Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Speed Sisters Movie

A portrait of Palestine's first all-female motor racing team, and their lives under Israeli occupation

In the unlikely event that the Palestinian people make it on to Western TV screens, it’s almost always as victims: refugees, murdered protestors, statistics in the wake of a bombing campaign. Which only makes a doc like ‘Speed Sisters’ all the more important: here’s proof that, even under occupation, life goes on for thousands of ordinary people. Not that the five women profiled here are anything like ordinary: they are the West Bank’s only all-female car racing team, tackling religious prejudice and the weight of gender expectation by driving very fast and not giving a damn what anyone thinks.

Arabica Bar & Kitchen, London

One of London's new-wave Middle Eastern-inspired cafés but with leather banquettes, cocktails and an unhurried restaurant experience; great meze.

With its fashionable buzz and lively energy, there’s no other Levantine restaurant in London quite like Arabica. The setting at this enclave of proper Middle Eastern cooking in Borough Market is neither ‘Arabian Nights’ theme park nor brightly lit marble palace. The room has lots of bare brick and steel – it’s a Victorian arch, after all – but the lighting’s low and atmospheric.