![SZ&SH](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/SZ%26SH.jpg)
Middle Eastern Cinema collectively refers to the
film industries of
Western Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
and part of
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
. By definition, it encompasses the film industries of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
,
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
,
Palestine,
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
,
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
,
Syria,
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...
, and
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
. As such, the film industries of these countries are also part of the cinema of
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, or in the case of Egypt,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.
Since the inception of
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
in Europe and the United States, many people assumed that cinema in the Middle East arrived much later than Western Cinema. However, it was found that cinema was brought into most of the Arab countries by the beginning of the 20th century by
Pathé Frères
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...
or the
Lumière Brothers
Lumière is French for 'light'.
Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to:
* Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People
*Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV
* Institut Lumière, ...
. Eventually by the 1950s
Egyptian cinema
The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, sometimes also referred to as Hollywood on the Nile. Since 1976, the capital has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the Intern ...
was the main dominating Arab and Middle Eastern film industry and this led to many other Middle Eastern countries incorporating Egyptian conventions into their own films.
Each Middle Eastern country has a different and distinctive culture of cinema which differs in both history and infrastructure. The historical component includes key events and trigger points which led to the inception or emergence of cinema in the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
. The infrastructural component defines the current institution and/or systems in place which facilitate the financing/development/exhibition of cinema, locally or internationally.
Bahrain
The first cinema to be established in
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
consisted of a makeshift cinema set up in a cottage in 1922, with the first official cinema set up in 1937. Several more were established in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Bahrain Cinema and Film Distribution Company began operating in 1967,
which was renamed the Bahrain Cinema Company in 1976. There are now a number of modern-style cinemas in Bahrain, including the 20-screen complex in Bahrain City Centre. (See
Cinema of Bahrain).
Cyprus
Egypt
History of the industry
![Cairo_Fire_1952_Rivoli_Cinema](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Cairo_Fire_1952_Rivoli_Cinema.jpg)
Egypt's history of film started a few months following the
Lumière Brothers
Lumière is French for 'light'.
Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to:
* Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People
*Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV
* Institut Lumière, ...
' first film screening in Europe. In 1896, their film was taken to Egypt and was screened exclusively to a group of Egyptians in the Schneider Baths, Alexandria.
A year later in the same city, the Cinematographe Lumière, was opened and had recurring screenings of the films. Egypt was one of the few countries of the Arab world and Middle East to be able to establish a film industry during their colonization. However, the types of films that were shot in Egypt at the time were more direct-cinema-styled documentaries or news reels.
Eventually, they did more news reels and also began creating short films. In 1906, Felix Mesguich, who worked for the Lumière Brothers, went to Egypt to film a short film on his camera for them. The film-viewing audience in Egypt kept growing until in 1908 there were a total of eleven movie theaters in the country.
One of the French theaters brought in a camera and photographer to create local news reels to play exclusively in their own theater to compete with the other theaters. With this growing interest in film, Italian investors opened STICA film company in the city that was to be the hub of film, Alexandria, in 1917.
Eventually, they shut down due to their low-quality films and the unfamiliarity of the producers with the Egyptian environment. One of the three films they created featured verses from the Muslim Qur'an vertically inverted which led it to being banned by government officials.
Furthermore, their films had Italian actors and directors which did not help their case. With time, more films and newsreels were created. In 1926, the Lebanese Lama brothers came back from Argentina with their cameras and began creating Western-styled films in the deserts of Egypt.
Up until that point, Egyptians had not been happy that most of the films that were created were not done by Egyptians and featured Western actors in an Egyptian setting.
Finally, the film ''Layla'' (1927) was vastly popular because it was produced by an Egyptian theater actress,
Aziza Amir, and features a narrative that was familiar to most Egyptian audiences. Therefore, this film was considered by many the first Egyptian film (even though it was directed by a Turkish director) and was the first film to be produced by a woman.
This marked the beginning of the national cinema in Egypt.
![Four_girls_and_an_officer_(1954)-Cinema_ad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Four_girls_and_an_officer_%281954%29-Cinema_ad.jpg)
Following this there was a peak in Egyptian film production. "From 1927 to 1930 two full-length films were produced a year, five films were released in 1931 and six in both 1933 and 1934".
Although all these films were created independently, in 1935,
Studio Misr was founded and was followed by six more studios from 1936 to 1948. Studio Misr did not dominate the industry, but was one of the big factors that launched Egyptian cinema (including their decision to move production from Alexandria to Cairo).
