"We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before, a window where it seems like real change, real change can happen," the 52-year-old McConaughey told reporters.

McConaughey, who visited Uvalde and met with families of the victims after 19 children and two teachers were shot dead on May 24, spoke powerfully about some of the children who died.

He displayed a colorful drawing made by Alithia Ramirez, a 10-year-old who had wanted to attend art school in Paris one day.

McConaughey also pointed out a pair of green Converse shoes held by his wife, Camila Alves, that belonged to another of the victims, Maite Rodriguez.

"Green Converse with a heart on the right toe," McConaughey said. "These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting.

"How about that?" he said, pounding the lectern in a hushed White House briefing room.

McConaughey, who met with President Joe Biden and members of Congress before addressing the White House press corps, said the families of the victims told him that they wanted to make "their loss matter."

"They want their children's dreams to live on," he said.

"We consoled so many people," he said. "And you know what they all said? 'We want secure and safe schools and we want gun laws that won't make it so easy for the bad guys to get these damn guns.'

"We need to invest in mental health care. We need safer schools," he said. "We need to restore our American values and we need responsible gun ownership.

"We need background checks," he continued. "We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21."

- 'Life preservation problem' -

McConaughey, who won a best actor Oscar in 2014 for the film "Dallas Buyers Club" and has flirted with running for governor of Texas, said it should be a "nonpartisan issue."

"As divided as our country is, the gun responsibility issue is one that we agree on," he said.

"There is not a Democratic or Republican value in one single act of these shooters," he said. "Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands?"

Gun violence is common in America but the nationwide shock over recent mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo and the school in Uvalde has once again spurred calls for action.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on reform measures -- a heavy lift, with many Republicans routinely rejecting most forms of gun control.

A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that 62 percent of Americans back a nationwide ban on semi-automatic rifles. Support is even higher for background checks on all gun buyers (81 percent).

US gun violence has killed more than 18,000 people so far in 2022, including nearly 10,300 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

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The show will present 47 customized Nike "Air Force 1" sneakers designed by Abloh and assembled at Louis Vuitton's manufacturing facility in Venice.

A barrier-breaking figure in fashion who rose to become Louis Vuitton's first Black creative director, Abloh died in November at the age of 41 due to a rare form of cancer.

A close associate of Kanye West, Abloh brought street wear and a less elitist approach to the world of luxury.

The exhibit comes after a February Sotheby's auction raised $25 million from the sale of some 200 Abloh Air Force One sneakers for a scholarship fund set up in Abloh's honor to support aspiring designers of Black, African American or African descent.

Each of the sneakers contains the famous Nike swoosh in compositions across the color palette, with some also featuring personalized details such as the flag of Ghana, a tribute to Abloh's heritage.

Another shoe contains the phrase "tourist vs. purist," an "Ablohism" that the designer used to describe the relationship in art and culture between the expert/specialist (purist) and the general public audience (tourist).

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As a child, punk-poet icon Patti Smith was instructed never to accept anything from strangers -- which meant one day she was forced to decline a campaign button she coveted and everyone else had.

While dejectedly walking to her New Jersey family home, she vowed to her future self that she would soon acquire her own medals to add to her lapel.

On Saturday, the 75-year-old rock legend made good on that promise, as France's ambassador to the United States Philippe Etienne bestowed her with the Legion d'Honneur, his country's highest order of merit.

Smith regaled a rapt audience with that touching anecdote after her medal ceremony in central Brooklyn, where crowds gathered for the "Night of Ideas," an annual marathon of philosophy and performance put on by the French Embassy's Villa Albertine in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library.

"It's an indescribable honor, I understand the gravity of it," she told AFP backstage, after delivering a spirited performance alongside her daughter Jesse on piano and her long-time collaborator and guitarist Lenny Kaye.

"For someone... who has been greatly shaped by French culture, French literature, French art, and film, just my whole life -- it's especially meaningful," she continued.

"I embraced France my whole life, and to receive an embrace like this in return is a wonderful thing."

For more than half-a-century, Smith has been celebrated as an artist's artist, adored for her music, songwriting, poetry and deeply introspective, raw writing that in 2010 won the US National Book Award for her stirring memoir "Just Kids."

The book sees Smith excavate memories from her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, the late photographer with whom she shared a deep friendship, romance and creative bond.

