Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Film

Editors’ Picks—Reading and Watching the Prison in North Africa and the Middle East — The book covers of Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison by Ahmed Naji, The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer by Mustafa Khalifa, and The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics: Women Politicians Write from Prison Edited by Gültan Kışanak.

MER Article

Editors’ Picks—Reading and Watching the Prison in North Africa and the Middle East

The editors of MER issue 312, “Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams,” assembled a list of literary works and films (available in English) that take up the prison across space and time. These works capture the themes of the issue: carceralism—that is, forms of un-freedom—and organized resistance against it.

(Author not identified) • 10 min read

Farha in the “Unfocused Feelings of the Citizenry” — Still from the 2021 film Farha, directed by Darin J. Sallam.Original movie poster by Saul Bass for Exodus, 1960.

Current Analysis

Farha in the “Unfocused Feelings of the Citizenry”

A new Netflix film stirs up old debates about Palestinian narration.

Lori Allen • 11 min read

Rethinking Informal Labor Through the Lens of Film Production in Cairo — Technicians installing light defusing frames in preparation for filming, Egypt 2021. Maged NaderResidents peak from their balconies to watch the filming. Shoubra, Egypt, 2020. Mariz KeladaPlacing lighting reflectors on top of the actor’s caravans saved the time and money it would have cost for a professional, more secure, setup. It was only possible because of good relations between the different crews. Heliopolis, Egypt, 2020. Mariz KeladaCrowds gather around to watch filming, downtown Cairo, 2019. Mariz Kelada

MER Article

Rethinking Informal Labor Through the Lens of Film Production in Cairo

Many movies, television shows and advertisements film on location in the busy and crowded streets of Cairo. Mariz Kelada explains with ethnographic detail the complex and multilayered work of production assistants, fixers and sub-fixers to create the right conditions and relationships for filming in

Mariz Kelada • 13 min read

Rethinking Informal Labor Through the Lens of Film Production in Cairo — Technicians installing light defusing frames in preparation for filming, Egypt 2021. Maged NaderResidents peak from their balconies to watch the filming. Shoubra, Egypt, 2020. Mariz KeladaPlacing lighting reflectors on top of the actor’s caravans saved the time and money it would have cost for a professional, more secure, setup. It was only possible because of good relations between the different crews. Heliopolis, Egypt, 2020. Mariz KeladaCrowds gather around to watch filming, downtown Cairo, 2019. Mariz Kelada

Current Analysis

Rethinking Informal Labor Through the Lens of Film Production in Cairo

Many movies, television shows and advertisements film on location in the busy and crowded streets of Cairo. Mariz Kelada explains with ethnographic detail the complex and multilayered work of production assistants, fixers and sub-fixers to create the right conditions and relationships for filming in

Mariz Kelada • 13 min read

“Turkey Wants to be Part of the Nuclear Club” An Interview with Can Candan — Can Candan. Photo by Christian Bergmann.

MER Article

“Turkey Wants to be Part of the Nuclear Club” An Interview with Can Candan

Kenan Behzat Sharpe spoke with Candan about his latest film project Nuclear alla Turca, a documentary on the history of atomic energy in Turkey, a country on the verge of building its very first nuclear plant despite a growing anti-nuclear movement.

Kenan Behzat Sharpe • 12 min read

Ziad Doueiri's The Insult and the Return of the Lebanese Civil War — The Insult poster 1

MER Article

Ziad Doueiri's The Insult and the Return of the Lebanese Civil War

A minor incident between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee brings up issues at the heart of the Lebanese conflict.

Max Weiss • 15 min read

MER Article

Debating the Iran-Iraq War on Film

For supporters of the Islamic Republic, it is the Iran-Iraq war, and not the 1979 revolution, that evokes the true spirit of the Islamic Republic. In 1979, the plethora of political groups that poured into the streets was united in the desire to get rid of the US-backed Shah, but divided as to the s

Narges Bajoghli • 10 min read

Current Analysis

Mosireen

Yesterday’s piece [http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/art-egypts-revolutionary-square] by Ursula Lindsey, entitled “Art in Egypt's Revolutionary Square.” is a very astute and measured account of the art that has emerged in Egypt, in the wake of, and inspired by, the momentous events in Tahrir o

Ted Swedenburg • 1 min read

MER Article

Two Films

Shadows Over the Future, A film by Wolfgang Bergmann. 1985. 92 mins, 16mm. Last Exit: Berlin, A film by Marilyn Gaunt. 1988. 28 mins. video.

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea • 3 min read

MER Article

The Uprooted Cinema

My friend Jacques got as far as a screenplay when he died. He was Palestinian (Armenian) from Jerusalem, a photographer by trade, and after his family moved from occupation to Australia, Jacques made his way to the States on a tourist visa. Settling in New York, he found work in a series of custom p

Miriam Rosen • 13 min read

MER Article

Editor's Bookshelf (March/April 1989)

The Palestinian human rights monitoring organization, Al-Haq/Law in the Service of Man, the West Bank affiliate of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, marked the first anniversary of the intifada with a comprehensive report on Israel’s violations of human rights in its effort to qu

Joel Beinin • 4 min read

MER Article

Recent Films

Aqabat Jaber: Passing Through. Directed by Eyal Sivan. Produced and distributed by Dune Vision, 1987. Rissala... Min Zamen al-Harb (Letter from a Time of War). Directed by Borhan Alaouie. Produced and distributed by France Media, 1986. Zahrat al-Kindoul: Women of South Lebanon. Directed by Jean Ch

Miriam Rosen • 3 min read