During this time, Egypt was the strongest Arab and Middle Eastern country that made films, which many other countries in the Middle East looked up to. Some of the Arab countries would attempt to copy the Egyptian melodramatic formulas and would make the film in the Egyptian dialect.
With time, there were many changes that led many Egyptian filmmakers to start gradually making their movies in Lebanon instead. First, the
Egyptian Revolution of 1952 made it less stable politically in Egypt.
Second, the nationalization of the film industry (1962) in Egypt slowly brought more restrictions to the films until the film censorship laws that were issued in 1976. The Egyptian presence in Lebanon impacted the Lebanese film output. Between 1963 and 1970, half of the movies that were produced in Lebanon were in the
Egyptian dialect.
Eventually, the Egyptians moved back to Egypt due to the
civil war in Lebanon
The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...
. Following the censorship in Egypt, there was an increased sense of morality and modesty on screen (from the late 1960s to the 80s). These constraints led a change in film movements from romance and love stories to new realist and melodramatic realism. This wave impacted many of the films from today. According to Ibrahim Farghali, an Egyptian journalist, "To me, the Egypt of today seems influenced by the ’68 movement in its call for change, the surmounting of traditional values, and liberation from oppression, whether political, social, ethical, or religious". More recently, the film
''The Square'' (2013) which was a documentary about the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film.
Although Egypt's film industry is not as powerful as it was before due to growing financial issues, it still dominates the Arab Cinema output especially in mainstream cinema where it outputs up to 77% of the films. That is because of an already established ecosystem for
Egyptian cinema
The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, sometimes also referred to as Hollywood on the Nile. Since 1976, the capital has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the Intern ...
that saw its rise in the 1960s. Today, it includes leading regional players such as the distribution company MAD solutions. In addition to that, Egypt hosts a variety of film festivals which help sustain the local film culture, including notable regional festivals such as the
El Gouna film festival The El Gouna Film Festival (GFF; ar, مهرجان الجونة السينمائي) is an annual film festival established in 2017, held in the Red Sea resort town of El Gouna, Egypt. The inaugural festival started September 22, 2017. The psychologi ...
, which boasts an impressive lineup of stars every year.
Notable Directors and Films
Iraq
History of the industry
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
has a long history of cinema since their independence in 1921. In the course of 82 years, from 1921 to 2003, 100 films have been produced and released in Iraq.
The first theater in Iraq opened its doors before 1920.
Post-independence period, more cinemas began to appear. A milestone was achieved in 1957 when 137 cinemas were established with a total capacity of 70,000 seats. After 1940, studios slowly began to appear in Iraq where Iraqi-made films would be produced.
One of the first studios in Iraq was opened in 1946 by the wealthy Sawda’i family in Baghdad. ''Studio Baghdad'' relied on specialists from Europe and Egypt to function. Its first movie, ''‘Aliya wa ‘Isam'', was recorded by the French director André Shatan, and released in 1948. In 1951, the Sawda’i family moved to Israel. For the next three years, various Iraqi’s from abroad took over control until it was sold to Iraqi’s who lived abroad in 1954. The studio still made movies for the next 12 years, until it was sold to the Coca-Cola Company in 1966, who wanted to turn the land and buildings into a new factory.
The government of Iraq established a department of cinema in 1959, which only produced a couple documentaries and two films per year.
During the reign of
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
from 1979 to 2003, the cinema industry in Iraq was mainly filled with pro-
Baathist propaganda.
Until 1991, Iraq was home to 275 cinemas across the nation, even though during the era of Saddam Hussein many theaters were slowly closed down. When the
First Gulf War began, film-making equipment and celluloids were banned from entering the country because of an international embargo put on Iraq.
Post-invasion of Iraq
In 2003, film production in Iraq halted because of the
U.S. invasion. In the same year, the National Film Archives in Iraq was bombed by the U.S. army and almost all of its celluloid collection was wiped away. Following from this, the Iraqi Independent Film Centre (IIFC) became active, which was formally established in 2009 by founder
Mohammed Al-Daradji. It was the first Iraqi organization of its kind where cultural preservation of the movie industry was its objective.
In 2014, the Al-Nahj festival was founded, a film festival which was focused on short films and documentaries.
In 2017, the first Iraqi-made film was released after 27 years in Baghdad. ''
The Journey The Journey may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Journey'' (1942 film), or ''El viaje'', an Argentine film
* ''The Journey'' (1959 film), an American drama starring Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, and Jason Robards about the Hungarian Revoluti ...
'' is a psychological thriller film directed by Mohammed Al-Daradji with
Zahraa Ghandour in the leading role.
