What It Takes to Be Mister Lebanon

As opportunities shrink in Lebanon, contestants are pouring increasing amounts of time, money and effort into the country’s most famous male beauty pageant, and the possibilities it might unlock

5 Young Arab Designers Who Refuse to Blend In

The emerging cohort of designers transforming raw material into a living temperament

Richard Mille: Ancient Past to Feat of Engineering

Beneath the beauty of a gem-set object lies a story of engineering, where centuries of craftsmanship meet extraordinary technical precision. At Richard Mille, this ancient craft challenges the very limits of what gem-setting can achieve

HinDidi: When Bollywood Invited Algeria to Dance 

In the aftermath of independence, Bollywood offered Algeria something revolution could not: the freedom to dream, to love, and to imagine a life beyond struggle. Decades later, one Indian film, Janitou, remains a tender relic of a future that never quite arrived

Salam, El Mehdi!

Pop star, filmmaker and now leading man, El Mehdi talks gatekeeping, going home and the peace that comes with choosing yourself

Eurovision, Samira Said, and Morocco’s Unreceived Love Letter

Revisiting Morocco’s choice to perform at Eurovision in 1980, the first and last Arab country to do so, reveals a complex web of forces at play in our history, and a legacy that stands in evidence of a confused national identity, much less healed from colonial violation than it purports to be

Aestheticised Violence and The Spectacle of Political Slop

How a war became content, and why the exhaustion is the point

This Film Festival is Taking SWANA Cinema from Beirut to Rome for Its Second Edition

Half film festival, half fundraiser, Here & Elsewhere returns for its second year in Beirut and Rome with a programme built around memory