"I feel like it's very fitting to have such an accolade here in Brooklyn -- it's only a couple of subway stops away that Robert Mapplethorpe and I lived at 20-years-old," she told the audience. "At night, when Robert couldn't sleep, he would ask me to read him French poetry... I remember those nights so clearly."

Smith also felt a particular kinship to the venue of Saturday's ceremony.

"It's also fitting that it should be a library, because coming from a very rural area of South Jersey, with very little culture in the '50s and mid-'60s, I depended on the library to open and expand my world," she said.

In typical Smith fashion, she honored the artists who came before her in closing her acceptance speech, having opened with a performance of her 1996 song "Wing."

The rock laureate read the final letter by spiritual-surrealist poet Rene Daumal, which he wrote to his wife before his death.

"Seeing that you are nothing you desire to become," Smith read. "In desiring to become, you begin to live."

- People make change -

Following the ceremony Smith -- donning her signature black blazer atop a black vest, along with combat boots and her long, gray hair flowing as a few small braids framed her face -- delighted fans with a show that included her hit "People Have The Power," which she wrote with her late husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith.

Speaking to AFP, she said that while "artists can always inspire people, they can rally people, give people hope... in the end, it's not artists who make change, it's the people."

"Through voting, through initiative, through mass marches -- it's the people that make change."

Citing the ongoing pandemic and the "pain of war," Smith said "we are living in a very troubled world," underscoring climate change as the great crisis of our time.

"There are heat waves right now that are unprecedented... there's tremendous famine, and violent weather patterns we've never seen," she said.

"The only way it can be solved is a global effort, and I think more than anything... that is the most important thing that people have to address.

"However small the gesture, every gesture is important."

Smith is set in the fall to release a new book entitled "A Book Of Days," a visual collection inspired by her beloved Instagram account.

These days "I'm writing just as always," she told AFP, "writing songs, writing poems, writing another book -- I'm always busy, always doing something."

After her performance, Smith said the medal inspired her to do "more work, better work," and it "felt very fitting to work right after I received it."

"I still feel like I've got a little, you know, that post-performance adrenaline," she smiled, "but also just the excitement and happiness... of receiving such an honor."

"That I would be chosen to, you know, be a sort of a mini-ambassador for the country is really a great joy for me," she said.

"So you leave me a happy girl."

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If Tuscany has Chianti, the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna has "Motor Valley", an area that boasts one of the highest concentrations of luxury sports cars and motorbikes in the world.

The so-called Land of Motors, covering around 1,000 square kilometres of prime agricultural land roughly between Bologna and Modena, is home to Lamborghini and Ferrari, Maserati and Ducati, in addition to less well-known brands.

Every year -- with a hiatus for coronavirus -- industry types and fans flock to Modena for a weekend to talk business and admire the spectacular cars and bikes displayed around town.

Among those on show this year was a Pagani Huayra, a futuristic hypercar produced just a few kilometres away in Pagani's base at San Cesario sul Panaro, where vehicles are made to measure -- and start at a cool 2.6 million euros ($2.8 million).

Christopher Pagani, the son of the founder and communications chief, told AFP it takes between eight and nine months to manufacture a car, with customers normally waiting two years between order and delivery.

"In 2022 we are producing some 40 to 45 cars. They are all special because every customer has the opportunity to get in touch with us, visit us, and go on this journey," he said.

In the factory -- dubbed the "workshop" -- a few dozen mostly young people work in the hushed and ordered environment of a science lab.

For the brand, weight is everything and they use 40 different types of carbon fibre, as well as titanium and aluminium to make the car as light as possible.

But Pagani said talks were underway with clients about a potential electric version, even if would be heavier due to the battery, as part of a trend towards greener vehicles.

- Best place to be -

Pagani's father, Horacio, founded the company in 1998 after working at Lamborghini, another of Italy's top luxury brands based in the area.

According to legend, Ferruccio Lamborghini, the wealthy owner of a tractor factory, turned his hand to sports cars in the 1950s after complaining about the Ferraris he owned.

Enzo Ferrari is said to have told him that if he didn't like what he made, he should go and build his own.

Ferrari's Maranello site is located outside Modena, while the region also boasts Dallara, which provides cars for IndyCar racing in the United States, and motorbike firm Energica.

"The success dates a long way back, it is the fruit of several generations," said Andrea Corsini, who handles transport, infrastructure and tourism for the Emilia Romagna region.

The name "Motor Valley" alludes to California's Silicon Valley, where a grouping of tech companies drew talent and cash.