Notable people in Iraqi cinema
Iran
*
Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...
- Director
*
Parviz Shahbazi
Parviz Shahbazi is an Iranian filmmaker.
Biography
Shahbazi is a graduate of filmmaking in Iran. During the early 80's he began writing short stories and directing short films. He edited several films and directed 12 short films before making h ...
- Director
*
Majid Majidi
Majid Majidi ( fa, مجید مجیدی, ; born 17 April 1959) is an Iranian film director, producer, and screenwriter, who started his film career as an actor. In his films, Majidi has touched on many themes and genres and has won numerous inte ...
- Director
*
Asghar Farhadi
Asghar Farhadi ( fa, اصغر فرهادی, ; born 7 May 1972)[Soureh Movie Database](_blank) - Director
*
Saeed Roustayi - Director
*
Bahman Farmanara
Bahman Farmanara ( fa, بهمن فرمانآرا, Bahman Farmānārā; born 23 January 1942) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer.
Bahman Farmanara is the second son in a family of four brothers and one sister. The fa ...
- Director
*
Bahram Beyzai
Bahrām Beyzāêi (also spelt Beizāi, Beyzāêi, fa, بهرام بیضائی; born 26 December 1938) is an Iranian playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, film editor, and '' ostād'' ("master") of Persian letters, arts and Iranian studie ...
- Director
*
Ali Hatami - Director
*
Dariush Mehrjui
Dariush Mehrju'i ( fa, داریوش مهرجویی , born 8 December 1939, also spelled as ''Mehrjui'', ''Mehrjoui'', Mehrjooi, and ''Mehrjuyi'') is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and a member of the Iranian Academy of ...
- Director
Israel
History of the industry
The history of Israeli cinema is so closely related to the history of the state of Israel itself since some of the wars and international conflicts that the country has started or been involved in inspired Israeli film directors and gave rise to the different periods of the nation's film industry.
Some authors consider 1948 as the year in which the Israeli film industry was born along with the establishment of the state of Israel, others hold that its trajectory dates back to the 1920s when the silent films of
Ya'akov Ben-Dov and other Israeli film directors made their appearance, but what they all agree on is that ''Zionist Realism Cinema'' dominated the industry until the 1950s. The films of this cinematic current were part of the propagandistic material used by Zionist organizations during the pre-statehood period to encourage the migration of European Jews to Palestine, they emphasized the agricultural way of living in the land of Palestine and featured traditional symbols that Jews could relate to, such as the Star of David and the Menorah.
Between the end of World War II and the declaration of the Jewish state, Israeli films portrayed holocaust survivors and their journey to escape their tragic past of persecution, homelessness, and desolation in order to become true Israelis and fulfill their "duty" to claim the land, build settlements, and begin a new life in Palestine. Post-1948 films shifted from the Holocaust theme and started to highlight the new Israeli 'heroes', mainly the soldiers and the '
Sabras' (newborn Israelis). After the outbreak of the
Arab-Israeli conflict
The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
, these films were one way in which the new state forged a nationalist narrative and portrayed how the perfect Hebrew Israeli men should be
This branch of the Zionist Realism genre is called the ''Heroic-Nationalist Cinema''.
In the 1960s-70s, two new film genres were born. The first one, the
Bourekas films, named after a popular local pastry, were comedies and melodramas that depicted the inter-ethnic conflict between
Mizrahi
''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' ( he, מזרחי) has two meanings.
In the literal Hebrew meaning ''Eastern'', it may refer to:
*Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East
* Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberian P ...
and
Ashkenazi Jews, which generally was resolved by means of the consummation of a mixed marriage. The ingenuity of Bourekas filmmakers was, on one hand, their ability to use comedy and sentimentalism as a way to avoid serious involvement with more problematic issues and, on the other, their effort to legitimize Mizrahim as part of the Jewish-Israeli society through the marriage plot. The most famous of these films was
Ephraim Kishon
Ephraim Kishon (: August 23, 1924 – January 29, 2005) was a Hungarian-born Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and Oscar-nominated film director. He was one of the most widely read contemporary satirists in Israel, and was also particula ...
's ''Sallah Shabati'' (1964), which was the first Israeli film nominated for an Oscar award and a turning point in the Israeli film industry's history due to its combination of elements from the new and modern Israeli cinema. The second genre to appear during these decades was the ''New Sensibility'' cinema, also labeled as personal cinema or the Israeli New Wave. This current was characterized by low production budget films with urban scenery, debutant actors or non-actors as protagonists, experimental cinematic techniques, open-ended plots, and unconventional narrative strategies. However, the most important thing connecting these films was a strong motivation to break with the political subordination of films to Zionist ideology and a sense of fight for the recognition of film maker's artistic autonomy.
