Syria juice vendor gears up for Ramadan as crisis bites
In a busy market in Syria’s capital, 53year-old Ishaaq Kremed serenades customers and agilely pours tamarind juice from the ornate brass jug on his back ahead of Ramadan. The popular street vendor says he usually has more customers during the Islamic holy month starting next week, during which many favor the drink to break their day-long fast at sundown. But he says his trade of more than 40 years has also taken on new meaning since the war-torn country has been plunged into economic crisis.
“My main job is to make customers smile,” says the moustachioed father of 16, dressed in billowing trousers, a patterned waistcoat and red fez. “What’s most important is that they leave me feeling happy-that whoever turns up stressed leaves feeling content,” adds the street vendor. On his daily rounds of the Hamidiyah covered market, dozens of customers approach him to quench their thirst, often taking pictures of him and his traditional get-up with their cellphones. As he nimbly pours juice in long streams into plastic cups, he distracts them for a while with a song.
A surgical face mask lowered under his chin, Kremed intones lyrics for a mother and her two young daughters, before handing her a cup of the dark brown beverage. He takes his fez off to collect his payment, then places it back on the top of his head. Another man, dressed in a long white robe, joins Kremed in a song then
‘Financial worries’
Syria’s economic crisis has sent prices soaring and caused the national currency to plummet in value against the dollar on the black market. In a country where a large majority of people live in poverty, Syrians have also had to contend with several lockdowns to stem the spread of coronavirus. “For three years, Ramadan has been different because of people’s financial worries,” Kremed says. “When people come to the market, you see them bumping into each other as if they were in a daze.”
The Damascus government blames the economic crisis on Western sanctions, but economists say the conflict, the pandemic and the financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon are also major factors. Some state institutions have temporarily been closed over the pandemic and the economic crisis, but for now, markets remain open. Although he does his best to keep up a cheery demeanor, Kremed says he too is feeling the effects of the economic crunch. Tamarind and sugar are becoming increasingly costly, he says, and not everyone has enough spare cash for a refreshment. “People’s priorities have become putting food and drink on the table, before tamarind juice,” he says. — AFP
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” won this year’s top Hollywood directing award Saturday-the final major guild ceremony before the Oscars, and an important late bellwether in Tinseltown’s pandemicdelayed and mainly virtual award season. Zhao spent her entire victory speech praising her fellow nominees, who must now be wondering what they can do to catch up with her critically adored and awards-dominating US road movie before the Academy Awards on April 25. “I want to thank you guys for teaching me so much, and for showing your support-you have made this journey so much more special,” the 39year-old director, previously best known for indie movie “The Rider,” told rival directors via video call.
Those filmmakers included David Fincher (“Mank”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) — who will also vie for the best director Oscar. But Zhao-who becomes only the second woman to ever win the top Directors Guild of America prize, after Kathryn Bigelow for 2008’s “The Hurt Locker”-is entrenched as the strong favorite. While the DGA last year plumped for Sam Mendes (“1917”) over Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”), they have correctly predicted the victor the previous six years running.
“Nomadland,” a semi-fictional drama, follows a community of older van-dwelling Americans left behind by the Great Recession, who forge a new, transient life off the grid in the American West. Beijingborn Zhao said she hopes audiences can “experience the lives of people that they may consider ‘the other’” and so “walk away feeling a little bit less alone.” She described directing as an outlet and a remedy for her own experience of “very intense loneliness in my life.”
Real-world celebrations
“Sound of Metal,” an Oscar best picture nominee about a heavy metal drummer who goes deaf, won the DGA’s first-time director award. Darius Marder thanked the deaf community for “inviting us in, sharing your culture, with us, with the movie, with the screen.” Best documentary went to “The Truffle Hunters,” which follows a group of elderly Italians and their loyal dogs as they pursue the centuries-old tradition of seeking culinary delicacies in the forest. The DGAs also honor television. The final season of “Homeland” took the drama series prize-in a sign of changing times,
Lesli Linka Glatter dialed in from a realworld celebration with “my whole, completely vaccinated director team.”
“The Flight Attendant” took best comedy series, while “The Queen’s Gambit” continued its award season sweep in limited series. Although lower key than the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards, the DGAs are longer-running, and its 18,000 voters including the industry’s top directors offer prestigious recognition. DGA President Thomas Schlamme opened the virtual award show from the guild’s state-ofthe-art Hollywood theater. He later jokingly thanked the “home-field advantage” as he won an award for last year’s “West Wing” reunion special to boost turnout in the US election. — AFP