Culture

Salman Rushdie’s attacker to be sentenced this Friday

This is Beirut 16/05 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Salman Rushdie Writer Iran Culture Art Justice

Hadi Matar will be sentenced on Friday for trying to kill novelist Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack at a New York cultural center. Hadi Matar, 27, faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder and assault charges in February this year. During the trial, Rushdie told jurors about Matar "stabbing and slashing" him ...

New Cannes Festival Policy Bans Actor Accused of Rape

This is Beirut 15/05 18:15 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cannes 2025 Film Celebrity Women Agresssion Culture

The Cannes film festival barred an actor in a prominent French film from the red carpet on Thursday because of sexual assault allegations, unveiling a new policy under pressure from lawmakers and activists. Theo Navarro-Mussy plays a police officer in a supporting role in the film Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll, which is to premiere on Thursday in ...

12 Points to Politics: The Eurovision Score You Don’t See

This is Beirut 15/05 16:25 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Eurovision Votes Politics Music

Groans and giggles typically greet votes at the annual Eurovision Song Contest, loved and mocked for its kitsch music and seemingly partisan outcomes. But over time, what are the voting patterns, and what external factors help explain them? Ahead of Saturday's final in Basel, AFP analyzed all points distributed among around 2,300 possible pairs ...

Eurovision 2025: Spotlight on the Second Semifinal’s 16 Competitors

This is Beirut 15/05 14:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Eurovision 2025 Music Semi-Final 2 Switzerland Culture

Sixteen countries are competing in the Eurovision Song Contest's second semifinal on Thursday, with viewers deciding which 10 go through to the grand final. Saturday's showpiece event takes place at the St Jakobshalle in the Swiss city of Basel. Ten countries have already qualified from Tuesday's first semifinal. The so-called ...

Tom Cruise’s Death-Defying ‘Mission’ Lights Up Cannes

This is Beirut 15/05 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Tom Cruise Cannes Cannes Film Festival France Culture Cinema

Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning made its big grandstand premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, with the first reviews saying it more than lives up to its steamroller hype. "What a rush!" The Guardian declared in its five-star love letter to Cruise's $400-million behemoth, calling him a modern "superhuman action ...

Top chef Georgiana Viou: blending cuisine across continents

This is Beirut 14/05 19:25 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Benin Food Michelin Bistronomy France Culture Georgiana Viou

Georgiana Viou calls herself a "UFO", championing free and daring cuisine straddling two continents, from Cotonou's lively street markets to the kitchens of her Michelin-starred restaurant in Nimes, southern France. In the alleys of the historic Saint-Michel market in Benin's bustling economic capital, unchanged since her childhood, Viou goes ...

Explainer‘To Exist Is to Be Different:’ Creativity as Self-Affirmation

David Sahyoun 14/05 18:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Psychoanalysis Exist Creativity Self-Affirmation Culture

For philosopher Jean Baudrillard, consumption is far more than an economic act – it is a system of communication and social control. We don’t consume merely to meet our needs; we consume to be like others, to belong to the collective. Behind the apparent abundance of choice hides an insidious conformity: you need to have this object to be ...

Ehdeniyat 2025: A 21st Edition of Musical Summits and Shared Emotions

This is Beirut 14/05 15:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Lebanon North Ehden Culture Music

Ehdeniyat International Festival will celebrate its 21st edition in July, showcasing a diverse lineup of Lebanese and Arab artists through six captivating concerts from July 17 to August 3. The program includes Guy Manoukian, Abeer Nehme, Adam, Kadim El Sahir, Al Shami and Dancing Moon III, offering a varied musical experience blending magic, ...

Tom Cruise Has World Guessing as He Unleashes 'Mission: Impossible' at Cannes

This is Beirut 14/05 15:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cannes 2025 Entertainment Tom Cruise Star Film Culture

Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning powers into the Cannes film festival for its premiere on Wednesday on a steamroller of hype, with the world asking if this will be the final curtain for agent Ethan Hunt. With some fans fretting that the $400-million epic - the eighth in the high-octane franchise - could be the last, Cruise ...

Cannes 2025 Opens with Tribute, Emotion, and a Call for Reflection

Madeleine Cadoux 14/05 09:45 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Cannes Film Festival France Cinema Culture Stars Cannes

From the very first minutes of the evening, the tone was clear: Cannes celebrates cinema and challenges its history, its myths, and its responsibilities. Honorary Palme d’Or to Robert De Niro One of the night’s most unforgettable moments came when Leonardo DiCaprio, 50, presented the honorary Palme d’Or to 81-year-old Robert De Niro, a ...

Chronicle'Hors-Saison' by Stéphane Brizé: A Man, a Woman, One Last Conversation

Bélinda Ibrahim 13/05 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Out of Season Hors-Saison Film Guillaume Canet Chronicle

There is a rare elegance in Hors Saison—the kind found in stories that don’t try to put on a show. Stéphane Brizé captures a pause in two lives, a moment of respite between two diverging paths, a space where words can finally be said. He captures a man worn out, a woman incomplete and what they manage to say, or not say, when it seems like ...

Videos'Anything Goes Bel Arabi:' A Broadway Classic with an Arab Twist

Rayan Chami 13/05 17:05 - Reading : less than a minute

Anything Goes Carole Samaha

Broadway meets Beirut under the lights of Casino du Liban. “Anything Goes Bel Arabi” brings comedy, romance and chaos to the stage in a dazzling Arabic adaptation. Directed by Roy El Khouri and starring Carole Samaha—with a stellar cast, a live orchestra and over 20 dancers—it’s musical theater magic like you’ve never seen before.