The aftermath of the
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
in 1973, the electoral victory of
Menachen Begin in 1977, and the rise of the
Likud
Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sha ...
party in the country's political arena created the perfect environment for the birth of a new cinematic trend: films of the ''Political Cinema'' or ''Protest Cinema'' of the 1980s was the way in which Israeli filmmakers showed their opposition to the new right-wing government and protested against the political and social reality in Israel. The themes handled in these films were varied; they portrayed the complexity of the relationship between Holocaust survivors and native Israeli Jews; they criticized Israeli militarism, and they exposed the colonialist side of the Zionist mission in Palestine.
Another important aspect of this new cinematic wave was that it questioned the Israeli identity and it did so by altering the traditional characteristics of the protagonists; for instance, the former 'Sabra hero' of the ''Zionist Realism'' cinema was now presented as a physically impotent, mentally damaged, weak, or frustrated soldier.
Notable people in Israeli cinema
Jordan
History of the Industry
The first known cinema in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
was the Petra Cinema in 1935. However, it is said that there was a cinema called 'Abu Siyah' in the 1920s and one of the first films it screened were
Charlie Chaplin's silent films. As opposed to Egypt and Lebanon, Jordan joined the film industry much later, with their first films being released in the 1950s. The reason was most likely due to the fact that Jordan gained independence from the British mandate in 1946.
![Al_Hussein_Cinema_Amman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Al_Hussein_Cinema_Amman.jpg)
The first film to be created in Jordan was ''Struggle in Jerash,'' being released eleven years later in 1957. The film was set in Jordan and
Palestine and was a romance film (especially with the success of such films were in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
at the time). To this day, this film is used as a reference to how Jordan and Palestine looked like in the 1950s. This film also tried to introduce the idea of Jordanian nationalism. In fact, at one point in the film, the female love interest, Maria, says, "As long as I am by you I feel like I am home." The male love interest, Atif, replies "you are truly home," and then Maria says, "It's true, I was born in Jordan".
It was directed by the Jordanian director, Wasif Al-Shaikh and was filmed by the Palestinian refugee, Ibrahim Hassan Sirhan, who created many documentary-styled films in Palestine in the years before. Historians disagree over whether this was documentary or narrative film, because it uses elements of both. In 1964, ''A Storm on Petra'' by the Egyptian director, Farooq Ajrama was created. This film was a collaboration between the film industries of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Italy, and was distributed internationally.
Since then, only four new films were made. Instead, there were more Western studios that were filming in Jordan in order to use Wadi Rum and other desert-like areas as locations for many of their films. Some of the more famous examples include, ''
Lawrence of Arabia
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...
'' (1962) and ''
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)''
''.'' Years later, the
Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation was founded in 1989 to help cultivate a cinema culture of Arab films in an attempt to establish the film industry in Jordan. Moreover, in 2003 the
Royal Film Commission was established that was also an attempt to encourage the production of Jordanian films.
As a result, more Jordanian films were being produced including, the 2014 Academy Award nominee, ''
Theeb
''Theeb'' ( ar, ذيب ''dhīb'' , "wolf") is a 2014 internationally co-produced period drama thriller film written and directed by Naji Abu Nowar. It is a coming-of-age story about a Bedouin boy, Theeb, who must survive in the wide-open Wad ...
,
Captain Abu Raed
''Captain Abu Raed'' ( ar, كابتن أبو رائد) is a 2007 Jordanian film directed and written by Amin Matalqa. It is the first feature film produced in Jordan in more than 50 years. The Royal Film Commission of Jordan endorsed ''Captain A ...
'' (2008), and ''
3000 Nights'' (2016) which was a recipient of the Royal Film Commission's Fund.
The Commission fund is central to Jordan's contemporary film infrastructure and serves as a backdrop for
Arab Cinema
Arab cinema or Arabic cinema ( ar, السينما العربية, al-sīnemā al-ʿArabīyah) refers to the film industry of the Arab world which depends for most of its production on the Egyptian cinema.
Overview
There is no single descrip ...
as a whole through a grants program, support for local filmmakers and an established series of workshops. Increasingly, Jordan has been capitalizing on its unique landscapes as ideal film location (especially
Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum ( ar, وادي رم ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ar, وادي القمر ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, about to the east ...
) and is now becoming a go to destination for Hollywood prestige pictures which around the world such as
Lawrence of Arabia
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...
