Cinema of Muhammad Malas

Samirah Alkassim teaches film studies at George Mason University, USA. A filmmaker and film scholar, her work includes experimental documentary Far From You (1996) about Egyptian singer Umm Kulthoum, the introduction to the English translation of Muhammad Malas’s The Dream: A Diary of a Film (AUC Press), and various articles about independent film in the Arab world published in New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, Bidoun, and Nebula.Nezar Andary is Associate Professor at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, and an independent film and theatre director and producer. He has published in various articles and journals including Jadaliyya, Journal of South Asian and Middle East Studies, Emergences, Banipal and Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics.

• 1. The Cinema of Memory.- 2. From Quneitra to Moscow and Back.- 3. Early Years and Memories.- 4. Collaborations and Documentary.- 5. Poignancy and Memoir in Documentary.- 6. Excerpts from The Dream: A Diary of a Film.- 7. Behind the Scenes and Films in the Making.- 8. Reflections on Memory, Intertextuality, and Banned Films.- 9. Bab al-Maqam: From Beginnings to Caricatures of Banality.- 10. On Patriarchy and Resistance in Ladder to Damascus.- 11. Filmmaking in the New Millenium.- 12. On Cinema al-Dunya by Muhammad Malas.

“Much scholarship on Arab cinema has been confined to traditional film critical approaches that by and large ignore contemporary theory, which is longstanding within the discipline. … The Cinema of Muhammad Malas: Visions of a Syrian Auteur is a rare exception to this tendency, as it not only engages theory but rearticulates it to the history and knowledge of Arab culture. For this reason alone, this book deserves to be read and discussed as a model for future scholarship.” (Terri Ginsberg Q, Review of Middle East Studies, Vol. 54 (1), 2020)