Memories from the North: Film About How Saudis Lived through Invasion of Kuwait

Movie poster for Memories from the North
Movie poster for Memories from the North
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Memories from the North: Film About How Saudis Lived through Invasion of Kuwait

Movie poster for Memories from the North
Movie poster for Memories from the North

Abdulmohsen Al-Mutairi’s movie “Memories from the North” deals with how we cultivate our collective and personal memories as it highlights the personal memory and childhood experiences of the Saudis who lived through the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait three decades ago.

The documentary gives us an in-depth view of how the experiences of those who had been on the outside looking in, not directly involved in what happened but were impacted by it in one way or another as the flames fanned further than their eyes could see.

Starring several people who thought they had overcome the emotional damage left by this experience, only to come to grips with how what happened affected them over the past three decades.

Al-Mutairi tells Asharq Al-Awsat: “The experiences of those who appear in the movie are shared across the Gulf, who had undergone this unprecedented historical episode that left an impact on an entire generation. The movie showcases how they lived in detail and includes many beautiful and poignant images.”

“The Gulf has a trove of ancient tales, folk legends, and oral narratives passed from generation to generation that are worth sharing with the world and reflecting how we see things, our culture, and our relationship, as people of the rich Arabian Peninsula, with our history.”

The Saudi production was screened in Kuwait on Tuesday on the anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that began on August 2, 1990, after winning the Best Documentary Short Film Award at the 2022 Saudi Film Festival and an Honorable Mention at the London International Monthly Film Festival.



Rancho Palos Verdes Declares War on Peacocks

A peacock (Getty)
A peacock (Getty)
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Rancho Palos Verdes Declares War on Peacocks

A peacock (Getty)
A peacock (Getty)

Spotting a trademark colorful and elegant bird on the Palos Verdes Peninsula can be exciting for visitors or vacationers, but as the peacock population has rocketed, officials say some of those birds have got to go.

The Los Angeles Times wrote Wednesday that this fall, Rancho Palos Verdes will restart a rarely used program to trap and relocate peafowl from the peninsula in an effort to curb the growing population and limit the animals’ nuisance behaviors with a goal of trimming the numbers by about 30%.

Although some residents are still enamored by the fowl - Rancho Palos Verdes resident Efran Conforty told KCAL News they are the “best neighbors” - the birds have also attracted a lot of haters.

City Council members said they received many letters in support of the trapping and removal program, some that even asked the city to expand it.

“They’re running across the road all the time - it’s dangerous,” said Council member George Lewis at a May meeting.

The council voted unanimously to reinstate the program in the three neighborhoods where officials recorded the highest number of birds.

“It is not the city’s intent to eradicate the peafowl population, but to manage the population at levels identified in 2000 and to educate the public on how to coexist with the birds,” Megan Barnes, a spokesperson for Rancho Palos Verdes, wrote in a statement.

In Rancho Palos Verdes, the peacock population is the highest it’s been since 2014, when city leaders first decided to look into taking action to curtail the number of the birds due to growing complaints about their noise and other nuisances.

Peacocks make a number of sounds, including a piercing and distinctive scream during mating season and when they perceive a threat.

They also clamber on rooftops and through landscaping, causing damage and leaving waste.