,
The Martian, or even
Star Wars: Rogue One. Therefore, natural landscapes can be considered an essential part of Jordan's film infrastructure because it enables the import of internationally acclaimed film productions.
Notable Directors and Films
Kuwait
''Sons of Sinbad'' was the first movie shot in Kuwait, in 1939 by Alan Villier.
The
Kuwait Cinema Company was then established in 1954, with the first cinema located in the Sharq area. It now runs the Cinescape cinema chain, the only theatre chain available to Kuwaiti cinema goers. The well-known Kuwaiti film
''Bas Ya Bahar'' was produced in 1972 by Khalid al Siddiq, which tells the story of a pearl diver who is hunting for a large pearl so that he can marry a woman from a rich family. The film is set in Kuwait's pre-oil days and is critical of society and its treatment of women and religion.
(See
Cinema of Kuwait
Cinema in Kuwait was introduced in the mid-20th century. The dominance of American cinema posed a problem in the formation of Arab cinema in general and of Kuwaiti cinema in particular. French film critic Guy Hennebelle argued that Arab intellectu ...
).
Lebanon
History of the Industry
![Salah Zulfikar&Sabah](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Salah_Zulfikar%26Sabah.jpg)
The history of film in Lebanon goes back to the 1880s.
Two years after the
Lumière Brothers
Lumière is French for 'light'.
Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to:
* Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People
*Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV
* Institut Lumière, ...
publicly projected their first film in December 1885 (Paris, France), they began sending traveling representatives to tour different countries to show their movies. One of the cities that they visited was Lebanon's capital city, Beirut.
Several years later, in 1909, the first movie theater was opened in the same city by the
Pathé Frères
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...
. These events helped cultivate a film-viewing culture into the country.
Eventually, Jordano Pidutti, who was Italian driver to a well-known Lebanese family (who was fluent in Arabic and spent several years in the country) directed the first-ever silent film in Lebanon - ''The Adventures of Elias Mabrouk'' (1929).
With the arrival of sound came many developments in Lebanese film production. In 1933, Lumar Film Company, the first ever-film production company opened and was funded by Herta Gargour. The technicians of the company were trained by Pathé Studios in France.
By 1934, Lumar Film Company created the first Arabic-speaking Lebanese film, In the ''Ruins of Baalbak''. This film was also the first to be completely created in an Arab country (including film development). After a five-year pause in progress, studios such as Studio Al-Arz and Studio Haroun started and had all the necessary equipment to make movies in the 1950s. Although the 50s, was when these films included countryside locations and the Lebanese dialect, they flopped commercially.
As a result, studios started create films that were similar to the Egyptian melodramatic and bedouin films, which were doing well commercially at the time. Moreover, at this time, Egyptian filmmakers started going to Lebanon to film especially after the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and the political stability of Lebanon at the time. This led to films that did not have a distinct Lebanese identity since Lebanese filmmakers were trying to imitate the success of Egyptian films while Egyptian filmmakers were creating their same old Egyptian films in Lebanon. Between 1963 and 1970 there were 100 films produced in Lebanon, and from them 54 were in the Egyptian dialect.
![The_Egg_cinema_in_Beirut_Lebanon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/The_Egg_cinema_in_Beirut_Lebanon.jpg)
Following the
Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), cinema infrastructure and many of the film reels were destroyed. The Egyptian filmmakers went back to Egypt since it was more politically stable especially following the end of the film ideology set by the public film sector.
The Civil War in Lebanon brought more complications to filmmaking, especially when it came to resources. There, the focus was creating commercial films for television. This included entertainment shows for comedy, news reels, political documentaries (which were read by viewers differently depending on which political party they supported), and melodramas that were usually knock-offs of popular films.
One film medium that became incredibly popular during the war was the viewing and creation of films through home video.
This led the film ''
West Beyrouth
''West Beirut'' (french: West Beyrouth (À l'abri les enfants); ar, بيروت الغربية ()) is a 1998 Lebanese drama film, written and directed by Ziad Doueiri. The film was selected as the Lebanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Fi ...
'' (
Ziad Doueiri
Ziad Doueiri ( ar , زياد دويري ; born October 7, 1963) is a Lebanese film director, cinematographer and writer. He is best known for his award-winning films ''West Beirut'' (1998) and '' The Insult'' (2017), a film that was nominated a ...
, 1998) to become a very popular feature film amongst Lebanese people at the time. The film highlighted the war through a narrative that combined clips and elements of home video with a conventional film (in a Lebanese dialect). This kickstarted Lebanese cinema into a renaissance period and helped solve the identity crisis.
