Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema. Terri Ginsberg

internet by individuals and by media activist groups like Mosireen, were able to circulate with relative freedom from censorship during the period, as has also been the case with short animations—this continues despite the increasingly close monitoring of social media and other communication channels by the Egyptian government, which has in fact capitalized on the proliferation of such films for the purpose of keeping up favorable international appearances by being perceived as allowing divergent viewpoints. Several documentaries were made during the revolutionary period, most of which received wide international viewership. These include Academy Award nominee The Square (Jehane Nujaim, 2013), which interweaves the experiences of three actors in the 2011 uprising—but was criticized heavily within Egypt for historical abstraction; 18 Days (2011), a well-funded omnibus film comprising shorts by Yousry Nasrallah, Marwan Hamed, Sherif Arafa, and several other well-known Egyptian directors, and featuring stars such as Yousra, Hend Sabri, and Bassem Samra; and another collectively directed film, Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad, and the Politician (Ayten Amin et al., 2011), which was banned in Egypt. Narrative features set in the context of the revolution include Clash (Mohamed Diab, 2016), an internationally well-received work set almost entirely inside a police van into which characters representing a typified array of classes and political factions have been corralled during a protest following the Morsi coup; Winter of Discontent (Ibrahim El Batout, 2012), a surreal look back at Mubarak-era repression, named after the titular 1962 John Steinbeck novel, and Egypt’s official entry to the 2014 Academy Awards; and In the Last Days of the City (Tamer El Said, 2016) and The Nile Hilton Incident (Tarek Saleh, 2017), both of which were banned in Egypt and have received comparatively less international attention. Since Sisi’s ascent to power, experimental films have been made that express revolutionary aspirations by less direct means, such as Crop (Johanna Domke/Marouan Omara, 2013) and Out on the Street (Jasmina Metwaly/Philip Rizk, 2015).

      Like the representation of revolution in Egypt, cinematic depiction of the civil and military crisis in Syria has been circulated widely on social media, and several films have been made targeting Western audiences, some propagating military intervention through an emphasis on scenes of combat and indiscriminate bombing, of which the most widely distributed have been The White Helmets (Orlando von Einsiedel, 2016) and The Last Men in Aleppo (Ferras Feyyad, 2017). In this context, Oussama Mohammad’s Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (codirected with Wiam Simav Bedirxan, 2014) is noteworthy for its critical analysis of the Assad regime’s response to criticism and protest; while My Pink Room (Vachan Sharma, 2013) offers a sympathetic portrait of the conditions faced by Syrian refugees. Yemini films, too, have been made about the refugee crisis, for example, Yemen, the Silent War (Sufian Abulokon, 2018).

      ARAFA, SHERIF (1960–)

      This prolific Egyptian director collaborated with writer Wahid Hamid on a number of films, including Playing with Giants (1990), Terrorism and Kebab (1992), El-Mansi (1993), Birds of Darkness (1995), Sleeping in Honey (1996, about an impotency epidemic that strikes grooms on their wedding nights), and Edhak el-Sura Tetla‘ Helwa (Laugh and the Picture Will Turn Out Right [1998]), starring Ahmed Zaki. Terrorism and Kebab is a popular and very successful comedy that lampoons political corruption and social ineptitude. The following year, Arafa directed Al-Zaeem (The Leader/Boss), a widely popular stage drama again starring Adel Imam. Arafa also made a series of films written by Ahmed Abdallah that have become classic references both for their socially conscious story lines combined with popular humor and their star performers. These include The Headmaster (2000), Son of Wealth (2001), and Ful el-Seen el-Azeem (The Great Fava Beans of China [2004]), starring Mohamed El-Hinidi.

      In 2006, Arafa directed the biopic Halim, about the popular singer Abdel Halim Hafiz, which, following the death of its lead actor, Ahmed Zaki, during filming, was completed by Zaki’s son. After directing two action movies, The Island (2007) and The Island 2 (2014), and a historical drama, The Treasure (2017), Arafa wrote and directed The Passage (2019), starring Ahmed Ezz and Hend Sabri and featuring music by composer Omar Khairat. Set during the war of attrition that followed the 1967 war in which Egyptian forces lost the Sinai to Israel in what became known as the Defeat, the film tracks a joint unit of special forces comprising Egyptian commandos and navy seals as they set about an operation to bomb an Israeli camp and rescue a group of Egyptian prisoners who are being held there. Artillery, weapons, and the training of actors were provided by the Egyptian Armed Forces Department of Morale Affairs. In 2019, Arafa was given the Faten Hamama Honorary Award for lifetime achievement at the Cairo International Film Festival.

      ARAFAT, YASSER (YASIR; YASSIR) (1929–2004)

      Founder of the Fateh political party in 1956, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 to 2004, and president and prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority from 1994 to 2004, Abdel Rahman Abdel Ra’uf Arafat (known informally as Abu Ammar) was the most widely recognized persona of the Palestinian cause for his roles as guerrilla/freedom fighter, unofficial diplomat, political organizer, peace negotiator, and national leader. Sometimes credited as the father of the modern Palestinian nation, interpretations of his impact are controversial. Most of his onscreen appearances are in news footage, with the exception of documentaries in which he is the central subject. Anthony Geffen’s made-for-television The Faces of Arafat (1990) traces 40 years of Arafat’s personal and political life. Arafat’s last public interview was conducted by filmmaker Sherine Salama in The Last Days of Yasser Arafat (2006), a story about Salama’s months-long negotiations in obtaining the interview and reactions to Arafat in interviews with his associates and people who did not know him (cabdrivers, villagers, and Western journalists waiting for interviews). Arafat, My Brother (Rashid Masharawi, 2005) is an account of Arafat recounted by the leader’s estranged brother. Greetings to Kamal Jumblatt (Maroun Baghdadi, 1978) features an extended public speech by Arafat, in honor of assassinated Lebanese leftist Kamal Jumblatt, at its structural climax, while Trip Along Exodus (Hind Shoufani, 2014) examines political opposition to Arafat within Fateh through the figure of political intellectual Elias Shoufani.

      ARBID, DANIELLE (1970–)

      Arbid began her career as a broadcast journalist for European television in the early 1990s. That background enabled her to produce several insightful documentary critiques of Lebanon. Alone with the War (2000) follows Arbid through the streets of Beirut as she asks people, “Why isn’t there a monument dedicated to those who died in the war?” In one particularly powerful scene at Shatila refugee camp, she talks with several Palestinian children who tell her matter-of-factly that they are still finding bodies in the ground. Since then, Arbid has made several short documentaries with her Christian family that accentuate the everyday violence that haunts the postwar domestic sphere, including Conversation de Salon (2004). This theme gains powerful representation in her first narrative feature, In the Battlefields (2004). Arbid’s subsequent film, The Lost Man (2007), is a cross-cultural encounter between a French photographer and an Arab amnesiac that plumbs the seedy underground culture of Jordan. The film was banned in Lebanon because of its explicit sex scenes, as was Arbid’s subsequent Beirut Hotel (2011), because Lebanese authorities viewed it as a threat to Lebanon’s stability for its evocation of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination in 2005. Arbid is currently based in France, which she now claims as home and where she has directed a semiautobiographical narrative feature, Parisienne (2015).

      ARİF V 216 (2018)

      An example of a franchise film comedy series developed by a major popular production company, similar to the Recep İvedik series, Arif V 216 (Kivanç Baruönü, Turkey, 2018), is the sequel to G.O.R.A. (Ömer Faruk Sorak, 2004) and A.R.O.G. (Ali Taner Baltacı/Cem