From: 
Sent: Fri 10/15/2010 9:45:15 PM
Subject: Report # 141:

Hallo All!

There's a lot of smiley faces and dots going on in written Arabic... Arabic class is so boring...

The filmfcstival in Abu Dhabi has kicked off. I went to see "Wrecked" with Adrian Brody. After the movie the producer, director, star, etc. went on stage and took questions. One Indian girl asked with her Indian accent:

"You were alone in the Pianist and you were alone in this movie. Your experience?" Adrian Brody looked like a question-mark: "...was there a question in there...?"

The Indian girl repeated with her accent. Adrian Brody again asked her if there was a question in there, and the girl repeated again. This time the Oscar winner took pity on her and said something about being the only actor on the set....

Another man asked in some broken English with an Arabic accent: "Did you have a lot of crap during the filming?"

The audience went dead silent and Adrian Brody stuttered: "Eh...a lot of .... eh..."

The Arab repeated his question a few times until it was clear he said "cramp" and not "crap".

There was a translator on stage who translated to Arabic. This was tremendously disruptive. After a while someone on the panel asked: "Is there anyone in the audience who does not understand English?" Everyone, except the translator, were clearly Western, so the poor translator was excused.

There were at least 20 people from NYUAD at the movie screening so you can run, but you can not hide.

Take care!