Lebanon's modern film industry has only become more developed and more productive since then. Its current infrastructure (2019) includes some of the biggest and most numerous film institutions and funding bodies such
AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture), Al Mawred (government), and Zoomal (crowd funding), and more. As for film festivals, Lebanon hosts the annual Beirut International Film Festival alongside less notable film festivals. As a result, by 2016 Lebanon has been one of the leading countries in cinema production. Though, due to a lack of mainstream infrastructure and bodies which support more independent cinema, it leads on independent movies front by producing 20% of Arab independent cinema a year.
Lebanon's modern film industry has only become more developed and more productive since then. In recent years, two Lebanese films have been nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, ''
The Insult'' (Ziad Doueiri 2017) and ''
Capernaum
Capernaum ( ; he, כְּפַר נַחוּם, Kfar Naḥum, Nahum's village; ar, كفر ناحوم, Kafr Nāḥūm) was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It ...
'' (Nadine Labaki, 2018).
Notable Directors and Films
Oman
The cinema of
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
is reportedly small, with only one major film having been released. It hosts the Muscat Film Festival annually since 2005. ''Al-Boom'', Oman's first feature-length film, premiered in 2006.
Palestine
History of the Industry
Film in Palestine began when the
Lumière brothers
Lumière is French for 'light'.
Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to:
* Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People
*Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV
* Institut Lumière, ...
sought out to receive 'exotic' shots of Palestine as the proclaimed 'Holy Land' they used this in their film ''La Palestina en 1896'' (1897).
This film was simply observational footage of people living their everyday lives in Palestine. In 1900, the films of the Lumière brothers were screened in Europa Hotel in the city of Jerusalem
and in 1908, Egyptian Jews opened a cinema in Jerusalem called, Oracle.
Similar to Egypt and Lebanon, the first film made in Palestine was actually not made by Palestinians at all. It was called ''The First Film of Palestine'' (1911) made by Morey Rosenberg and was used to perpetuate Zionist propaganda and the idea of Palestine being a "a land without people for a people without land".
As for actual first Palestinian films, similar to the rest of the Arab world, they were direct-cinema-styled documentaries or travelogues. In the theaters, there was a law issued by the government in 1929 called The Moving Pictures Act, which censored films that contained immoral actions and behaviors that may in any way negatively impact the audience.
In 1935, Ibrahim Hassan Sirhan (who would later go and become the cinematographer of Jordan's first feature film ''Struggle in Jerash'') documented a 20-minute film on the visit of the Saudi
Prince Saud
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
to Jerusalem and Jaffa.
Zionist forms of propaganda, specifically news reels, continued until the late 1960s. With the
Palestinian Nakba of 1948 and the declaration of the state of Israel, many Palestinians started to leave Palestine and there were no records of any Palestinian films at the time. However, there was an Egyptian film that was made called ''Girl from Palestine'' (1948) that discussed this issue . Following the political instabilities in Palestine, the
Palestine Liberation Organization was formed in 1964.
Still, most of the film-related operations of Palestinian filmmakers were happening outside the country. In 1968, the Palestinian Film Unit was founded in Jordan and the some films were being created in exile in Lebanon where many Palestinians found refuge.
The first film created by the Palestinian Film Unit in Jordan was a documentary called ''No Peaceful Solution!'' (1968). After creating a few films in Jordan, there were some tensions between Jordanian Authorities and the Palestinian resistance movement, that lead to the film unit to be relocated to Lebanon.
By simply reading the titles of the films that the Palestinians were making at the time, the revolutionary mindsets and intentions were very clear. Some examples include, ''Why We Plant Roses, Why We Carry Weapons'' (1973), ''The Guns Will Never Keep Quiet'' (1973) and ''The Guns are Unified'' (1974). Regardless, by 1982, there were more than sixty movies that were created and almost all of them were documentaries.
However, in 1987, the first feature-length fiction film that was filmed in historic Palestine was released called,
Wedding in Galilee, by
Michel Khleifi. This introduced post-revolutionary filmmaking that contained more experimental and fiction films (and elements).
Unfortunately, even then, Palestine did not possess the resources and infrastructure neither to create nor to distribute their films to their native audiences.
To this very day, the industry is slowly growing and more recently, two of their films have been nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film:
Omar (2013) and
Paradise Now
''Paradise Now'' ( ar, الجنّة الآن, al-Janna al-ʾāna) is a political and psychological drama film directed by Hany Abu-Assad about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best ...
