Latest news with #Laila
Daily Record
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Ronnie O'Sullivan's £2m decision after getting back with Strictly Come Dancing star girlfriend Laila Rouass
Ronnie O'Sullivan is said to have got back together with former fiancee Laila Rouass, having split up nine months ago, and the couple are set to quit the UK for a fresh start in Dubai Snooker ace Ronnie O'Sullivan has reportedly rekindled his romance with former partner Laila Rouass, just nine months after the couple called it quits. 'The Rocket' had parted ways with the Strictly Come Dancing celebrity last year after a 13-year relationship. The split came during what many consider to have been O'Sullivan's toughest period professionally, with limited appearances in 2025 leading up to this year's World Championship. However, it seems the pair have found their way back to each other, with reports indicating they are now an item once again. The Sun claims that the couple have reunited and are planning a move to Dubai. They are said to be selling their £2million property in Epping Forest in preparation for their relocation. A source said: "They have been back together for a while. "The time apart gave them time to think about what they want and what is important to them - and that is being together. "Ronnie is moving to the Middle East and Laila is going with him. They've talked about living in Dubai, which is just a two-hour flight from where Ronnie has his snooker academy in Saudi Arabia. "He has spoken to people on his snooker circuit about the move and is excited about a clean break from the UK for him and Laila. "They have had their issues in the past but Ronnie and Laila have worked through it and seem really happy again. The people who know them think they make a great couple and just want them to live a happy, quiet life. "They've been on and off before but Ronnie really wants to make it work with Laila," the source continued. "She will be joining him in the Middle East and they'll see how it goes." Following their earlier split in March, Rouass took to Instagram to reflect on the separation. "Break ups can strip you down to your essence," she wrote. "I got through mine by using pain as fuel to take control because no matter what, we will lose parts of ourselves in relationships. It's normal, don't beat yourself up. "One thing I'm conscious of not doing is trying to get back where I was. No, I'm discovering who I've become. "I've gone through various emotions... hurt, pain, anger but what I've realised about anger is that it's bottomless." In May, O'Sullivan reached the World Championship semi-finals. He was beaten by Zhao Xintong, the eventual champion at the Crucible.
Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Ronnie O'Sullivan rekindles Laila Rouass romance as couple make £2m decision
Ronnie O'Sullivan is set to quit the UK for the Middle East after a series of snooker struggles over the past few months but his partner Laila Rouass looks set to join him after the pair got back together Snooker legend star Ronnie O'Sullivan has reportedly rekindled his relationship with former fiancee Laila Rouass just nine months after they separated. The Rocket announced his split from the Strictly Come Dancing star last year following 13 years together. And that split coincided with what was arguably O'Sullivan's most difficult spell on the snooker table. He had barely played in 2025 heading into this year's world championship. But it now appears that he has reconciled with Rouass, with reports suggesting that the pair are now together. According to The Sun, the couple are now back together and have plans to move to Dubai together. They have apparently put their £2million Epping Forest home up for sale ahead of the move. A source said: 'They have been back together for a while. The time apart gave them time to think about what they want and what is important to them — and that is being together. 'Ronnie is moving to the Middle East and Laila is going with him. They've talked about living in Dubai, which is just a two-hour flight from where Ronnie has his snooker academy in Saudi Arabia. 'He has spoken to people on his snooker circuit about the move and is excited about a clean break from the UK for him and Laila. They have had their issues in the past but Ronnie and Laila have worked through it and seem really happy again. The people who know them think they make a great couple and just want them to live a happy, quiet life.' 'They've been on and off before but Ronnie really wants to make it work with Laila," they added. "She will be joining him in the Middle East and they'll see how it goes.' The news of the couple's reunion comes after Rouass broke her silence on their original separation back in March. Taking to Instagram, she said: "Break ups can strip you down to your essence,' she wrote. 'I got through mine by using pain as fuel to take control because no matter what, we will lose parts of ourselves in relationships. It's normal, don't beat yourself up. Is Ronnie O'Sullivan the best snooker player of all time? Share your thoughts in the comments below "One thing I'm conscious of not doing is trying to get back where I was. No, I'm discovering who I've become. I've gone through various emotions... hurt, pain, anger but what I've realised about anger is that it's bottomless." O'Sullivan only reached the World Championship semi-finals in May and was eventually defeated by eventual champion Zhao Xintong at the Crucible. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Five films that got neurodivergence right, and why ‘Sitaare Zameen Par' might join them
