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TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: FFilmilm ● AArabicrabic fi lmlm festivalsfestivals inin LondonLondon ● FFilmilm aandnd fi llmm ffestivalsestivals iinn tthehe MMiddleiddle EastEast andand LondonLondon ● CCreativereative approachesapproaches inin filmsfilms onon PalestinePalestine ● IIsrael,srael, PPalestinealestine andand ZZombiesombies ● TTrendsrends iinn NNorthorth AAfricanfrican ccinemainema ● WWitherither IIranianranian ccinema?inema? ● KKeepingeeping AleppoAleppo alivealive ● NNascentascent KurdishKurdish cinemacinema ● CChanginghanging trendstrends inin IraqiIraqi cinemacinema ● EEgyptiangyptian cinemacinema afterafter thethe uuprisingsprisings ● PPhotohoto competitioncompetition resultsresults ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LondonLondon

Ahmed Morsi, White Horse, 1975, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 63 cm. Image courtesy of About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) Syra Arts © Ahmed Morsi & Syra Arts Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle Volume 13 – Number 1 East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. December 2016 With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic – January 2017 membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle Editorial Board East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Professor Nadje Al-Ali it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its SOAS programme of activities. Dr Hadi Enayat LMEI is a Registered Charity in the UK wholly owned by SOAS, University of London (Charity AKU Registration Number: 1103017). Ms Narguess Farzad SOAS Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Mission Statement: Professor George Joff é Cambridge University Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Ms Janet Rady Janet Rady Fine Art East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Mr Barnaby Rogerson those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in Dr Sarah Stewart London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the SOAS Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is Dr Shelagh Weir at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Independent Researcher and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College Coordinating Editor Megan Wang LMEI Staff : SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: Listings Vincenzo Paci Director Dr Hassan Hakimian To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: Designer Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ or contact the Shahla Geramipour Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci LMEI offi ce. Th e Middle East in London is published Administrative Assistant Aki Elborzi fi ve times a year by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS Letters to the Editor:

Publisher and Please send your letters to the editor at Editorial Offi ce Disclaimer: the LMEI address provided (see left panel) Th e London Middle East Institute or email [email protected] SOAS University of London Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East MBI Al Jaber Building, in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA United Kingdom views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their T: +44 (0)20 7898 4330 organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's E: [email protected] Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the ISSN 1743-7598 LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of claims made by advertisers. Contents

LMEI Board of Trustees 4 16

Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair) EDITORIAL Keeping Aleppo alive Director, SOAS Yasmin Fedda Professor Richard Black, SOAS 5 Dr John Curtis Iran Heritage Foundation INSIGHT 18 Dr Nelida Fuccaro, SOAS Arabic fi lm festivals in London: Nascent Kurdish cinema Mr Alan Jenkins what are they telling us? Mizgin Mujde Arslan Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Sheyma Buali Dr Hanan Morsy European Bank for Reconstruction 19 and Development 7 Changing trends in Iraqi Professor Scott Redford, SOAS Dr Barbara Zollner FILM cinema Birkbeck College Film and fi lm festivals in the Nazli Tarzi Middle East and London LMEI Advisory Council Daniel Gorman 21 Egyptian cinema aft er the Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) 8 uprisings Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Creative approaches in fi lms on Ehab Galal H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Palestine Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani Arab International Women’s Forum Zeina Shanaah 23 Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Photo competition results President, University College of Bahrain Professor Tony Allan 10 King’s College and SOAS Israel, Palestine and zombies 25 Dr Alanoud Alsharekh Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS Yonatan Sagiv BOOKS IN BRIEF

Mr Farad Azima NetScientifi c Plc 12 28 Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. Protean refl ections: trends in EVENTS IN LONDON Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna British Egyptian Society North African cinema HE Mr Mazen Kemal Homoud Suzanne Gauch Ambassador, Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Mr Paul Smith Chairman, Eversheds International 14 Wither Iranian cinema? Film- Founding Patron and Donor of the LMEI making in the post-Kiarostami Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber era MBI Al Jaber Foundation Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad and Asal Bagheri

