Middle Eastern and North African cinema

**Middle Eastern and North African** **Cinema**  is a term for the movie productions that have taken place in any of the Middle East and North African countries.  Arab cinema includes Arabic films.

In the 19th Century, the region was divided between France and the United Kingdom. They had claimed protection over the countries through agreements and deals made between them (ie. Sykes-Picot Agreement). Because these countries did not have control over their economies and their political structures it was very hard to build national film industries. Only European movies were available. Culture was also repressed, especially in the French-protected countries, which made it even harder to produce films.

## The Timeline of Middle Eastern and North African Cinema 
### 1896 - The First Screening of a Movie in the Region 
The Lumière Brothers were the first film producers to present a movie to audiences in the  region. They screened a movie for a selected audience in **Egypt** in Cairo and Alexandria. In 1896 the first movie exhibition took place within the Ottoman Empire, in Istanbul. After the success of the first screenings, in 1897 screenings took place in cities at **Algeria** (Algiers, Oran), at **Tunisia** (Tunis), at the **Moroccan** royal palace Fez. In 1900 screenings were taking place at **Jerusalem** in the Europa Hotel. 

### 1896-1908 - The Creation of the First Cinemas 
Cinemas, also known as movie theaters, were soon built. The first was built in 1896 in Algiers and, shortly after, the Lumière Brothers built the *Cinematographé Lumière* in Alexandria.  Between 1906 and 1908 the French movie company Pathé built cinemas in Cairo and Alexandria, and in Tunis. The first cinemas, like the first screenings of movies, were not addressed towards the native people. Egypt was the first country in which movies had voice-overs in Arabic allowing native audiences to watch as well. While cinema, as a form of entertainment, was widely accepted in North Africa, in much of the Arabian Peninsula it was not because of religious reasons. 

### 1930s - Growth of National Cinema 
The 1930s begin with Egypt leading another successful production of a full length silent movie, *Zeinab*, and with the first Iranian movie being produced, *Abi and Rabi*.  

In 1933 Herta Gargour, a Lebanese woman, financed the opening of a Lebanese production company called *The Lumnar Film Company*. This production company produced the first film that was fully financed by Lebanese producers, *In the Ruins of Baalbek*. It was also the first movie in which the Lebanese dialect of Arabic was spoken.  

In 1934-35 the Studio Misr was established in Egypt. The film studio was founded by the Banque Misr, which is still a functioning bank, and under Talaat Harb a very well-known economist and co-founder of Banque Misr. Banque Misr was founded in 1920 and it had the goal of nationalizing Egypt's economy. The initiative to open their own film studio was part of Egypt's nationalization process. Harb managed to send young men abroad to learn the newest European techniques in film production and then with funding from Banque Misr acquired sophisticated equipment. The Studio Misr was a very successful project. It produced many successful movies, such as *Wedad, Munyet Shababi, al-‘Azeema, Salama fi Kheir*, and many more. The success of many of these movies was due to the movie touching on important social issues of the time such as poverty. Many big stars also grew through this company, such as Umm Kulthum who was already a successful singer, but started a successful acting career. 

Unfortunately, not all the countries saw the growth of national industries, especially those occupied by France, where native culture was repressed and only French culture was promoted. From the 1920s, especially in the 1930s many French movies were produced in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. These countries were used as backgrounds due to their "exotic" look and the perceptions that Europeans had about the "Orient." The use of these countries for their "exotic" features caused the reproduction of many negative stereotypes against the natives. In 1953 the first Turkish color film was produced by Muhsin Ertuğrul, called *Carpet-weaving Girl.* In Lebanon the Baalbek (Baalbeck) Studios were founded. In the same year *Where to?* by George Nasser was the first fully Lebanese movie that was presented at the Cannes Festival. Algeria gained its independence in 1962 after 8 years of war. At the time that liberation was granted, Algeria had 424 cinemas, many more than other countries of the Maghreb. Non-print sources of information were very important in Algeria when forming a national identity  because of the very high illiteracy rates. The use of cinema, or radio, played such a significant role in the independence war that the French declared those mediums colonial propaganda. By 1964, Algeria had managed to nationalize its film industry with a very important figure of Algerian cinema Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina. Algeria is home to a native group, Amazigh which speaks Berber. This group was always the most suppressed under French colonization, but it continued being suppressed even under an Algerian government. This can be seen in productions of ONCIC, an Algerian government-owned production company, where Berber languages were strictly forbidden.

