They have defined the East by its supposed failure and inferiority, sighting the static nature associated with the essence of Islam as a possible culprit. Said criticizes the way Orientalist scholars have studied and presented the region and its people through influential ideologies and theoretical framework. Divisiveness in film purveys today, in similar formations, hegemony of interests” (Ryan Shea, who is a conceptual editor).Ĭoncerning Hollywood’s representation of the modern Middle East, Khatib references to Said’s book, Orientalism.

“Harkening back to the conceptualization of nationalistic film- film used as propaganda to promote an ideology, we see the motive and device as overt, as Allied or Axis. Obviously, these interpretations present “alternative histories” anchored in political agendas, where the aim is to construct “alternative futures” (Clifford, qtd. This activity will help us better understand how an event of a given time is presented differently in Hollywood and Arab cinemas, and how this presentation is rested on often paradoxical interpretations. We will focus on this subjectivity throughout the semester by comparing films that we will watch in class with those that we have watched produced by Hollywood. This is contrasted with how Egyptian and Algerian cinemas portray fundamentalism from other angles (social, personal) ignored by Hollywood, and their distinction between Islam and radical Islam. A similar point can be made about Hollywood’s representation of Islamic fundamentalism, where fundamentalism is conflated with terrorism on one hand and with Islam on the other hand. Perhaps the most salient example is the Arab-Israeli conflict, with Palestinian resistance interpreted as mere terrorism (or, at best, a “revolution”) in Hollywood, while it is portrayed sympathetically in Arab cinemas. This examination will allow us to realize the subjectivity in the relationship of films and history. Khatib’s point is that films reflecting the political issues of a given time should be examined within a historical framework. “This means that the films, the cinema industries, and political events all form part of a reality characterized by power/knowledge relations” (Pecora, qtd. She examines the film’s linking of the present with the historical, and regards to this bond as a “form of knowledge,” ‘ideology,” and “power relation” (Williams and Christman, qtd. The examples also support what Khatib states, “the films, made by all those industries, as texts, are therefore produced by history” (2). This link is evident not only in Hollywood films but also in films produced in other countries. These examples help us better understand what scholarly attentions have often deemed -the strong link between politics and cinema.

In placing a specific emphasis on Lebanese cinema, we see it has almost exclusively focused on the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), its outset and aftermath.

Despite that other countries such as Syria and Algeria have contributed to filmic representation to a lesser degree, their films are nevertheless commentary on an assortment of Middle Eastern issues, such as Arab nationalism, Islamism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Gulf War (2). Palestinian cinema, emerging as a strong player, has been recently prolific. Egypt has had the biggest motion picture industry in the region. The examples the author provides include Egyptian cinema, Palestinian cinema, and the cinemas of other countries like Syria, Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco. The Arab world has also engaged in the creation of such cinematic images. This cinematic representation is not confined to Western cinema industries, like Hollywood. One of the most salient angles of this representation is cinema’s engagement with the depiction of politics in the region. She writes,Ĭinema, as a powerful tool of cultural production, stands at the heart of representation of the modern Middle East. In this post, we will talk about the concept of Orientalism and representations of the modern Middle East, by both the American and Arab cinemas, in respect to Khatib’s book.

Dahmer 2002 filmic representation