(2005) (both by director
Hany Abu-Assad
Hany Abu-Assad ( ar, هاني أبو أسعد; born 11 October 1961) is a Palestinian-Dutch film director. He has received two Academy Award nominations: in 2006 for his film ''Paradise Now'', and again in 2013 for his film ''Omar''.
Early life ...
).
Because a great part of the Palestinian population is scattered around the world, and due to political turmoil in the country,
Palestine does not have the necessary governmental or private support to sustain its own film industry and therefore the few Palestinian filmmakers heavily rely on regional and international institutions which they most of the time have access to because of their dual nationality. Nonetheless, as a result of the Palestinian diaspora around the world, there have been numerous film festivals dedicated to the Palestinian theme which are located in foreign cities such as London, Doha, and even Chicago.
Notable Directors and Films
Qatar
History of the industry
Qatar has little known cinema history. The Qatar Cinema Company was founded in 1970, which built a number of movie theaters showing foreign films.
There has been little development of the Qatari film industry,
though that may be set to change since the founding of the
Doha Film Institute
Doha Film Institute (DFI) is a nonprofit cultural organisation established in 2010 by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani to support the growth of the Qatari film community and to provide funding and international networking oppo ...
in 2010, which aims to bring together all of the country's film making initiatives and projects.
Qatar also hosted an annual
Doha Tribeca Film Festival
The Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) was an annual five-day film festival that was organised from 2009 to 2012 to promote Arab and international films, and to develop a sustainable film industry in Qatar. One of Qatar's largest entertainment eve ...
launched in 2009 but was discontinued in 2012.
Doha Film Institute
Doha Film Institute (DFI) is a nonprofit cultural organisation established in 2010 by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani to support the growth of the Qatari film community and to provide funding and international networking oppo ...
was created by
Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani's initiative in 2010 to primarily foster a film culture and industry for Qatar's 2030 vision of a knowledge based economy but also to alternatively enhance the region's film industry. It does so primarily through grants, workshops, labs and development activities which aims at the local Qatari talent's development but is also open to regional MENA talent. For its first initiatives, Doha Film Institute partnered with the Tribeca Enterprise to launch the
Doha Tribeca Film Festival
The Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) was an annual five-day film festival that was organised from 2009 to 2012 to promote Arab and international films, and to develop a sustainable film industry in Qatar. One of Qatar's largest entertainment eve ...
which aimed to foster a grass root film industry but was ended after four years to make way to other initiatives such as the annual Qumra (five editions) and the Ajyal Film Festival (seven editions). The Doha Film Institute's new trajectory with its new initiatives is to focus its efforts fostering interest from an early in the local community, thus the children based judging for the Ajyal Film Festival. It is also to strengthen the making and appeal of its annually granted projects through the Qumra projects.
Qatar's current exhibition and distribution scheme is encouraged by a high demand of film viewing in theaters in addition to widespread online viewing, with the latter encourage theatrical visits from entertainment seekers in Qatar In 2017 only, there was a surge of 50 cinemas across Qatar in only 6 months as there was a rise of 35% in moviegoers across the nation. The exhibition landscape is competitively shared between worldwide exhibitors such as Novo, Vox and Gulf Media but also locally based theaters such as Landmark and Doha cinema (Souq Waqif).
Qatar's current contemporary cinema infrastructure includes its national film center charged of local and regional development of the film scene along with a competitive distribution and growing theatrical distribution landscape. Qatar does not have many feature films made by local talent, on the other hand, Qatari film companies have funded many films which won prestigious awards. The following is a list of notable films financed by Qatar.
Notable directors and films (funded)
Saudi Arabia
History
Initially, Saudi Arabia did not refute the idea of movie theaters and allowed independent improvised cinemas which functioned outside of government oversight.
Similar to many of the other Arab countries, cinema was introduced into Saudi Arabia by westerners, who were working for oil and gas companies in Saudi Arabia, such as
Aramco
Saudi Aramco ( ar, أرامكو السعودية '), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company) or simply Aramco, is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran. , it is one of ...
, at the time.
This led to the building of projector screens in residential buildings in the 1930s.
The cinemas went on to screen Egyptian films of the golden era and in 1959, almost 70% of the films made in Egypt that year, were exported in 16mm film to Saudi Arabia.
However, these films were censored and were only supposed to be screened privately.
