The Individual and His State of Mind
None of the Arab filmmakers from the were able to warm up to the idea of the "clash of civilizations" in Leipzig this year. This is perhaps the best message that emerged from the festival.
The directors who were invited rejected in particular one discourse often promoted in the media regarding the relationship between filmmakers and their respective societies. For most directors from Arabic countries, a new individualism has come to the fore that runs contrary to the dominant relations in their country.
"As a filmmaker I don't see myself as the extended arm of political forces or the daily news," says Eliane Rahab, Lebanese co-founder of a film festival in Beirut and co-owner of an independent film cooperative. "My films arise out of questions and anger that get pent up inside of me, and I don't claim to deliver universally valid answers with my images." Raheb's film "Suicide" (Intihar) takes a detour route in search of Arabs who volunteer to go to Iraq, motivated by a false sense of hope and visions of victory.
Other films such as "Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies and Video" by director Mai Masri have taken on the cinematic form of a visual diary. This genre reflects a current trend. Masri's film outlines the rise and fall of the non-parliamentary opposition in Lebanon as a consequence of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. "There was a lot of hope back then. Now the power structures are cemented just like they were before," says Eliane Raheb.
A focus on the individual
"Baghdad Days" by Iraqi director Hiba Bassem describes how difficult it is to feel at home again living amidst terror victims and an atmosphere of suspicion. Democratic elections and the new Iraqi constitution serve only as the backdrop for a journey through a personal ordeal.
One looks in vain to find a concrete cinematic aesthetic in the new Arabic films. The individual and his state of mind are the focus, which is also an expression of the new media world dominated by mobile-cams and digital editing boards.
"Our goal was to show a broad spectrum of personal styles," says Matthias Heeder, curator of the Arabic film series. "If enough money were available, it would be easier for filmmakers in Arabic countries to keep up with the technology."
Women as filmmakers
One of the co-productions shown was Azza el Hassan's "Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinan Image," which was made with funding from the German-French TV broadcaster ARTE and the BBC. What comes through in this film is that this young director has departed from the generation of her father, partly by taking up its legacy and adding a dose of irony.
The film depicts the search for the Palestinian film archive that disappeared after the 1982 war with Israel. It quickly becomes clear that the search is really about finding a few of the protagonists running the archive back then, rather than digging up old film material. This does not lessen the intensity of the film, but "the playful way of addressing the subject bothered the older generation," the filmmaker admits.
Women filmmakers are no longer the exception in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is different in this respect: Haifaa Al Mansour was introduced in Leipzig as "the only woman filmmaker from this Gulf State."
Her film "Women without Shadows" presents discussions with women from her home country, where there are no movie theaters. "Three years ago I received little attention as a filmmaker, but now I am respected," autodidact Al Mansour comments on the signs of change in her country.
"There are no film schools in Saudi Arabia. The cinema is a concept from the West, and we are currently borrowing from it," Al Mansour says. Her work has the support of some influential admirers in the Saudi royal house. Reform from the within society or reform from the top down is the question at stake here.
Scarce funding
What most Arabic filmmakers have in common is scarce funds; there is no such thing as pubic funding in their part of the world. But at the same time, funding aid from the West is not necessarily desirable:
"Co-producers from Europe often want to portray exotic camels and the faces of repressed women. Europeans allow their own stereotypes to slip into the films," says Saeed Taji Farouky, an Egyptian filmmaker and journalist from London.
Cross-border approaches such as the renowned documentary "Route 181" by Israeli director Eyal Sivan and his Palestinian counterpart Michel Khleifi seem unrealistic for someone like Eliane "Suicide" director Eliane Raheb at the moment:
"Cooperation with Israeli filmmakers doesn't really make sense for me right now. They should instead try to work for change in their own society."
So not everything is on the rise. More foreign documentary films are currently being produced in Iraq than domestic ones.
Syrian filmmaker Meyar Roumi gives food for thought: "'The Arabic film' does not exist for me any more than 'the European film.' The only thing certain is that Lebanon is ahead of everyone right now. In my home country of Syria, however, we are currently skipping over a whole epoch. We are mutating from a country without a film history to a land of DVDs."
Martin Gerner
© Qantara.de 2006
Translated from the German by Christina M. White
Qantara.de
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International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film