Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity - Softcover

Combining detailed narrative history -- economic, ideological, and esthetic -- with thought-provoking analysis, this study provides extensive coverage of cinema in the Arab world. Arab Cinema traces the industry's development from colonial times to the present. It analyzes its ambiguous relationship with commercial Western cinema, and the effect of Egyptian market dominance in the region. Covering not only Egyptian but also North African, Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Lebanese cinema, it traces the influence on the medium of local and regional art forms and modes of thought, both classical and popular, and shows how indigenous and external factors have combined in a dynamic process of "cultural repackaging."Illustrated throughout with stills from the movies, and backed up by comprehensive documentation, Shafik's study breaks new ground, and will become an indispensable point of reference for all those interested in world cinema.