Yasmine Hamdan in Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive"

 © Le Pacte

Can't wait to see the new Jim Jarmusch film, about vampires, taking place in Tangier and Detroit, starring, among others, Tilda Swinton and John Hurt.

A review in Huffington Post (from May, but I've only just seen the review) has this to say about Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan's role in it:

what gives the movie its force is the soundtrack, which culminates in a stunning performance in a Tangier bar by the Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan. The vampires, on a hunt for blood, stop to peep at this beautiful singer as she dances and sings, waving her highly-toned arms and wearing a sparkling spangled belt, a surprise image in the misty Moroccan night.

The film is now starting to open in Europe. The US, who knows? (I've blogged about Yasmine in the past.)

More on Tilda Swinton and her Palestine scarf in Vogue

I posted on this a few days ago. Since then I came across a nice piece on the subject by Emily Lawrence in Electronic Intifada, who meditates on whether Tilda's act is just a bit of provocative fashion, or real solidarity. This has been a long-standing issue in my kufiya posts on hawgblawg. She concludes: 'how better to convey a political message to a fashion-conscious audience than through the medium of clothing? Swinton is voicing her support for the Palestinian cause without ever having to speak. Such is the power of fashion.'

What I found most interesting is that the scarf in question was designed by Bella Freud for The Hoping Foundation (Freud is its co-founder), which raises money in the UK to fund projects to aid Palestinian refugee children. As I noted in an earlier post, is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund; an outspoken critic of Israel and; the elder sister of Esther Freud, author of the autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (made into a fairly decent movie, starring Kate Winslet).

Freud and Hoping Foundation co-chair Karma Nabulsi are ever devising high-profile events to raise funds for Palestinian children, such as this event, where Italian fashion house Missoni designed a limited-edition shoulder bag to sell for Hoping projects.

@bellafreud (twitpic)

Alas, it seems the scarf is no longer for sale at Hoping.

Tilda Swinton in UK Vogue (November)

This photo has been passed around heavily by my Palestine-oriented FB friends. It was announced that this photo appeared in the November issue of Vogue. I immediately ran down to my local Barnes & Noble and thumbed through every single page of the November issue. I didn't see it. I deduce that it appears (alas!) in UK Vogue and not in the USA edition. I hope someone will send it to me as a gift. It's pretty amazing, no? For those of you who are not Palestine fanatics, the scarf is in the the colors of the Palestine flag.

(Meanwhile, you have to see Tilda in the film Gloria (2008). Absolutely phenomenal.)