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL

DDearear RReadereader

( اﻟﺒﺤﺚ ﻋﻦ اﻟﺰﻣﻦ اﳌﻔﻘﻮد ) Installation shot from the exhibition In Search of Lost Time shown at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, 21 January – 19 March 2016. Work by artists from Gharem Studios, Saudi Arabia. Image Courtesy of the British Council Dina Matar, SOAS

ilms from and about the Middle East It is a cliché to say fi lm off ers a window of creativity, resistance, voice and visibility and and North Africa have been making the world, particularly in a globalised digital fi lm, as an essential element of culture, has Fheadlines in recent years as several age. But it is true to say that, as many of the increasingly been the space through which from Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi contributions in this special issue show, these issues are made visible and discussed. Arabia and Jordan have been nominated this window is becoming wider and more Th is issue begins with an Insight piece for international prizes, and an increasing accessible as fi lm festivals from London to by Sheyma Buali who delves into how number are being shown to international Singapore, from Bristol to San Francisco can fi lms shown in London have changed in audiences at diverse fi lm festivals in Europe, testify. Th ey off er the spaces for fi lm created the last fi ve years, a topic also taken up Asia and the US. in or about the Middle East to travel: these by Dan Gorman. Zeina Shanaah looks at What is interesting about the emerging, fi lms move across borders and enable creative trends in Palestinian cinema, and complex and artful fi lms from the region encounters in diff erent mediums and genres Yonatan Sagiv addresses Israeli horror fi lms. and its diasporas is their creativity in terms as well as in the creative imagination. Suzanne Gauch looks at the evolution of of genre and content. Th is is coupled with Th is issue of Th e Middle East in London North African cinema post-independence. their ability to provide articulations of endeavours to showcase the variety of fi lm Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad and Asal Bagheri lives and experiences beyond restrictive genres and productions in the MENA envision an optimistic future following the formats imposed by the state, which has region, a region that is beset by forced death of the prominent Iranian fi lm-maker controlled cultural output in diff erent parts displacement due to long-term confl ict Kiarostami, while Yasmin Fedda talks of the region. Furthermore, many of these and repression as well as inter-communal about the challenges some of the Syrian fi lms have moved beyond the frames of violence, patriarchal systems, ideological fi lm-makers face in Aleppo in the wake of incessant confl ict, extremism and violence struggles and external intervention. the raging civil war. Mizgin Mujde Arslan that dominate the news headlines. Th ey Th ese contexts no doubt play a role in discusses the challenges for Kurdish cinema. engender more complex, intimate and how fi lm travels, as do other issues: the Finally, Nazli Tarzi relays a brief history humane accounts of ordinary lives that continuous war on culture waged by the of Iraqi cinema and Ehab Jalal discusses are not only politically relevant but also state, institutional restraints, lack of funding Egyptian cinema aft er 2011. show that people in the region are not that and insuffi cient training for would-be fi lm In this issue we have also announced the diff erent from others in their aspirations producers. However, as the articles in this winners of the 2016 photo competition. and hopes. issue show, culture remains a source for Congratulations!

4 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 IINSIGHTNSIGHT Arabic cinema has found a home in London. Sheyma Buali delves into what we can learn from the fi lms shown in the capital and how they’ve changed in the last fi ve years AArabicrabic fi llmm festivalsfestivals inin LLondon:ondon: wwhathat areare theythey ttellingelling uus?s?

Jumana Saadeh accepting the BBC Arabic Young Journalist Award, 2015. Courtesy of BBC Arabic Festival

common mission statement of an up to and outside of those events and current issues in ways that are outside the Arabic fi lm festival abroad in the deeply personal experiences has off ered news television’s frame. ‘Political change in Alast decade would mostly touch on new depth. In parallel, fi lm-makers have the region in the past few years has been two things. First, an opportunity to share become more daring in narrative, style, vast and has had an impact on the desire culture, off ering audiences a travel portal creativity and practice. People who never to document and respond,’ explains Elhum to visit the region through the audio- made fi lms before are shooting and Shakerifar, a documentary producer who visual stories witnessed on the screen. editing documentary videos of the events also is Middle Eastern fi lm programmer for And second, the aim to defl ate social and that surround them. New hybrid forms the London Film Festival and for Shubbak. political misconceptions globally projected are surfacing, thereby creating new, yet In 2016, festivals in London that present about the Arab world. In a climate of undefi nable, genres refl ecting new realities, fi lms from the region are plenty: Safar, saturated news from the Middle East, mixing fact and fi ction where at times the a bi-annual event that focusses on Arab simplifi ed headlines and deductive news non-fi ction seems more surreal. Moreover, cinema; Shubbak, a cultural event with articles can be re-examined through fi lms the personal stories people tell are breaking a strong cinema strand; Nour, another from within the region about the region normative conventions. Th e past fi ve years Arab cultural festival that includes fi lm; with more complexity. For some, there is have also seen a confl uence between this the London Film Festival, which has a the belief that rather than a string of sound increase in Arabic fi lm screenings in the team devoted to programming the best bites, cinema and long form documentary UK and headlines from the Middle East in new cinema from the region among its from the ground can off er a more intimate British media. Cultural and fi lm-workers international fi lms and the BBC Arabic approach, engendering stories that can be are scrambling to see, show and discuss Festival, founded in 2014, which focusses universal and at the same time politically relevant. In a climate of saturated news from the Middle East, Middle Eastern cinema of the last fi ve years has focussed on major events, simplifi ed headlines and deductive news articles can but having these include stories leading be re-examined through fi lms from within the region

