Since it was first published in 1998, Viola Shafik’s Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity has become an indispensable work for scholars of film and the contemporary Middle East. Combining detailed narrative history—economic, ideological, and aesthetic—with thought-provoking analysis, Arab Cinema provides a comprehensive overview of cinema in the Arab world, tracing the industry’s 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 “cultural repackaging.” 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.
Arab Cinema
History and Cultural Identity: Revised and Updated Edition
Since it was first published in 1998, Viola Shafik’s Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity has become an indispensable work for scholars of fil
$24.95
Viola Shafik studied Film and Middle Eastern Studies in Hamburg and works as a film scholar, creative
consultant, and filmmaker. She has directed several documentaries, most notably My Name Is Not Ali
(2011) and Arij: Scent of Revolution (2014). She is the author of Popular Egyptian Cinema: Gender,
Class, and Nation (AUC Press, 2007) and Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity (revised and
updated edition, AUC Press, 2016).