Here, manufacturers found a ready skills base among farmers who, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, had to learn to repair their own machinery.

Today, the area comprises 16,000 companies, four racing tracks, six training centres, and employs more than 90,000 people, according to think tank Riparte l'Italia.

"In terms of job opportunities and contacts with companies, this is the best place to be," said 24-year-old Emilio, studying car engineering in the south of Italy, who came to Modena for the weekend.

The sector records a turnover of 16 billion euros a year, of which seven billion is in exports, and is in good health, with Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley and Porsche all posting record results in 2021.

It was also here that Bugatti produced in the early 1990s its celebrated B110 GT, sold for a staggering 500 million lire (around 260,000 euros at the time).

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From rollerskating queens to red, white and blue wheelie bins, it's hard to find anything in Britain this week that doesn't have a jubilee theme.

- Showbiz royalty -

Head to the village of Wellington in Herefordshire in western England, and you'll find 104 scarecrows dressed up as queens, kings, princes and princesses by local residents as part of a competition.

"We've probably got a dozen or so queens dotted around... and a few 'Purple Rain' Princes," said co-organiser Phil Smith.

Princess Fiona from "Shrek", Queen singer Freddie Mercury and Princess Leia from "Star Wars" also feature.

- Get your skates on -

In Chipping Sodbury, western England, crowds will be entertained at a street party by a queen impersonator on rollerskates, The Times reported.

- Dance fever -

"Dig that crazy rhythm," Prince Charles once said as he tried his hand at scratch DJing in 2001. Now 73, he is no longer down with the kids.

He danced a tango with an alpaca farmer during a surprise appearance at a jubilee tea dance for older people near his Highgrove estate.

"It was wonderful," said Bridget Tibbs. "He was very lovely to dance with, a lovely sense of rhythm, a nice hold. It was a pleasure."

- Art imitates life -

The queen made a surprise cameo with James Bond actor Daniel Craig at the opening of the 2012 London Olympics. Charles and his wife Camilla have had to make do with "EastEnders".

The couple star in Thursday's jubilee edition of the long-running BBC soap opera, which largely revolves around family strife, scandal and sibling rivalries.

- Corgi-mania -

The popularity of corgis -- the queen's favourite canine breed -- is at a 30-year high, according to The Kennel Club, which tracks doggy demand.

Some 1,223 of the short-legged, waddling Pembroke Welsh Corgis were registered in 2021, said TKC spokesman Bill Lambert.

"The breed has certainly seen a boost in recent years, largely down, it would seem, to their starring roles in 'The Crown'," he added.

Royal social media channels have even unveiled a cute, crown-wearing corgi emoji, named PJ.

- Clean for the queen -

Still on the theme of dogs, one waste management company has even brought out corgi-branded dog poo bins.

Divert.co.uk has also unveiled distinctive wheelie bins in the red, white and blue colours of the union flag.

"Even bins deserve to celebrate a remarkable monarch," said company spokesman Mark Hall.

- Tea and cake -

Lara Mason didn't just bake a cake for the jubilee, she confected a life-sized cake of Her Majesty, with 400 eggs, 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of flour and 20 kilograms of butter.

Slices of the sponge sovereign were served to bingo players in Birmingham with a cup of tea. Naturally.

- Topper that -

Not to be outdone, the Holmes Chapel Community Yarn Bombers in Cheshire, northwest England, knitted a life-sized queen and a corgi.

"She has been in my dining room in various stages of dress," said Anita Armitt, 66, who set up the knitting group with a friend.

"The first night she was out I felt like I had to go down and say goodnight to her because I'd got into the routine of doing it!"

The village is also decorated with knitted bunting, soldiers and "topper" crowns on post boxes.

- Royal Lego -

More models, this time at Legoland Windsor, where a miniature display of the royal family has been fashioned from more than 18,000 individual bricks.

The plastic tribute includes a version of the Buckingham Palace balcony and took about 282 hours to put together.

- 'Big Lizzie' -

As tributes go, getting more than 300 Royal Navy sailors to spell out the royal cypher "E II R 70" on a 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier is hard to beat.

It was staged on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth II, which is affectionately known by its crew as "Big Lizzie".

- Not so rotten -

The jubilee has even slightly got to Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, famous for the 1977 punk anthem "God Save the Queen".

"God bless the Queen. She's put with a lot," he told The Times, insisting he has never had anything against anyone in the royal family.

