“Costa Brava, Lebanon” stars Saleh Bakri and Nadine Labaki. Iranian director Panah Panahi’s drama, which showed at the Cannes Film Festival, is all about the journey. It follows a chaotic family-of-four that goes on a road trip in a borrowed car. (AN_Photo)ĭUBAI: The BFI London Film Festival unveiled its winners for the 2021 edition on Sunday, and two regional films made the cut -“Hit the Road” and “Costa Brava, Lebanon.” The tourist destination consists of seven themed rooms and includes over 60 lifelike wax figures.Ĭhinese President Xi Jinping at Madame Tussauds Dubai. "There is a sitting involved with the talent, where they come and we do around 500 measurements, including head to toe," Kollsrud said. They even insert real hair strands, which can cost $190,605. She added that a team of 20 artists completes one wax figure within four to seven months. To keep the figures clean and protected, a team of artists works daily to make sure the statues are in perfect shape, the general manager said. “It took about 18 months to put together a figure list, during which we looked at the popularity of the celebrities regionally and globally, especially within the UAE,” she said. When asked how the museum chooses the figures it wants to display, Kollsrud said there is a lot of research behind figure selection, including customer research. The general manager said the museum is also located near a major attraction in the city, Ain Dubai, and is surrounded by a variety of retail and dining options.ĭonald and Melania Trump at Madame Tussauds Dubai. I’m sure that the brand will look at opportunities to expand at a later stage,” Kollsrud said.ĭubai has been a perfect choice for the Middle East branch, as it is a global tourist destination. “At the moment, Madame Tussauds has 25 wax attractions around the world, including the US, Europe, and Asia. These include talents from the music industry - such as Lebanese singers Nancy Ajram and Maya Diab - and athletes that were made exclusively for the branch in Dubai. The famous attraction has a total of 16 figures from the Middle East region. The museum opened its 25th wax attraction in the city on Oct.14, making it the brand’s first branch in the Middle East. So, we will always be updating the figures and enhancing the products,” Sanaz Kollsrud, general manager of Madame Tussauds Dubai, told Arab News. “We listen to our customers we listen to their feedback. Some episodes simply graft the Star Wars universe onto more traditional-feeling anime stories, while tales such as “The Ninth Jedi” immerse themselves in the lore with great affection and respect.ĭUBAI: Additional Middle East personalities could join the list of famous Arab figures on display at Madame Tussauds Dubai. Tonally, there are some massive shifts - from the playful “Tatooine Rhapsody” and Pinocchio-esque “T0-B1” to the surprisingly bleak series-closer “Akakiri” - and some stories land more succinctly than others. Indeed, it seems that each studio was simply told to have fun with the universe Lucas dreamed up more than 40 years ago, and that freedom certainly shows. That also means that each episode is allowed to have its own distinct style and feel, with no overarching plot or season-long narrative.
Aside from a brief cameo by bounty hunter Boba Fett (voiced by returning star Temuera Morrison), none of the major characters from the franchise’s films or TV shows appear, granting each of the writing and animation teams an opportunity to come up with an entirely new adventure.Įach of the nine episodes tells a short, standalone story set in the “Star Wars” universe.
So there’s a pleasing symmetry to the idea that the latest “Star Wars” series to hit Disney+ is an anthology of short stories produced by seven Japanese animation studios.Įach of the nine episodes tells a short, standalone story set in the “Star Wars” universe. LONDON: George Lucas has never hidden the fact that his original idea for “Star Wars” owed much to Japanese samurai culture, and the films of famed director Akira Kurosawa.