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 5 on how current changes in the Arab world During autumn, London hosts three major waves of are being narrated by young fi lm-makers and journalists. Its programme stands out Arabic fi lm, bringing fresh and original works to the because it is made up entirely of public big screen and giving audiences the opportunity to see submissions. Each year, prominent issues are defi ned by their repetition among fi lms from the less represented areas of the Arab world the submissions. In the past, these have included issues surrounding youth and won the Short Documentary Award for Th e fi lm, non-linear and opaque, re-enacts children in war environments, migration emerging fi lm-producer Naji Ismael. Maroufi ’s memory of Safae whose gender and the right to work. With that, the Fiction fi lm-makers have also risen to was ambiguous, and her family’s passive festival creates a dialogue between hard prominence. Leyla Bouzid’s fi rst feature attitude about it, telling us more about news and human stories. fi lm is the award-winning rock romance social gender norms than most other As I Open My Eyes, which screened documents. Th e fi lm was awarded Best Emerging fi lm-makers and at Safar 2016. Th e fi lm takes place in Short Film at the BBC Arabic Festival, experimenting with fi lm a Tunis erupting in revolt. In the fi lm 2015. Th e independent production of Bouzid refl ects on things she herself saw During autumn, London hosts three information stems from the idea that happening throughout the country, namely major waves of Arabic fi lm: Safar in documenting and reporting an ongoing people’s lack of voice and the culture of September, the London Film Festival situation is a source of empowerment. A paranoia and surveillance. ‘It was very in October and fi nally Nour Festival in special feature at the BBC Arabic Festival is important for me to go back,’ she says in a November. All these festivals bring fresh the encouragement of young and emerging Guardian article published last September, and original works to the big screen. fi lm-makers. Th e belief is that on one ‘It’s true there was this revolution, and Audiences have the opportunity to see hand, these young fi lm-makers living the the world went: ‘‘Wow!’’ But we didn’t go fi lms from the less represented areas of the experiences we read about in the news deeply into things at all. People took to the Arab world – the Gulf and the Maghreb. will have a closer angle on the events. On streets, but the problems were much more Safar’s 2016 programme, for example, the other hand, the eruption of citizen, or profound.’ uniquely featured Morocco, Algeria and unoffi cial, journalists in the last fi ve years ‘Th e most radical experimentation is Tunisia as well as a special programme has created a new wave of non-fi ction in non-fi ction and non-narrative, oft en of works by the Kuwaiti fi lm-maker/ fi lm-making which is to be embraced and cross-fertilised from contemporary art artist, Monira Al Qadiri which look at even nurtured. Th ese have been screened practice,’ commented Rasha Salti, in an visibility of domestic servants, folk music at this festival as emerging fi lm-makers’ interview conducted by myself for Ibraaz. and corruption culture in the Gulf. Th e works of non-fi ction and they cover a She was speaking in regard to fi lms made London Film Festival will be screening an range of issues. Amal Salloum’s profi le in post-2011, in particular those she chose accomplished comedy from Saudi Arabia, on Dr Qassem, a medical doctor who to be part of the 2016 Safar programme, Barakah Meets Barakah, a love story that clandestinely treated wounded protesters which she curated. Th e development of delves into issues of romance, social class in rural Homs in Syria, won her the 2014 this genre has come in short and long and general visibility in the Kingdom. BBC Arabic Young Journalist Award. formats with fi lms such as the painfully Th e next fi ve years will tell us more. But Another profi le that was screened at the personal and surreal documentary by whatever the future holds, it is already same festival that year was Um Amira, a Salim Murad, Th is Little Father Obsession. apparent that cinema that challenges story about a woman who sells potatoes Similarly, the short fi lm Th e Great Safae common views in new and refreshing ways on diff erent rooft ops in Cairo to aff ord by Randa Maroufi takes audiences to the that mix artistic licence off er great appeal. healthcare for her daughter. Th e fi lm fi lm-maker’s memory of her family’s maid. And these fi lms, short, long, amateur or glossy, have found a place in London.

