Leading female actresses and directors from around the globe joined Variety’s Nick Vivarelli at this year’s Variety Global Conversations Summit in Cannes to talk about how they got started in the industry, what inspires them, and some of the ground-breaking roles they’ve done.
Salma Abu-Deif, also known as “El-Asliyyin,” an Egyptian actor, talked about her most recent role in the television series “Highest Viewing Rate,” which is based on the actual tale of a poor girl who develops an obsession with TikTok and uses the app to escape her everyday existence.
Abu-Deif claims that some typically strict Arab parents who saw the show were changed and were able to better comprehend some of the problems their children were facing. Since culture is ultimately only an idea, I think it’s great that I heard Arab parents acknowledge that sometimes it’s important to listen to their children, even if it goes against how they were raised or what they believe culture should be.”
Ramata Toulaye-Sy, a screenwriter and director, discussed “Banel & Adama,” her feature debut that debuted at Cannes last year. Toulaye-Sy is of Senegalese descent, although having grown up in Paris. She chose Senegal over France to film her debut because of that bond.
However, filming in Senegal alone was insufficient. Toulay-Sy sought to develop a romantic comedy with a rural setting, defying expectations. “I think it’s important to uplift African cinema because I believe in African cinema,” she said when describing her motive. I didn’t want to make a cliched, realistic film about oppression, migration, or terrorism.
The recent performance she did in “Within Sand,” a film about a girls’ school in Jeddah that caught fire while the students and staff were still inside, was discussed by Saudi actor Adwa Fahad. Girls were prohibited from leaving during the day due to local regulations, and the man in charge of locking and unlocking the doors was out for lunch at the time of the fire.
When asked what effect the movie had, Fahad said, “The main reaction among women, mothers, and young girls was that they felt a bond with the story in the movie because they lived with those restrictions.” In real life, each of them related a similar experience about not being able to leave school without someone opening the door and accompanying them out.
For Aseel Imran (“Wadima and Halima”), acting and singing are complementary aspects of one another. She remembered that an Egyptian play starring Sherihan had given her butterflies in her stomach for the first time as a child, rather than a crush. “I recall finding it to be enchanting.” At the time, I was aware of my career goals.
It was easier said than done; in order to compete in a singing competition and earn a position on a TV show in Dubai, the girl had to counterfeit her father’s signature. Imran was fortunate to have her parents’ support, which allowed her to seize the chance and use her presence on the show to launch a successful career combining acting and singing.
The romantic lead in “Satyaprem Ki Katha,” which portrays the narrative of Katha, a girl who was sexually molested by a boyfriend but repressed the ensuing trauma, is one of Indian actor Kiara Advani’s favourite roles. She is able to face such emotions after being forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn’t know because of her new partner’s support. “There is a lot of social stigma in many countries—I won’t say just India—and the way society views sexual abuse has been suppressed for a long time,” Advani added.
“Many people who have experienced similar situations responded to the film’s release by feeling as though their voices were heard,” the director says. Being a part of something so current and seeing things from a different angle is genuinely a very humbling experience, she continued.
Freen Sarocha Chankimha (“The Sign”), a Thai actor, model, and singer, discussed her part in “Gap: The Series,” one of Thailand’s most well-known television exports that has amassed over 900 million views on YouTube.
She contended, “The series has broken all boundaries in Thailand because normally, Thai film series are only seen in Thailand.” “But it’s something that has never happened in Thailand before to come to Cannes and meet fans from all over the world, from Brazil to Japan to Australia or even in Europe.”