Palestinian cinema also grew in the 60s as a form of resistance. Mustapha Abu Ali, Hany Jawhariya, and Sulafa Jadallah established a film unit in Jordan which was owned by Fatah, which at the time was the liberation force in Palestine. It produced documentaries about the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Other organizations such as the PFLP, the PDFLP, and the PLO also started producing documentaries to spread their cause, but they couldn't be as successful as the Algerian organizations because they had no access to the occupied territories. Their films focused more on the life conditions in refugee camps and in military actions and attacks that were taking place out of the occupied territories.      

Morocco gained its independence from France in 1956. The Moroccan state took no control over the cinemas. The first feature films were produced in 1968 by the national film organisation Centre Cinématographique Marocain, which was founded by colonial authorities in 1944. It is still the heart of Moroccan national cinema today. During the 60s Tunisia still struggled for independence so the movies produced in Tunisia were either French productions or films that demonstrated the struggle for independence. 

### 1970s - Decade of Turmoil 
The 1970s were a decade of instability in many of these countries. In 1970-71 the situation between Israel and Palestine evolved rapidly with thousands of Palestinians losing their life due to the Black September events. While this was a tragic escalation of the conflict, it allowed Palestinian Resistance Cinema to grow. In the same year, Syria organized the first International Film Festival for Young Arab Cinema in Damascus, and the Yeşilçam production in Turkey reached an average of about 300 productions annually. The movies that could be produced from then and on had to be approved by *The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance* (established in 1982) and had to fit in some specific "boxes." By 1983, the Iranian regime seemed more keen on producing and exporting films and the *Farabi Cinema Foundation* was established. During the 1980s few films were produced in Iran but they were successful. In 1986 two major movies were produced that put Iran on top of film productions internationally, *The Runner*  by Amir Naderi and *Bashu, The Little Stranger*  by Bahram Beyzai. Three years later, the movie ''Where Is My Friend's House?* was the first by Abbas Kiarostami, famous Iranian director. 

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and in 1991 the U.S.A. invaded Iraq starting the Gulf War. Just a year later, in 1992, Algeria gets in a 10-year-long Civil War. These conflicts put a rough end, or long pause, to the film industries of these countries. Algerian cinema, once very successful, crumbled with the cinema sector being privatized in 1993 and the government organization responsible for funding closing down by 1998. 

Palestinian films kept getting produced at a steady pace, and got a boost when Rashid Masharawi established the *Cinema Production and Distribution Center* in Ramallah in 1996. In 1995 Khleifi produced what is considered to be one of the greatest Palestinian productions, *Tale of the Three Jewels.* It was a successful movie internationally and it made a difference by not showing any violent scenes or scenes from war in general, but rather demonstrating the effects of the war on people, and children more specifically. However, it has also progressed a lot in the 21st century compared to the three decades beforehand. In the 70s, 80s and 90s cinema in the country was slowed down largely due to government film institutions being made private. Since then, more movies have been produced and have also improved in quality. In the year 2000, three Iranian movies won awards at International Film Festivals, *The Apple* by Samira Makhmalbaf, *Djomeh* by Hassan Yektepanah, and *A Time for Drunken Horses* by Bahman Qobadi. These movies became well-known and established Iranian cinema on the global stage.
 
In 2004 the Palestinian Film Foundation was created in the United Kingdom to organize Palestinian cinema in the UK. The Palestinian film *Paradise Now'' directed by Hany Abu-Assad was released in 2005. This was the first Palestinian film allowed to enter in the United States Academy Awards. The non-governmental organization Shashat was founded in Ramallah,. Its primary objective is to encourage women's filmmaking. Many young Palestinian women  joined the documentary filmmaking scene in the 2000s. Three important Palestinian documentary filmmakers are Rima Essa, Suha Arraf and May Oday. All of them work and live in Palestine. The dominant themes in modern Palestinian films are "Palestinian displacement, exile, diaspora and statelessness".

In Turkey, domestic cinema brings in more money than international films in 2008. In fact, the top ten films in terms of profit are all national films. It is the first time for this to happen since the Yeşilçam years. In post-Yeşilçam Turkey, new themes have appeared in films. Examples are "novel interpretations of Turkification and of Turkey's relationship to digital technologies, globalization and transnationalism".

A new country that has entered the international film industry in the Middle East is the United Arab Emirates. Its first domestically produced  film *Dream* was released in 2005 and directed by Hani Al-Shibani. It takes place in the desert, where a group of actors is moving around. Film festivals are taking place in the U.A.E., such as the Middle East International Film Festival, the Dubai International Film Festival, the Emirates Film Competition, and the Gulf Film Festival. The financial base and infrastructure to support filmmaking now exist in the Emirates, as well as film training schools.   

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