Later on, this move was blocked for concerns that cinema would interfere with religious public and private life, therefore leading in a total cinema blackout during the 1990s and early 2000s. the exception being the
IMAX system instated by Khalid in the city of
Khobar
Khobar ( ar, ٱلْخُبَر, translit=al-Khobar) is a city and governorate in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf. With a population of 457,748 as of 2017, Khobar is part of the 'Triplet ...
which only displayed scientific and religious oriented content. A potential explanation to why the religious scholars were not fans of cinema, according to Shafik, could be because film is seen as bringing inanimate objects to life, which was something that seemed to compete with the power of God.
However, there have been reports of secret cinemas operating in recent years,
with organizers denying that it promotes un-Islamic values. There are also reports of many Saudi citizens traveling to neighboring states to go to the cinema,
or watching films online.
Furthermore, the film industry is receiving support from
Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal
Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud ( ar, الوليد بن طلال آل سعود; born 7 March 1955) is a Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman, investor, philanthropist and royal. He was listed on ''Time'' magazine's Time 100, an annual list of the hu ...
, owner of entertainment company
Rotana, which some see as an encouraging sign for the reestablishment of cinema in Saudi Arabia.
With the rise of digital and social network, pressure was mounting on Saudi Arabia in regards to the permissibility of cinemas as many were watching films online anyway. In 2005, an improvised cinema in Riyadh was officially opened though limited to men and children only to prevent gender mixing in a public space. This was not the only attempt to bring back cinema; in 2006, ''How’s It Going?'' became the first fully Saudi funded feature film. It also starred a Saudi actress.
here have been several additional signs of relaxation, for example, Jeddah has started hosting a European Film Festival since 2006, and a single Saudi film festival was held in Dammam in 2008,
though this did not meet with a favorable response from some of the more extreme religious leaders. Furthermore, the film
Menahi
''Menahi (Arabic: مناحي)'' is a Saudi comedy film that was released in 2009. Fayez al-Malki is the lead actor. Renown Syrian actress Muna Wassef was also amongst the cast.
Plot
The film is about a Bedouin villager named "Menahi" who gets r ...
was screened in Riyadh in 2009, although women were banned from attending.
Finally, in 2017, efforts led by the King's son and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,
Mohamed Bin Salman, targeted the enhancement of the entertainment sector in Saudi Arabia including strengthening the theatre and cinema infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
The kingdoms filmography started in 2004 with an approval from the Ministry of Culture for a location shoot in the UAE. What followed was a small string of local talent counting on foreign exhibitions to showcase their work:
Sudan
Syria
United Arab Emirates
There is an expanding film industry in the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...
, strengthened by the annual
Gulf Film Festival showcasing cinematic productions from the region, as well as the
Dubai International Film Festival
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ar, مهرجان دبي السينمائي الدولي) is the leading film festival in the Arab region. The 12th edition of DIFF took place from December 9 – 16, 2015. In 2018, the DIFF announc ...
, which was launched in 2004. UAE film-makers have been able to contribute a large volume of films to these festivals.
UAE's first horror film is set to premier in the fall of 2013 after some delays in production.
Yemen
See also
*
Cinema of Africa
*
Cinema of Asia
Asian cinema refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Asia. However, in countries like the United States, it is often used to refer only to the cinema of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. West Asian cinema is ...
*
Cinema of Central Asia
The Cinema of Central Asia usually refers to the cinema of five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). Central Asian cinema can further be divided into three historical periods, Soviet Central Asi ...
*
East Asian cinema
East Asian cinema is cinema produced in East Asia or by people from this region. It is part of Asian cinema, which in turn is part of world cinema.
The most significant film industries that are categorized as East Asian cinema are the industrie ...
*
List of cinema of the world
This is a list of cinema of the world by continent and country.
By continent
*Cinema of Africa
*Cinema of Asia
** South Asian cinema
**Southeast Asian cinema
* Cinema of North America
* Cinema of Latin America
* Cinema of Europe
* Cinema of Ocean ...
*
South Asian cinema
South Asian cinema refers to the cinema of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The broader terms Asian cinema, Eastern cinema and Oriental cinema in common usage often encompass South Asia as well as Ea ...
*
Southeast Asian cinema Southeast Asian cinema is the film industry and films produced in, or by natives of Southeast Asia. It includes any films produced in Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam ...
*
World cinema
World cinema is a term in film theory that refers to films made outside of the American motion picture industry, particularly those in opposition to the aesthetics and values of commercial American cinema.Nagib, Lúcia. "Towards a positive de ...
*
Award Best Actressess in the Middle East for world
References
External links
IMDB entry for Egypt
*
ttps://www.imdb.com/Sections/Countries/Oman/ IMDB entry for OmanIMDB entry for Yemen
{{Middle East
Middle East
Asian cinema
African cinema