Arab Cinema
Films by and/or about the Arab world
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- DirectorYousry NasrallahStarsSeif AbdelrahmanAhmed KamalAbla KamelNoubi, an avowed communist from a wealthy family, sets out to find his half-brother Gamal after Gamal inherits his father's fortune. In the process, Noubi is supposed to kill his stepmother Raifa, a supposed drug dealer, before she can kill Gamal.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsNaglaa FathiAhmed ZakiFarid ShawqiYehia is a young man living in the cosmopolitan Alexandria during World War II. Inspired by American movies and Shakespeare, he aspires to be an actor, but struggles to pursue his Hollywood dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.
- DirectorJehane NoujaimStarsSamir KhaderJosh RushingGeorge W. BushA documentary on perception of the United States's war with Iraq, with an emphasis on Al Jazeera's coverage.
- DirectorJames LongleyStarsMohammed HejaziFocuses on 13-year-old Mohammed Hejazi, a second-grade dropout the filmmaker encountered at the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children often gather to throw stones.
- DirectorDavid O. RussellStarsGeorge ClooneyMark WahlbergIce CubeIn the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, four soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help.
- DirectorDanniel DannielJuliano Mer-KhamisStarsArna Mer KhamisJuliano Mer-KhamisJuliano Mer Khamis' documentary on his mother, Arna, an activist against the Israeli occupation who founded an alternative education system for Palestinian children.
- DirectorPeter BarbosaGarrett LenoirStarsMaher SabryGay people exist in Armenia, Syria, Iran, Egypt and Sudan too. They are Christians, Muslims and Jews, belonging to and rejected by their own cultures. In this series of interview we learn a bit about their lives and hear a few critiques of western media and its oversimplified, often negative depictions of these peoples and cultures.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorSinan AntoonBassam HaddadMaya MikdashiStarsSinan AntoonAbout Baghdad is the first film made about Iraq after the fall of the Ba'ath regime in July 2003. It is also perhaps the first effort to privilege the voices of the Iraqi people, from all walks of life as well as social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. While many have talked about and for the Iraqi people, few media outlets have sought to probe beyond the simplistic binary of pro-US/pro-Saddam perspective so often found in Western and Arab media portrayals of Iraq. About Baghdad presents Iraqis who describe the pain, complexity and suffering of living under decades of tyranny, oppression, wars, sanctions and now occupation. Silenced for so long by a regime that sought to replace the people with the image of just one man, and re-silenced by the bombs and occupation forces, the Iraqi people long to speak out and to claim their future. About Baghdad is a small step forward towards that goal in presenting audiences with their first opportunity to hear unadulterated Iraqi voices that should be privileged regardless of one's perspective on the war and the justifications given for it. We found in Baghdad a people who are tired, traumatized and uncertain about their future, and yet determined and united in seeking to build a strong nation for its people.
- DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsRami DoueiriNaamar SahliMohamad ChamasIn April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy.
- DirectorMai MasriFarah and Issa, two streetwise children living in Beirut's Palestinian Shatila refugee camp, use their imaginations and creativity to come to terms with the realities of growing up in a refugee camp that has survived massacre, siege, and starvation.
- DirectorMai Masri
- DirectorMai MasriStarsManar FarajMona ZaarouraOffering a rare glimpse into one side of the Middle East conflict, Frontiers of Dreams and Fears explores the lives of a group of Palestinian children growing up in refugee camps. The film focuses on two teenage girls, Mona and Manar. Although they live in refugee camps miles apart, the girls manage to communicate and become friends despite the overwhelming barriers that separate them. The film reveals their lives, dreams, and growing relationship, at first through email, culminating in their dramatic meeting at the fence that separates them at the Lebanese/Israeli border.
- DirectorSut JhallyBathsheba RatzkoffStarsSeth AckermanStav AdiviArik AschermanThis video shows how the foreign policy interests of American political elites-working in combination with Israeli public relations stratgies-influence US news reporting about the Middle East conflict. Combining American and British TV news clips with observations of analysts, journalists and political activists, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a brief historical overview, a striking media comparison, and an examination of factors that have distorted U.S. media coverage and, in turn, American public opinion.
- DirectorSaverio CostanzoStarsMohammad BakriLior MillerHend AyoubA Palestinian family is trapped inside a house commandeered by Israeli soldiers.
- DirectorMaya SanbarJeffrey SaundersStarsMorad FareedRoberto KetlunAlfred RiedlDocumentary about a team of men who are united by the desire to represent their people by playing for the Palestinian National Football team. They are modern day heroes in a land that badly needs them.
- DirectorSamir HabchiStarsFadi Abou KhalilPhilippe AkikiChehade El-HatchitiBeirut, civil war. There are checkpoints, arbitrary executions, car bombs, machine guns, handguns, funeral processions, ambushes, hot heads, vendettas, and revenge. Cruelty and death are everywhere. Akram, who's been studying in Russia, is back in Beirut on holiday and plans to visit his mother in his home village. But can he get there? He spends time with friends in the city; they tell stories of death. Danger is on all sides. Driving down the street may lead to murder. Touches of the surreal appear: are they real, are they dreams? Can Akram survive? If so, at what cost?
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsAyoub AhmadiRojin YounessiAmaneh Ekhtiar-diniYoung Iranian Kurdish siblings try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children, like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorJeremy EarpSut JhallyStarsBo DerekAna ObregónJack ShaheenThis groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today. Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and the effects of specific US domestic and international policies on their lives. By inspiring critical thinking about the social, political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab history and culture.
- DirectorJosef FaresStarsImad CreidiAntoinette TurkElias GergiA Lebanese boy gets separated from his family during the civil war and ends up in Sweden.
- DirectorLaura PoitrasDocumentary by Oscar winner Laura Poitras about the war in Iraq.
- DirectorLine HalvorsenStarsAbdullah Al-ArianLaila Al-ArianLama Al-ArianUSA vs AL-ARIAN is a close portrait of an Arab-American family facing terrorism charges leveled by the U.S. Government. The film shows a personal story of a family living in a society where fear of terrorism has resulted in increasing stigmatization and discrimination against Muslims.
- DirectorYousry NasrallahStarsRim TurkiOrwa NyrabiaBasel KhayyatIn the beginning was Palestine, and the story of Younes (Orwa Nyrabia) began, known as Abou Salem, known as the Man, said to be the father of Ibrahim, fighting the English from the age of 16, still fighting, but retrenched in the Lebanon, illegal in his own country ; the story of Nahila (Rim Turki) also began, married to him when she was twelve, breast-feeding their first child, born during the villagers' exhausting trek towards the North, fleeing their burning homes, Nahila whom he met secretly in a cave in Bab El Chams, in Galilee. Again it is the story of Doctor Khalil (Bassel Khayat), abandoned by his mother in the shambles of the refugee camps, who, in Beirut, rescued Younes in a deep coma, lulling him with the tragic story of his people ; and yet again it is that of Chams (Hala Omran) whom Khalil loved and was executed by his companions in arms. Fifty years of history full of suffering, hope and love.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsClara KhouryKhalifa NatourIsmael DabbagAbout a Palestinian girl of 17 who wants to get married to the man of her own choosing. Rana wakes up one morning to an ultimatum delivered by her father: she must either choose a husband from a preselected list of men, or she must leave Palestine for Egypt with her father by 4:00 that afternoon. With ten hours to find her boyfriend in occupied Jerusalem, she sneaks out of her father's house at daybreak to find her forbidden love Khalil (Natour).