Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity (New Revised Edition)

Viola Shafik

Since it was first published in 1998, Viola ShafikÕs Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity has become an indispensable work for scholars of film and the contemporary Middle East. Combining detailed narrative historyÑeconomic, ideological, and aestheticÑwith thought-provoking analysis, Arab Cinema provides a comprehensive overview of cinema in the Arab world, tracing the industryÕs development from colonial times to the present. It analyzes the ambiguous relationship with commercial western cinema, and the effect of Egyptian market dominance in the region. Tracing the influence on the medium of local and regional art forms and modes of thought, both classical and popular, Shafik shows how indigenous and external factors combine in a dynamic process of Òcultural repackaging.Ó

Now updated to reflect cultural shifts in the last two decades, this revised edition contains a new afterword highlighting the latest developments in popular and in art-house filmmaking, with a special focus on Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and the Gulf States. While exploring problematic issues such as European co-production for Arab art films, including their relation to cultural identity and their reception in the region and abroad, this new edition introduces readers to some of the most compelling cinematic works of the last decades.