa, Kenya, killing some 150 students. They warned that new attacks would be coming, and that Kenyan cities “will run red with blood.” The alleged mastermind of the terrorist attack is a Kenyan national, Mohamed Mohamud aka Dulyadeyn, believed to […]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that the framework nuclear agreement signed by the six major powers and Iran in Lausanne on April 2, following eight days of gruelling talks, exceeds his worst fears and threatens Israel’s survival. What he fails to mention is that it will probably save the Middle East from another war. […]
How did Holocaust survivors manage to cope after their horrific ordeal in Auschwitz? Could they lead productive lives ever again? Could they shake off their traumas? Could they function as normal human beings? Touched by Auschwitz, an empathetic BBC documentary written and directed by Laurence Rees and scheduled to be broadcast by Vision TV in […]
Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado has travelled the world documenting the folly and diversity of mankind and the allure of nature. Salgado’s son, Juliano, has made a poignant documentary about him. The Salt of the Earth, which opens in Canada on April 10, is alternatively majestic and depressing. Salgado’s black and white photographs are sharp and graphic, […]
For the first time in decades, Arab states have agreed in principle to create a pan-Arab fighting force, but one must wonder whether it will ever become operational, given the conflicting objectives of its primary sponsors, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Lest it be forgotten, previous Arab military forces have crumbled into dust. The proposal to […]
Aribert Ferdinand Heim had the dubious distinction of being the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminal. Once a member of Austria’s national hockey team, he was a Waffen-SS physician in the Mauthausen concentration camp — where 122,000 inmates perished — and then a fugitive from justice. In the Nazi hierarchy, he was really a very minor figure, […]
It seems that after years, indeed decades, of vacillation, Saudi Arabia has finally decided to challenge its rival, Iran, if only via a proxy war in Yemen. The rebel Houthi Zaidis, who have taken control of much of the country, belong to a Shia school of Islamic thought distinct from the beliefs held by Shi’ites […]
The shaky relationship between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu has grown progressively worse in the past three weeks due to Netanyahu’s hardline policies and cynical electioneering tactics and Obama’s cold calculation that he can politically afford to say and do what what he pleases in the homestretch of his presidency. And because both sides are convinced […]