Sheyma Buali is currently Director of the BBC Arabic Festival. She is also Commissioning Editor for Ibraaz Channel and Creative Time Reports and Culture Correspondent for Asharq Al-Awsat

Rasha Salti and Baya Medhaff ar at the full house screening of ‘As I Open my Eyes’ at Safar Film Festival, 2016 at ICA. Courtesy of The Arab British Centre

6 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 FFILMILM

Daniel Gorman describes the changing scene of fi lms and fi lm festivals in the Middle FFilmsilms aandnd fi lmlm East and North Africa and here in London, while calling attention to some of the ffestivalsestivals iinn tthehe challenges still to be overcome in the UK MMiddleiddle EEastast Contemporary Arab Culture © Shubbak: A Window on aandnd LLondonondon

Film-maker Michel Khleifi and Elhum Shakerifar speak following the ‘Visions of Palestine’ event at Shubbak, 2015, ICA, London. Photograph by Michael Brydon

ilms and fi lm festivals are undergoing and to contribute to artistic exchange and ran for over 20 years, the London Kurdish a renaissance in the Middle East and dialogue, as well as show fi lms that do not Film Festival and Shubbak: A Window on FNorth Africa, thanks in no small part have large, traditional distribution deals. Contemporary Arab Culture. In addition to to the synchronicity between the massive With members stretching from Morocco these, more fi lms from the region are being democratisation of the tools of production to the UAE, this network provides an programmed for festivals including the in fi lm-making and the wave of pro- inspiration for those working to showcase annual London Film Festival, the East End democracy and social justice movements contemporary Arab cinema around the Film Festival and the Green Caravan Film across the region in the 21st century. Th ese world. Festival. Th ese fi lms help bring nuanced movements have resulted in a paradigmatic Despite these transformations in the fi lm representations of the Middle East to shift in cultural expression and creativity, the festival scene, in recent years there have audiences in the UK. results of which we are only just beginning also been signifi cant challenges facing fi lm London off ers many opportunities as to witness. producers and festivals across a number of a fi lm festival hub with its diverse global Th e wealth of fi lm-making in both countries in the Middle East, with increased population (including a sizeable population traditional genres and more recent hybrid repression of civil society and artists at the from across the Middle East and North and dynamic genres is fi nding expression hands of state and non-state actors. As a Africa), excellent venue provision and in the rapidly diversifying world of result of these challenges new initiatives interested audiences. But, it also raises some fi lm festivals in the Middle East, in the establishing decentralised and migratory challenges. Th ese include the high costs emergence of new fi lm festivals across fi lm support agencies have emerged. One of involved in hosting artists in the capital and the region and in international festivals of these initiatives is Proaction Film, a Syrian the ever-tightening visa restrictions, which contemporary fi lm from the Middle East, documentary fi lm production company seem to particularly hinder the attendance which grow in number by the month. which was responsible for a number of fi lms of artists from across the Arab world. Alongside older festivals (such as the including the multi-award winning Return Yet consistent audience attendance at Dubai International Film Festival and to Homs (2013). Proaction Film began in these events speaks for itself; it sends a vital the Carthage Film Festival), we have seen 2002 as a partner organisation to DoxBox, message about the desire for continued the emergence of new, smaller and more the only independent documentary fi lm engagement and cultural exchange. reactive fi lm festivals. Th ese include the festival in Syria prior to 2011. Th e company Th rough such activities festivals can lobby Oran International Arab Film Festival has now relocated to Berlin. for more support, and audiences can engage and Les Rencontres cinématographiques Responding to demand from both with some of the most compelling and de Bejaia in Algeria, multiple festivals audiences and cinema venues in London, a diverse voices from across the Arab world. in Lebanon including the Beirut Art number of fi lm festivals showcasing Arab Film Festival and many, many more. In cinema have sprung up in the capital. Th ese Daniel Gorman is an Arts Consultant, addition, the Beirut-based Network of include the bi-annual Safar: A Celebration Researcher and Producer whose work focusses Arab Alternative Screens works with art of Contemporary Arab Cinema, the on increasing dialogue, communication and house cinemas across the Middle East and annual BBC Arabic Film Festival, the (now collaboration, while promoting social justice North Africa to share information and skills defunct) Palestine Film Festival which and equality through the arts. He holds an MSc in Middle East Politics from the Consistent audience attendance at Middle Eastern fi lm University of London, is Executive Director of Shubbak and is a Co-founder of Highlight festivals in London sends a vital message about the desire Arts for continued engagement and cultural exchange