On the cusp of Sitaare Zameen Par's release this Friday, the freshly invigorated conversation around neurodivergence in cinema feels long overdue. Marketed as a spiritual sequel to Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan's latest venture brings ten neurodivergent individuals into the spotlight as people with stories of their own. That this release follows Autistic Pride Day 2025 feels quite timely. For too long, neurodivergent characters in cinema have either been flattened into saintly savants or trapped in caricature. Their complexities are also often sanded down for neurotypical comfort. But if autistic pride teaches us anything, it's that the real challenge is the lens through which the world insists on viewing the disability, rather than the disabilty itself. So, in honour of June 18, and of a film that is trying to imagine something more inclusive, we revisit five films that have portrayed neurodivergence with empathy, nuance, and a refusal to tidy up their themes. A Beautiful Mind Ron Howard's classic biographical drama A Beautiful Mind was an earnest attempt at making sense of schizophrenia—for both the person inside the condition and the people orbiting him. Russell Crowe's John Nash does succumb to certain tortured genius tropes but they rarely exist in a vacuum. He's a husband, a colleague, and a man trying to trust what's real when reality keeps shifting under his feet. The film's actual trick isn't the twist about his hallucinations; rather, it's the manner in which it presents love, routine, and stubborn willpower. It's messy and it simplifies things, but at its core it's a genuine effort to portray what it means to live with, and not despite, mental illness. Margarita with a Straw Shonali Bose's Margarita with a Straw steers clear of syrupy inspirational blurbs and gives us a bildungsroman that's brimming with life. Kalki Koechlin plays Laila, a young woman with cerebral palsy, who wants the same things everyone else does — love, sex, independence — and the film lets her want them without judgment or pity. Bose subverts both Western and desi stereotypes of disability by making Laila's neurodivergence the engine that propels her and the narrative across continents, into relationships, and towards a vivid understanding of her own queerness. My Name is Khan My Name is Khan is often heavy-handed, but it comes from a place of real compassion. The film centres on a man with Asperger's syndrome in a geopolitical epic, and does so with a degree of earnest dignity rarely afforded to neurodivergent characters in mainstream Indian cinema. Shah Rukh Khan avoids caricaturising Rizwan, and shapes him by the way he sees the world with deep empathy. Finding Dory Finding Dory reflects a long-standing Pixar tradition of addressing social issues under the guise of children's entertainment. The film treats the talkative, titular Blue Tang fish with short-term memory loss with sincerity. She forgets things, but she also adapts, repeats, invents workarounds and 'keeps swimming'. The film isn't about curing her or changing her, but about the fish around her learning to understand and support her. Everything Everywhere All at Once Everything Everywhere All at Once feels exactly like what it's like to live in a brain that doesn't always play by the rules. In fact, one of the directing duo, Daniel Kwan, came to realise his own undiagnosed ADHD during the writing process. Evelyn and Joy are never explicitly labelled, but the film's take on identity, perception, and meaning feels deeply familiar to anyone who's ever felt like their mind is a bit too loud. The multiverse here is a metaphor for every 'what if' and 'should have been' that clutters the average ADHD brain. The film leaves us with the tender thought that maybe clarity isn't about fixing the noise, but learning how to sit with it.
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
'It shares the Palestinian experience of displacement': Basel Zaraa on his Cork Midsummer installation
Can you describe what Dear Laila involves? Dear Laila is an intimate, interactive installation experienced by one audience member at a time, which shares the Palestinian experience of displacement and resistance, through the story of one family. I created it in response to my daughter Laila, who was then five, asking where I grew up, and why we couldn't go there. As I couldn't take her to Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus where I grew up, I tried to bring it to her by making a model of our now destroyed family home. The audience member sits in Laila's shoes and learns the story of the house, through the miniature, an audio piece, objects and photos. The story of the house is the story of our family, which in turn is the story of millions of Palestinians. What do you hope an Irish audience will get from it? I hope that this personal approach makes audiences feel more connected to the experience. As Palestinians, our individual experiences tell political stories. And this is not something we have chosen, but something that has been forced upon us by history. I wanted to show how these historical events are experienced in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Can you tell us about your family history? We are from a village called Tantura in the north of Palestine. My grandparents used be a farmers, and in 1948, the year of the Nakba, a Zionist armed group attacked my village and carried out a massacre, killing more than 200 people from my village. Those who survived, were forced to leave, and my great-grandparents were among them. They went to Syria, thinking they would stay for a bit and go back, but that never happened as Israel didn't allow anyone to go back to their homes and towns. More than 750,000 Palestinian forced to leave their homes that year. Now I am one of the third generation to be born and grow up as a refugee in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, which is one of 12 Palestinian camps in Syria. Did your parents/grandparents continue to hope they would return home to Palestine? Most of the Palestinians I know still have keys to their homes, or title deeds to prove that they owned a home in Palestine. As you say, I am one of the third generation that was born and grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp, and there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees still living as refugees today without any other nationality, in refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza. They are waiting to go back home, as is our right recognised by the UN resolution 194, which states that 'Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date'. Dear Laila was inspired by Basel Zaraa's desire to show his daughter their home in a Syrian refugee camp. For you, Yarmouk