"It's the institution of it that bothers me and the assumption that I'm to pay for that," he told the newspaper from his home in Malibu.

"There's where I draw the line. It's like, 'No, you're not getting ski holidays on my tax'."

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One of them is volunteer French engineer Emmanuel Durand, a specialist in 3D data acquisition, who is assisting a bevy of architects, engineers, historic building experts and a museum director to record buildings in Kyiv, Lviv, Chernigiv and Kharkiv.

Durand steps over a jumbled pile of beams and crunches over the rubble that was once Kharkiv's 19th-century fire station.

He plants his laser scanner, a sort of tripod with a pivoting head, in a strategic corner of the severely damaged building.

The redbrick fire station and its watchtower, built in 1887, are a monument to Kharkiv's industrial revolution.

Durand's gadget records the building from all angles.

"The scanner records 500,000 points per second. We'll get 10 million points from this location. Then we'll change location and go round the whole building, outside and inside. A billion points in all," he explains.

At the end of the day, Durand assembles all the data on a computer "like the pieces of a jigsaw" to digitally reconstruct the building.

The result is a perfect reproduction, accurate to within five millimetres (a fraction of an inch) that can be rotated in any direction or sliced into sections. You can even see the holes where blast waves from explosions have damaged the structure.

"This enables us to map out the building for the future. That could help us work out if anything has moved, which is important for safety purposes, and see what can be restored and what can't. It's also useful from a historical point of view," he says.

"We've got the actual missile-damaged building and an exact replica of how it used to look."

- 'Cultural genocide'-

In Kharkiv alone, around 500 buildings are listed as being of historic architectural significance. Most are in the dense historic city centre, on which Russian airstrikes are concentrated, according to architect Kateryna Kuplytska, a member of the body documenting damaged heritage sites.

She estimates that over a hundred of them have been hit already.

And while Russian troops have loosened their noose around Ukraine's second city, shells still rain down with regular monotony.

New explosions and blast waves, inclement weather, construction work and site visits will all contribute to hastening the destruction of these already weakened buildings, Kuplytska says.

"That's why it's essential to record them in accurate detail so we can plan urgent interventions that will stabilise the structures" and preserve their memory, she explains.

"Recording the destruction will also assist in criminal proceedings. We see serious damage to heritage across the whole country. It's genocide towards Ukrainian people and genocide towards Ukrainian culture," she says.

After two days at the fire station, Durand moves on to the economics faculty at the Karazin National University in Kharkiv. It is located right next to the imposing headquarters of the Ukrainian secret services, which is being targeted by the Russians and has been hit on numerous occasions.

The current iteration of the economics faculty was built in Soviet times. It was designed by Serhiy Tymoshenko, the father of the  "modern Ukrainian" style of architecture of the early 20th-century, and is one of the country's first reinforced concrete structures.

Some critics suggest it is futile to document historic buildings in such meticulous detail while the war is still raging and people are dying every day.

But Tetyana Pylyptshuk, the director of the Kharkiv literary museum, begs to disagree.

"Culture is the basis of everything. If culture had developed well, people probably wouldn't be dying and there wouldn't be a war," she said.

Pylyptshuk, who also sits on the commission on damaged historical sites, has sent most of her museum collections to western Ukraine to protect them from damage -- and from looting, should Russian troops overrun Kharkiv.

"Today, everyone realises this. Maybe they were not so attentive to our cultural heritage before... but when you lose it, it hurts."

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This month the company announced it will raise the proportion of women in leadership positions to 40 percent by 2030 -- up from 34 percent now -– and is committed to ensuring equal pay.

The key weapon in her arsenal for gender equality? Data.

"Data helps keep us honest," the 38-year-old tells AFP.

"Right now, we have monthly and quarterly reports that help us look at how many female 'Grabbers' we have in different teams to ensure there is no unintentional bias and whether our pay parity is equal."

Globally, tech firms suffer from a serious gender imbalance, with a study from consultancy Accenture and NGO Girls Who Code showing the proportion of women working in the sector is now smaller than in 1984.

While male tech executives such as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma are well-known, top female tech leaders remain more lower profile.

Tan co-founded Singapore-headquartered Grab, a household name in Southeast Asia, in 2012 and now oversees hundreds of engineers.

She hopes to be a catalyst for change in the male-dominated sector.

She insists she did not face discrimination as she built up her company, but recognises others have.

