But nevertheless, Tunisian filmmakers have managed to develop their industry by introducing new genres, technologies and ideas. Two major examples of invention and innovation occurring in country cinema are Abdelhamid Bouchnak’s Dachra (2018) and Eddine Slim’s Wing Tlamess (2019). Dachra is the country’s first horror film and has opened an upcoming wave of genre cinema in the country, with its use of horror troops to criticize the dominance of religion showing a new means of expression for filmmakers to avoid censorship. Meanwhile, using a very distinctive form of surrealism, Tlamess touches on militarism, attributing gender roles and existential boredom, giving Arab cinema its first scene of frontal nudity.
Elsewhere in Yemen, Libya and Syria, the key focus of cinema has been on depicting the deteriorating conditions in these countries, as is the case in several documentaries by filmmakers now living in exile. such as Freedom Fields (2018) by London-based Libyan director Naziha Arebi; The Cave (2019), by Copenhagen-resident Syrian director Feras Fayyad; fellow Syrian Waad Al-Kateab, co-directed by For Sama, documenting his departure to his war-ravaged homeland; and Sufian Abulohom’s Yemen: The Silent War (2018), based in Los Angeles.
The future of Arab cinema
A decade later, the revolutionary energy of the Arab Spring is still in evidence, in life and on the big screen. The popular uprisings in Algeria and Lebanon in 2019 and 2020 have generated images that adopt narratives similar to those of the first films of the Arab Spring, from Karim Aïnouz’s colorful portrait of Algerian revolutionary youth, Nardjes A. (2020 ), even several Lebanese projects on the pipeline that could now be scrapped after the Beirut explosion last summer shattered hopes of a happy ending for protesters.
Meanwhile, a revolution took place in Sudan nine years after the first wave of the Arab Spring began, which has also led to the rise of cinema in the country. However, as Sudanese filmmakers reflect on events, it is clear from their films that they have learned the precious lesson that revolutions could fail at any time and that the road to democracy is long and arduous. Two 2019 documentaries capture the essence of a changing country, but question the tangible possibility of an extensive institutional review. In Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees, a group of veteran filmmakers try to resurrect an old cinema outside Khartoum only to face a suffocating bureaucracy that is not expected to dissolve in the near future. The same repressive rules confront a group of athletes struggling to rally the country’s first women’s soccer squad at Marwa Zein’s Khartoum Offside, stressing that the country’s primordial patriarchy will continue to challenge reformist efforts.
As for the original riots? The legacy and aftermath of the Arab Spring continue to haunt the region’s cinema, and a full account of what happened in 2010 and beyond has yet to be told. The most popular hits on the uprisings: The Square (2013) from Egypt, by Jehane Noujaim; the aforementioned Beauty and the Dogs of Tunisia; the countless Syrian documentaries offer simple, digestible narratives for a mostly Western audience who are unaware of the nuances and complexities of the region and its history. And because almost all independent Arab films rely on European capital to finance themselves, productions are usually made up of what the West expects the Arab world to be, and are ultimately evaluated by Western critics with little or no knowledge. of the region.
The rise of Sudanese cinema and the remarkable evolution of Tunisian films will keep the spirit of the Arab Spring on the big screen. On the other hand, the real story of the rise and fall of the Arab uprisings is yet to be told.
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