‘Star Wars: Tales of the Empire’ revisits under-explored characters from the Dark Side
‘Star Wars: Tales of the Empire’ revisits under-explored characters from the Dark Side/node/2507291/lifestyle
‘Star Wars: Tales of the Empire’ revisits under-explored characters from the Dark Side
The second anthology of the “Star Wars” animated shorts “Star Wars: Tales of the Empire” — following the 2022 collection “Tales of the Jedi” — offers a look behind the curtain at two powerful but under-explored characters from the franchise, Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee. (Disney Plus)
‘Star Wars: Tales of the Empire’ revisits under-explored characters from the Dark Side
Focus on characters Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee
Second anthology of the ‘Star Wars’ animated shorts
Updated 09 May 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar
DUBAI: The second anthology of the “Star Wars” animated shorts “Star Wars: Tales of the Empire” — following the 2022 collection “Tales of the Jedi” — offers a look behind the curtain at two powerful but under-explored characters from the franchise, Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee.
The first three episodes of the six-parter go back in time to explore how Nightsister Elsbeth was initially drawn to the Empire. Fans of “Star Wars” will be familiar with the character after her live-action appearances in “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka.”
Now, with “Tales of the Empire,” Elsbeth makes her animation debut. Diana Lee Inosanto, who plays Elsbeth in both live-action and animation, said she did not feel there was much difference between the two mediums.
In the recording booth, Inosanto — a trained martial artist and godchild to the late Bruce Lee — moved her body to match the action of the scene.
“In my acting approach, I don’t see any difference between being on the set and being in the recording studio, other than the fact that I had to kind of create my own little bubble in being in this space. I still physically do the same preparation and work and the breathing,” said Inosanto in a recent interview with Arab News.
“But yeah, when I first initially read the script for ‘Tales of the Empire,’ I went: ‘Oh my gosh, finally, I understand her,’ because all of those little details were now filled in for me as well. So, I hope the same happens for all the fans. I really think fans are really going to understand now why Morgan was shaped the way she was mentally, why she was wired the way she was, and that she was really coming from a place of being a survivor all her life.”
Meanwhile, the last three episodes of “Tales of the Empire” reveal what becomes of Barriss Offee after Order 66 toward the end of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series. A Jedi prodigy, Offee’s character was forever branded a traitor after she turned her back on her kind by bombing the Jedi Temple and framing her friend Ahsoka Tano for it.
Actress Meredith Salenger, who has been waiting for more than a decade to find out what happens to Offee, said to Arab News about her character: “Barriss at the very beginning of ‘Tales of the Empire,’ she is in jail. She has recently been jailed by the Republic. And I think she is particularly conflicted, because she can see what’s happening to the rest of the Jedi. I think she knows when the Jedi Temple explodes and all of these things. She knows it’s gone perhaps too far.”
“And when she’s approached by the Fourth Sister, who is an Inquisitor, it’s sort of like: ‘This is not what I thought my journey would be. I don’t know if I should go along with this. But I also know it’s the only way I’m going to survive.’ There’s a fear that anyone at any time can be killed. I think she’s curious as to what the next step is going to be for her.”
DUBAI: With Eid Al-Fitr on the horizon, you may be planning to host friends and family to mark the festivities.
Nahel Selo, creative director at Sedar Global, shares his décor tips.
Tip 1: Make a good first impression
Spruce up your entrance to set the mood. Start with a prop style chair or bench with festive cushions and add a console table with a metal tray loaded with dates. Adding a diffuser or incense burner and floor lanterns will create a festive atmosphere.
Tip 2: Ramadan tents and majlis-style seating
You can craft a simple tepee in your garden using sheer or linen curtains or, if budget allows, add a pergola or awning installation. Create communal areas using low seating arrangements such as ottomans or poufs teamed with floor cushions laid over a rug.
Tip 3: Add Arabesque touches
Options include temporary décor such as Arabic calligraphy-inspired style brass accessories, mirrored objects or even geometric print fabrics.
