Origins and patterns in the discourse of new Arab cinema.

• Author: Khoury, Malek

INTRODUCTION

AS THE WEST GRAPPLES TO COME to grips with Arab and Muslim cultures in a number of ways, the study of Arab cinema stands as an effective tool for understanding and assessing issues of great impact on one of the world's most intense areas of political and ideological apprehensions. Today there is increased interest in films originating in the Arab world. In English speaking countries, films from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia for example are making wider and more frequent rounds than ever before in local film festivals and repertoire theaters. This is matched by newly found acknowledgement of various Arab films in English language film scholarship. (1) Perhaps for the first time in the history of North American cultural scholarship this growth of interest has the potential of initiating a much needed effort to fill the existing gap in the academic study of Arab cinema.

New Arab Cinema is an emerging movement, which denotes the protracted development of an indigenous film practice; it informs and is informed by complex cultural continuities, interruptions and transformations. This movement inherits in various ways aspects of the rich legacy of Egyptian Arab cinema, which, despite its recent difficulties continues to be among the most popular indigenous cinemas in the world today. Furthermore, New Arab Cinema explores preoccupations that are of major relevance to different Muslim and non-Muslim post-colonial societies and cultural practices.

While New Arab Cinema is mainly informed by current social, political and cultural developments that have taken place over the last two decades in the "Middle East," it is equally augmented by persistent ideological and intellectual anxieties that have dominated the Arab world since the early 1800s.

This article maps out key thematic and stylistic elements that characterize New Arab Cinema's discourse and explores the historical contexts within which they have been emerging. Naturally, the bibliographic nature of this endeavor calls for temporal and regional breadth, but, as a result, it also risks leading to exclusions and makes it difficult to engage each film or theme in detail. Nevertheless, allowing for such breadth is unavoidable for appreciating the coherency and significance of a general body of film which was initially sporadic in its focus yet has recently become identifiable as part of a dynamic movement within Arab cinema. Equally as important and given the near absent familiarity of many non-Arab readers with Arab cinema in general--let alone with specific time-frames of its development--an overview of the subject facilitates further reading and research on this complex area of investigation. I have avoided extremely specialized Film Studies terminology and methods of analysis and have chosen an approach, which would be useful and accessible for both film and cultural studies scholars as well as social sciences, political and humanities researchers.

As I refer to films from various Arab countries (concentrating mainly on fiction feature films but without totally excluding relevant feature documentaries) I will illustrate how New Arab Cinema draws connections between, on the one hand, the anti-colonial struggle for national self-determination, and on the other, the struggle for cultural and social renewal. I will also draw attention to the interaction of films with major events that have afflicted various Arab regions over the last twenty years and their roots in earlier phases of contemporary Arab history.

In the first section of the article I provide a general historical framework for the study of New Arab Cinema. This section contextualizes the emergence of this cinema as part of a modernist continuum within the struggle for Arab national self-determination. However, I begin with a brief overview of the themes associated with the notion of modernity as approached by Arab intellectuals as far back as the mid to late 1800s during what is referred to as the period of Arab Renaissance (an-Nahda). I also lay out the general context within which New Arab Cinema incorporates various modernist themes and stylistic strategies and how they, on the one hand, complement propositions initiated during an-Nahda period, while on the other, provide a basis for contemporary rejuvenation of the struggle for national self-determination.

The remaining sections deal separately with these various themes and strategies and all, except for the last, focus on how films tackle the rise of populist religious fundamentalism, issues of anti-colonialism and the Palestine question, the notion of heterogeneity and national identity, and gender and sexual liberation. Finally, the last section (before the conclusion) demonstrates how the New Arab Cinema increasingly articulates modernist plot structures and texts; it explores this cinema's employment of self-reflexive strategies in the construction of cinematic narratives.

A GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR DISCUSSING NEW ARAB CINEMA

Various ideological and conceptual elements that inform the discourse of New Arab Cinema find their roots in the 19th century movement known as an-Nahda ("the Renaissance"). This movement epitomizes the early phases of anti-colonial struggles for national self-determination and unity when much of the Arab world, particularly east of the Mediterranean, was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1831 and 1840 Egyptian ruler Mohammad Ali and his son Ibrahim made the first attempt to create a larger united Arab state in modern history, which, in addition to Egypt, included greater Syria (modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan). That project was eventually crushed after a joint political and military campaign was initiated by the Ottoman Empire in alliance with Imperial Britain and the tacit approval of other European colonial powers at the time. But despite its failure, Mohammad Ali's attempt enhanced the intellectual and political maturation of the struggle for Arab unity, independence and modernization.

The subsequent emergence of an-Nahda movement specifically reflected an appreciation of the linkages between anti-colonial resistance, and the struggles against social and political backwardness and injustice, religious sectarianism and dogmatic interpretation of religion. As it advocated Arab emancipation and unity, economic and political modernization and intellectual rationalism this movement aspired for transformations that involved a "cross-fertilization" and integration of Muslim and Arab heritage with the humanist traditions of European Renaissance, the ideals of the French Revolution and 19th century scientific and industrial revolution. It also sought to create a more inclusive social contract that involved wider participation in public life by women and by religious and ethnic minorities in Arab society.

Within its own historical and cultural parameters, the Arab an-Nahda articulated paradoxical dispositions of a project, which was not dissimilar in its outlook to how "modernist" renewal has been historically expressed say within the Latin American context. That is, as "neither a break from the past nor a new way of describing and categorizing the present; [but] instead [as a re-articulation of] the process whereby historical and cultural formation mediate and condition contemporaneity" to quote Zuzana Pick. (2) However, Arab modernity and renewal more specifically emphasized the following: First, the dynamic recovery and preservation of Arab and Muslim history, literature and language. Second, the development of classical Arabic language and utility while making it more accessible to and informed by the realities of contemporary life, arts, literature and sciences. Third, seeking renewal and continuity in the process of developing literature and the arts by deepening their social relevance and stressing their connection with the wider heritage of humanity. (3) Modernity, as a specifically Arab frame of reference, equally finds its origins within a paradigm whereby Arab intellectuals (particularly from mid to late 19th and early 20th centuries) pursued an anti-colonial project for progressive political, social, economic and cultural renewal.

Today, there is a deep feeling among many Arabs that their struggle for national liberation remains an unfinished project. The persistent denial of the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people, launching of two major American military interventions over a period of less than fifteen years, positioning of hundreds of thousands of foreign troops on Arab soil, and American threats against Syria, all add to the general sense that national economic resources remain essentially under the control of neo-colonial powers and all contribute to a political malaise that dominates much of the Arab world today. Another backdrop is the rise of influence of fundamentalist groups and various forms of religious dogmatism. Many Arab intellectuals feel that this wave has hindered the process of democratization and social modernization in the area, and inadvertently contributed to the state of stagnation that has been afflicting the struggle for national self-determination and unity. All these issues have been integral to re-shaping Arab cultural discourse in literature, poetry, visual arts, music, theater and film over the last fifteen years. The general state of stagnation afflicting the Arab national liberation movement seems to have enhanced the emergence of vigorous self-critical approaches in dealing with and analyzing social, political and cultural realities in the region. In hindsight, this interest in critical and uncompromising evaluation of mistakes, roles and ideological pre-conceptions has reinvigorated Arab cultural discourse with a new vivacity that, in many ways, echoes what was taking place at the early stages of the development of an-Nahda movement in the 19th century.

For New Arab Cinema...