"That's the role I'm hoping to play -- to help create more of these environments where I was fortunate enough to grow up," she adds.

- Battling sexism and inequality -

But industry experts say tech faces significant challenges in its bid for gender equality with reports of sexism and toxic cultures in some firms.

A total of 44 percent of female tech founders said they had been harassed, according to a global poll by NGO Women Who Tech, which surveyed more than a thousand people.

Last year, a female employee at Alibaba alleged she had been sexually assaulted on a work trip by her manager and a client. The Chinese e-commerce giant fired the manager -- but later police dropped the case and the employee was also sacked.

And in the United States, video game giant Activision Blizzard is under investigation over accusations the firm condoned a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination.

For the climate to improve across the sector, critics say addressing gender imbalance is vital.

In Southeast Asia, 32 percent of the technology workforce is female, higher than the global average, but still lower than the 38 percent in other industries, according to a Boston Consulting Group study.

Some issues around gender diversity are a "by-product of history" Tan says -- girls have not been encouraged enough to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

According to the 2017 UNESCO report Cracking the code: girls' and women's education in STEM, only 35 percent of students of these subjects in higher education globally are female.

"We believe in 'normalising' women in tech. This starts by exposing females to many examples of women who have built their careers in tech," Tan says.

The company holds women's leadership events and runs mentoring schemes to guide new female entrants to the industry.

Girls should be motivated to take up courses such as software development and data science to help drive change, she adds.

"We need to help break that bias," she argues, adding that it is crucial to ensure a fair hiring process and female representation on interview shortlists.

Grab's role in the growth of Asia's gig economy has created opportunities for women who might previously not have been able to join the workforce, Tan suggests.

"Not everybody in the world can do a nine to five job, five days a week. Some of them need flexibility because they're moms, they are parents."

Tan adds that companies need to improve conditions for working mothers in order to ensure there's no brain drain of female talent.

"Being a working mother is not easy. And whether it's in tech roles, or just in general leadership roles, I think we need to be more empathetic of the situations that they're in and see if there are ways we can, you know, help, again, break biases."

- Harvard to $10 billion firm -

Tan grew up in a middle-class Malaysian family, the daughter of a civil engineer. She studied mechanical engineering in the UK, before joining McKinsey in Kuala Lumpur.

She went on to study for an MBA at Harvard, where she met Antony Tan -- no relation -- and the pair came up with the idea behind Grab. He is now the company's CEO.

A decade on, the company is now worth about US$10 billion and offers services ranging from digital payments to courier deliveries.

Operating in diverse markets, from developed, orderly Singapore to the traffic-clogged streets of Jakarta and Manila, the company faces unique challenges.

Tan, who has shadowed Grab's drivers and spent time on the complaints desk in a bid to get to know all elements of the business, describes herself as the company’s "plumber".

And her firm's local knowledge helped it to beat Uber in the region's ride-hailing battle, and it bought its US rival's Southeast Asian operations in 2018.

The company does face challenges. Since listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange last year, the firm has lost nearly three-quarters of its value after reporting falls in its earnings.

Despite the short-term challenges, Tan says Grab is committed to developing talent "for multiple generations", and hopes women will play a leading role in the tech sector in future.

"Female empowerment has taken generations to change and it's on a good trajectory, but it will take a bit of time," she says.

"I think we're all in a better position to have more diverse teams, and diverse leadership teams as well."

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Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalisation of diplomatic relations in 2020.

Israel's ambassador to the oil-rich UAE, Amir Hayek, tweeted "mabruk" -- congratulations in Arabic -- with a photo of Emirati and Israeli officials holding documents at a signing ceremony in Dubai.

The Emirati envoy to Israel, Mohamed Al Khaja, hailed as an "unprecedented achievement" the deal that, according to the Israeli side, scraps customs duties on 96 percent of all products traded.

"Businesses in both countries will benefit from faster access to markets and lower tariffs as our nations work together to increase trade, create jobs, promote new skills and deepen cooperation," Khaja tweeted.

The 2020 deal was part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords that also saw Israel establish diplomatic ties with Bahrain and Morocco.

Two-way trade between Israel and the UAE last year totalled some $900 million dollars, according to Israeli figures.

UAE-Israel Business Council president Dorian Barak predicted that trade would soon multiply between the regional powerhouse economies.