Mix up interiors with traditional flashes of gold or brass contrasted with trending palettes of turquoise, royal blues or dusky pinks. Selo commented: “Adding metallics, specifically gold and brass, is not only a nod to tradition but also essential to create a festive mood. For 2025 worn brass and golds give an earthy and contemporary finish.”
Tip 4: Creative tablescapes
Take your Eid Al-Fitr meal to the next level by sprucing up the dining table with creative tablescaping. From incorporating metallic, intricate arabesque or lunar pattern accents through cutlery, napkin rings and dinnerware sets, to jute placements, table runners, mini lanterns and dry or fresh florals, thoughtful accents can transform your table.
“Atmospheric lighting is key,” Selo added. “Battery-operated fairy lights, tall lanterns and tea lights … are a cost-effective décor touch to set the mood.”
Lyna Khoudri spotted at TV series festival in Lille
Updated 23 March 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: French Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri made an appearance at Series Mania 2025 this weekend in Lille, France.
Also known as the International TV Series Festival, Khoudri and her castmates were on hand to promote Apple TV+ show “Careme.”
“An ambitious, young chef uses his seductive charm to work as a spy so he can save his father — and make his name,” the official logline of the period drama reads. The series is set to land on Apple TV+ on April 30.
It is a biographical series about Antonin Careme, who rose from humble beginnings to become known as the world's first celebrity chef during the Napoleonic era. Careme is played by Cesar Award-winner Benjamin Voisin, who is joined by Cesar Award-winner Khoudri, César Award nominee Jérémie Renier (“My Way,” “Saint Laurent”),”) and Alice Da Luz (“Hanami,” “And the Party Goes On”).
The Cesar Awards are France’s reply to Hollywood’s Academy Awards.
“Careme” is directed by filmmaker Martin Bourboulon, who also directed Khoudri in Afghanistan evacuation drama “13 Days, 13 Nights,”
The drama, the full title of which is “In The Hell Of Kabul: 13 Days, 13 Nights,” stars Khoudri alongside Danish BAFTA-winning “Borgen” star Sidse Babett Knudsen, Roschdy Zem (“Chocolat,” “Oh Mercy!”), and theater actor Christophe Montenez.
Set against US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, as the Taliban marches on Kabul, the film recounts the true story of French Commander Mohamed Bida who oversaw security at the French embassy, which was the last Western mission to remain open.
The film marks a change for Bourboulon after period dramas “The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady,” “The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan” and “Eiffel.”
Khoudri, 32, first rose to prominence in her role as Nedjma in Mounia Meddour’s critically acclaimed drama “Papicha.” For her work in the film, she won the Orizzonti Award for best actress at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and she was nominated in the Cesar Awards’ most promising actress category.
Khoudri also starred in the 2019 mini-series “Les Sauvages” and in 2016’s “Blood on the Docks.”
Notably, she was cast in Wes Anderson’s 2021 comedy “The French Dispatch” alongside Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Owen Wilson.
DUBAI: Actress and activist Jameela Jamil is set to lend her voice to the Pixar animated film, “Elio.”
Jamil will be voicing the character of Ambassador Questa.
The news broke when Jamil took to her Instagram story this week to share her enthusiasm about the project. Posting the official poster for the film, she captioned it: “It happening.” In a follow-up story, she pointed at the animated character and wrote: “It’s me.”
Instagram/ @JameelaJamil
Besides the poster, Pixar also released the trailer this week.
“Elio,” set to be released on June 20, follows an 11-year-old boy named Elio, who accidentally becomes the ambassador for Earth after being transported across the galaxy.
The movie also features the voices of Yonas Kibreab as Elio, Remy Edgerly as his alien best friend Glordon, Academy Award winner Zoe Saldana as Elio’s Aunt Olga, Brad Garrett as Lord Grigon, and Shirley Henderson as OOOOO.
Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, the film is produced by Mary Alice Drumm.
Instagram/ @JameelaJamil
Jamil is known for her breakthrough role as Tahani Al-Jamil on NBC’s “The Good Place” and her advocacy work around body positivity and social justice.