seems to have really been a home – albeit with a desire to return to Palestine. What were the circumstances of when you had to leave? Like all refugee camps, Yarmouk meant to be temporary, somewhere to stay until we returned to our villages and homes, but the tents became 'cement tents', and we got stuck there, generation after generation. So it's strange to say that Yarmouk, a refugee camp, was our home, but it was, and when we lost it, it felt like losing a home again. I left just before the uprising began, on a spouse visa, expecting to be able to return to visit. But after the uprising started in Syria, Yarmouk became one of the worst hit places by the war, following a pattern of destruction of Palestinian camps that we often see in the region. Most of the camp got destroyed and most of its residents got displaced and were forced to leave their homes again, which brought back the trauma of our first exile, when my grandparents were forced to leave Palestine. Are there particular possessions that were important for you to take to the UK? When I left I didn't know I'd be unable to return for a long time, or that when I returned the camp would be destroyed. The thing that has been most important for me is how we could rescue photos from Yarmouk, to preserve memories of happy moments in the camp, so our visual memory was not only of its destruction. When my father went back to see the camp after the siege was lifted, he was able to get some of the photos from rubble, and I use these photos in Dear Laila. Obviously, what's happening in Gaza and beyond recently has reached whole new levels of horror. How has that affected you, both personally and in terms your art? We as Palestinians have been living in trauma for 77 years - the wars haven't stopped, from 1948 to 1967, Black October in the 1970s, the siege of Beirut in 1982, the first and second Intifada, military and settler attacks in the West Bank, and the siege and continued attacks on Gaza over the last 20 years... Personally, to witness what happened to my camp, Yarmouk, and to my neighbours and family and people, was a big trauma, which affected me, and most of us from the camp, deeply. It took time for us to be able to comprehend what was happening to us. Art is a way of understanding this trauma and healing our wounds by facing what has happened, and telling our story. My works try to tell the story of my community, in the face of the occupation's attempt to create a false narrative about what they have done to us. I feel this is my responsibility, as a Palestinian, as an artist and as a human. Art always plays a big role in defending the oppressed and defending truth, and this is clear when you see how the occupation tries to suppress these expressions, whether that's the assassination of the writer Ghassan Kanafani, or the killing of journalists and intellectuals in Gaza today. What do you think of the boycott movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel, particularly in an arts context? BDS is an essential and effective tool for people around the world to show solidarity with Palestine and put pressure on the occupation, now more than ever. As witnesses to the ongoing genocide, we must put pressure on Israel with all the tools available to us, and the example of South Africa shows us that boycotts work. Obviously, the situation in Syria is fluid, but what are your thoughts on returning to Yarmouk, possibly bringing Laila? I returned to Syria after the fall of the regime. I wanted to witness this important moment in Syria's history, and was able to go a month after the dictatorship fell. The dictatorship had been there for half a century, and, particularly in recent years, it felt like it would never fall, but it did, which is a reminder that although the road to freedom can be long, nothing lasts forever. It was incredible to witness Syrians celebrating these first moments of freedom, and when I was there my mind was in Palestine and imagining when this moment will come for us too. I didn't take my daughter Laila or my son Ibrahim with me this time, but I hope to in the future. It was hard to see Yarmouk destroyed, we had always seen it on the news so much, but in real life it affects you much more strongly. But it was also nice to see the first time they had Eid in Yarmouk, with swings and children playing in the streets. It gave a feeling of hope for the future. Dear Laila is on June 20-22 at MicroGALLERY, on Grand Parade, Cork. Tickets: €8. See
CairoScene
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Sohag to Host its First-Ever Film Forum MESAHAT in July
Funded by the EU in Egypt and EUNIC, the forum will take place at New Sohag City and feature a talk by Marianne Khoury. Jun 13, 2025 Sohag is set to host MESAHAT, the first film Festival based on the governorate, at the Arts and Culture Center of the Future Generation School in New Sohag City starting July 24th. The forum will feature screenings, discussions, and the formal opening of what organisers describe as the governorate's first dedicated cinema venue. Funded by the European Union in Egypt and EUNIC Egypt, MESAHAT is designed to support independent cinema and promote filmmaking initiatives outside Cairo. The forum will focus on decentralised narratives within Egypt, particularly those aligned with broader conversations in the Global South. The programme includes a discussion session titled 'Cinema in the South: From Individual Initiatives to Independent Filmmaking', featuring Egyptian filmmaker and producer Marianne Khoury, known for her work with emerging talents and alternative cinema. The forum will also host a screening of films produced by Nghmsha, including 'Give & Take' directed by Medhat Saleh and 'Laila' directed by Peter Mounir. According to organisers, this marks the first public film screening in a cinema space in Sohag. MESAHAT follows a growing trend of cultural events expanding beyond Egypt's capital. It sits alongside other regional festivals such as the Luxor African Film Festival, the Aswan Women Film Festival, and the Alexandria Short Film Festival—all part of broader efforts to decentralise cultural programming and increase access to film infrastructure outside Cairo.