"UAE-Israel trade will exceed $2 billion in 2022, rising to around $5 billion in five years, bolstered by collaboration in renewables, consumer goods, tourism and the life sciences sectors," he said in a statement.

"Dubai is fast becoming a hub for Israeli companies that look to South Asia, the Middle East and the Far East as markets for their goods and services."

Nearly 1,000 Israeli companies will be working in and through the UAE by year's end, he said.

- Trade diplomacy -

The UAE was the first Gulf country to normalise ties with Israel and only the third Arab nation to do so after Egypt and Jordan.

Talks for a free trade agreement began in November and concluded after four rounds of negotiations.

The latest was held in March in Egypt between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE's long-time de facto ruler who became president this month after the death of his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa.

Israel had in March hosted a meeting of the top diplomats from the United States, UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.

Sudan in 2020 also agreed to normalise ties with Israel, but the strife-torn northeast African country has yet to finalise a deal.

Israel has already struck free trade agreements with other countries and blocs, including the United States, European Union, Canada and Mexico.

In February, Israel signed a trade deal with Rabat to designate special industrial zones in Morocco.

- Palestinian issue -

The Abraham Accords broke with long-standing pan-Arab policy to isolate Israel until it withdraws from the occupied territories and accepts Palestinian statehood.

Palestinians condemned the agreements struck under then US president Donald Trump, and the conflict continues to inflame tensions, including between Israel and the UAE.

Tuesday's signing came two days after thousands of flag-waving Israelis marched through Jerusalem's Old City during a nationalist procession marking Israel's 1967 capture of east Jerusalem.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1980, a move never recognised by the international community.

The UAE on Monday "strongly condemned" what it called Israel's "storming" of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam's holiest sites.

The UAE "reiterated its firm position on the need to provide full protection for Al Aqsa Mosque and halt serious and provocative violations taking place there", reported the official WAM news agency.

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Black Panther star Letitia Wright says she got so close to co-lead Tamara Lawrance in "The Silent Twins", competing at Cannes, that both actors began to behave exactly like the siblings in the drama based on the true story of two black sisters in 1970s Wales.

The film tells the incredible story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twins who refused to communicate with anybody except each other, and created a rich inner life that is both fascinating and dangerous.

Guyanese-born British actress Wright was catapulted to stardom with Marvel movie "Black Panther", as well as "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame", and dystopian TV show "Black Mirror".

"The twins were so enamoured with each other, so obsessed with each other. That's the same I was with Tamara," Wright told AFP.

"I'd say things like, oh my god, you're amazing with this or that, I love the way you do this, I love the way you think, I love the books that you're reading," she said. "And then in a split second: What am I doing here?", she laughed. "Life really imitated art".

Fellow Brit Lawrance, best known for the BBC's King Charles III, said she, too, felt like a sister to Wright during the shooting for "The Silent Twins".

"It wasn't always plain sailing, it was very much a sisterhood," Lawrance told AFP. "We got very close, and it's that closeness that gives you the capacity to get in each other's face," she smiled.

- 'Blown away' -

The film's Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska told AFP she was "blown away" when she first heard about the story of the twins that became famous after Sunday Times journalist Marjorie Wallace published a book about the case.

The real June and Jennifer Gibbons were born in 1963, daughters in Caribbean immigrants. They were the only black children in their Welsh community, spoke only to each other and were ostracised at school.

They spent all their time together, writing plays, poems and novels. Later they experimented with alcohol and drugs, committed petty crimes and got locked up in Broadmoor, a high-security mental health hospital, for 11 years.

"I thought: What an incredible story," said Smoczynska. "I couldn't imagine that it had really happened, 30 years ago. This is the moment that I knew I wanted to do this movie."

She said her film has "many layers". It's about "two sisters who love each other so much that they can't live without each other, but they also can't live together", she said.

The movie explores the notions of sacrifice and misunderstood artists, but also racism "and what the system did to these young black girls," said Smoczynska, though the theme remains understated.

"To make it just about race would be reductive, because race doesn't exist in isolation from everything else," said Lawrance.

"In this film it's interesting to look at its intersection with class, and the time you're born in, the generation you're born in."

Critics gave "The Silent Twins" a warm reception, with Deadline calling the lead actresses' performances "unforgettable", and The Guardian awarding four stars to the "well acted, disturbing drama" which the paper added was "heartfelt" and "absorbing".

It is competing in the Cannes Festival's Un Certain Regard section which showcases mostly young and innovative film-makers.

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