Jamil is also starring in “Hysterical” — a new feminist dramedy from Olivia Lee semi-inspired by controversial figure Andrew Tate.
The show stars Naomie Harris and Romesh Ranganathan. Harris plays Leonora, a therapist who spirals into a world of toxic masculinity after her daughter is assaulted.
She learns the boy responsible is a fan of Tommy T, an influencer known for spreading harmful advice among young men. During a weekly “rage release” session with friends, Leonora, fueled by anger and alcohol, convinces the group to act and bring him down.
The plot is inspired by events surrounding Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer with more than 10 million followers who once stated that women should “bear responsibility” for sexual assault.
“UMMMM A comedy series about female rage? Sign me up!” Jamil, who is British Pakistani, wrote on Instagram in October when the show was announced.
“Hysterical” is being produced by Ranganathan’s company, Ranga Bee Productions. Ranganathan and Lee executive produce the show alongside Michelle Farr and Benjamin Green. It has not yet been announced when it will be televised.
Saudi Arabia to debut at Triennale Milano’s International Exhibition with Al-Ahsa pavilion
Updated 21 March 2025
Arab News
DAMMAM: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture has announced the Kingdom’s inaugural participation at the 24th International Exhibition at the Triennale Milano design museum in Italy later this year, with a pavilion dedicated to the agricultural oasis of Al-Ahsa.
Curated by Lulu Almana and Sara Al-Omran, with Alejandro Stein as creative director, the exhibition is hosted by the Architecture and Design Commission and will be titled “Maghras: A Farm for Experimentation.” It will run from May 13 - Nov. 9.
It will explore the intersection of farming traditions, ecological shifts and cultural memory within a rapidly transforming landscape. The exhibition draws from research, artistic interventions and community-driven programs cultivated at Maghras, a farm and interdisciplinary space in Al-Ahsa.
Al-Ahsa, located in the Eastern Province, has been historically defined by its abundant water sources. It has undergone significant environmental and social transformations, mirroring broader changes in agrarian communities worldwide. The area has been farmed since the third millennium BCE.
The pavilion takes the form of a transplanted maghras — a traditional unit of land defined by four palm trees. Through videos, sound installations and participatory programs, the exhibition invites audiences to engage with Al-Ahsa’s evolving agricultural ecosystems.
In the lead-up to the exhibition, artists, architects, and researchers collaborated with Al-Ahsa’s farming communities, gathering firsthand insights into the region’s shifting landscape. This knowledge exchange was further explored through performances, film screenings and local workshops examining the deep connections between culture and agriculture.
Muhannad Shono: ‘This work is fragile. It is not here forever’
The Saudi artist is the sole representative from the Middle East at this year’s Desert X in California
Updated 22 March 2025
Jasmine Bager
RIYADH: Saudi contemporary artist Muhannad Shono is the sole representative of the Middle East at this year’s Desert X — the site-specific international art exhibition in California’s Coachella Valley — which runs until May 11.
Shono’s piece, entitled “What Remains,” consists of 60 long strips of locally-sourced synthetic fabric infused with native sand.
“The fabric strips, orientated to align with the prevailing winds, follow the contours of the ground, fibrillating just above its surface,” a description of the work on the Desert X website reads. “As the wind direction shifts, the natural process of aeolian transportation that forms dunes is interrupted, causing the fabric to tangle and form chaotic bundles. In this way, the ground itself becomes mutable — a restlessly changing relic or memory.”
Desert X 2025 installation view of Muhannad Shono, What Remains. (Photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X)
This isn’t the first time Shono has created a large-scale installation in the desert. At Desert X AlUla in 2020, he presented “The Lost Path,” composed of 65,000 black plastic tubes snaking through the Saudi desert — a work exploring themes of transformation, memory and impermanence. And while “What Remains” is an entirely separate piece of art, it also delves into those topics, as has much of Shono’s work over the past decade.
“I’m first-generation Saudi,” Shono tells Arab News. “A year after I was born, I was given the nationality. For half of my life, I didn’t feel Saudi. I’d say Saudi was an authentic space that had specific motifs and cultural narratives that we were very disconnected from as a family. Why? Because we’re immigrants; my father is not Saudi, and my mom is not Saudi.
“But now I think the narrative of what is ‘Saudi’ is changing,” he continues. “And it feels like it’s part of this correction.”
Desert X 2025 installation view of Muhannad Shono, What Remains. (Photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X)
A feeling of not belonging was apparent in Shono’s early artistic endeavors. He loved comic books and wanted to create his own because he couldn’t find a true representation of himself in them.
“Saudis expect you to produce a figure they can relate to — with Saudi features or skin color — but I didn’t think they could relate to me,” he says. “I was more referencing myself, and what I thought ‘home’ looked like, or the ‘hero’ looked like, so there was a disconnect there.”
That disconnect continues to manifest in his work. “You can see it in Desert X and in a lot of my other projects tapping into materiality. I realized I couldn’t really fully connect with the materiality of the narrative of being Saudi.
“An interesting psychological thing that I haven’t really come to grips with is that I’m more comfortable doing work in Saudi because I’m responding to this natural source material,” he continues. “I’m disrupting — I’m offering divergence, narratives that can spill out from that experience of the work. I’m invested in the narrative of what’s happening (in Saudi). I think it’s the closest I’ve felt to being ‘at home.’ Something that I was missing in the beginning was being connected to the narrative of the place, because if you engage with that narrative, you can call it home.
Desert X 2025 installation view of Muhannad Shono, What Remains. (Photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X)
“When I go to California, I miss the landscape (of Saudi) that I’m contrasting. In California, it’s not juxtaposed against the experience of growing up. I’m still figuring out how to take these feelings and be able to show work overseas, because my backdrop is missing — the backdrop of Saudi.”
His early interest in comic books, he says, was partly down to “being able to create the world, the space, the setting for the story.” That was also a reason he decided to study architecture at university.
“I felt like it was creative problem solving,” he says. “A lot of my projects that I did in college were in ‘world making.’ My graduation project ended up being the creation of a whole city, and how it would grow on a random landscape. I got kind of caught up in the urban planning of it — the streets, and the rivers flowing through it. I never really got to the architectural part of designing a building.”
But that willingness to explore ideas in ways others might not has made Shono one of the Kingdom’s most compelling contemporary artists. “I’ve created my own kind of material palette, or language, or library, that I use,” he says.
In his current work, “The land is holding the narrative on this adventure within the seemingly barren landscape,” he explains. “These land fabrics become this idea of being able to roll up, carry and unroll ideas of belonging: What is home? How do we carry home?”
Desert X AlUla 2020 installation view of Muhannad Shono, The Lost Path. (Photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy the artist, RCU, and Desert X)
Shono and the team who helped him install “What Remains” had to “constantly adapt expectations” based on understanding the land and the environmental conditions, he says. It took them around a month, working seven or eight hours a day, to put it in place — flattening, aligning, and flipping fabric under Shono’s direction. His vision was clear, but he also allowed instinct to guide him.
“This work is fragile,” he says. “It’s an expression that is not here forever… that will change. And my ideas will change, the way I think about stories and concepts through my work. It’s important to change.”
With “What Remains,” he is offering that same opportunity to viewers. He wonders: “What portals will you pass through, through this unrolling of the earth in front of you?”
And change is a vital part of the work itself. “They’re always different,” Shono says of the fabric strips. “At some points, they’re opaque and earth-like — almost like a rock. But when the wind picks up, they become lightweight — like sails — and they animate and come to life. And when the light hits as they move through the sky, they reveal their translucency and there’s this projection of the trees and bushes and nature that they’re almost wrapped around or sailing past.”
Although the “What Remains” seen by Desert X visitors on any particular day will not be the same “What Remains” seen by visitors on any other day, or even any other hour, one part of it, at least, is constant.
“The work is a self-portrait,” Shono says. “Always.”