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 7 FFILMILM

Zeina Shanaah explores science fi ction as a thought-provoking mode for relaying Palestinian realities CCreativereative aapproachespproaches inin fi lmslms onon PalestinePalestine © Larissa Sansour

lthough themes of displacement One example of these creative Forces in 1970. In Larissa Sansour’s short and injustice are prevalent in approaches is the use of science fi ction fi lm A Space Exodus (2009), a Palestinian is Afi lms on Palestine, the ways in (sci-fi ), one of the oldest genres in the depicted as an astronaut sent into space to which artistic and formal elements of a global fi lm industry. By manipulating mark her fi rst steps on the moon. fi lm are used to construct and convey the rules of logic, time and space, sci-fi Nation Estate (2012) is another fi lm by such experiences are manifold. A cursory creates novel ways of seeing that enable the Sansour that employs sci-fi to depict a analysis of fi lms on Palestine that have visualisation and construction of thought dystopian ‘State of Palestine’. Th e nine- gained international recognition in the provoking realities. Th ere are a few fi lms minute fi lm follows a Palestinian’s (the 21st century reveals a trend of using on Palestine that employ sci-fi , such as fi lm-maker’s) journey to Palestine, which conventional narration and cinematic Friendship’s Death (1987) by Peter Wollen. starts in an underground station and ends styles as seen in fi lms such as Amreeka Th is tells the story of an extra-terrestrial when she arrives at the lobby of a glistening (2009) and Th e Idol (2015) among many woman with a human appearance who, by skyscraper with a glass façade overlooking others. Each of these fi lms provides insight mistake, lands in Jordan at the height of the the segregation wall and Jerusalem behind into the complex political and social confl ict between the Palestine Liberation it. Th e protagonist gets into an elevator, Palestinian realities through personal Organization and the Jordanian Armed stops at the 13th fl oor where Jerusalem stories. However, other fi lms on Palestine, screened at fi lm festivals and in art spaces, Sci-fi in Nation Estate facilitates the illustration of Palestinian are notable for their artistic and creative geopolitical contemporary reality by presenting Palestinians approaches and reveal an impressive breadth of fi lm styles and experimentation. living in an absurd ‘state’ with a façade of sovereignty

8 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 Unusual evocative cinematic and narration in an absurd ‘state’ with a façade of sovereignty. styles could be well suited to expressing the Experimenting with fi lm form in fi lms complex reality of Palestine and Palestinians on Palestine could be traced back to 1971, with the documentary by the Palestine Film Unit With Soul With Blood in which is located and fi nally reaches her fl at in (2015). Checkpoints are a recurring stylised sequences featuring caricatures of Bethlehem on the 21st fl oor. Th e fi lm seeks trope of surveillance and confi nement political parties and satirical cartoons were to emulate the socio and geo-political in fi lms on Palestine that capture the strategically constructed and assembled. characteristics of a newly recognised degradation Palestinians endure daily. Other examples of some of the creative ‘State of Palestine’ while raising critical Some exceptionally creative depictions of approaches in fi lms on Palestine include questions around it. Th rough sci-fi , the fi lm checkpoints are seen in Divine Intervention the palimpsest multi-narration approach obliterates familiar notions of topography (2002) by Elia Suleiman. Here a checkpoint in Mona Hatoum’s Measures of a Distance as bordered horizontal landscapes, placing collapses when an unarmed, attractive (1988); the use of the fantastic genre in Palestinian cities vertically on top of Palestinian woman struts through it. In some scenes in Elia Suleiman’s Divine each other in a skyscraper – with each Chic Point (2003) by Sharif Waked the Intervention (2002); the reuse and re- city occupying a fl oor. While imagined checkpoint is transferred into a fashion enactment of archival material in Kamal disruptive city landscapes are seen in runway with Palestinian ‘models’ wearing Al Jafari’s Recollection (2015); the creative Hollywood fi lms, the concept is rarely seen clothes revealing body areas routinely montage in Elia Suleiman and Jayce in fi lms on Palestine. searched by Israelis through stylish cut- Salloum’s Introduction to the End of an By presenting Palestinian cities and outs or zippers. Argument (1990). Th ese approaches and population constricted in a skyscraper In this ‘imagined’ state for Palestinians, others have been the subject of studies by to which there is only one underground an illusion of freedom of movement is many scholars and fi lm critics. access point, the fi lm comments on the presented as advanced transport systems Unusual evocative cinematic and diminishing of Palestinian spaces and land, replace checkpoints. Th e use of elevators narration styles could be well suited to which in reality is taking place through as points of entry and exit to cities expressing the complex reality – comprised the continued building and expansion of within the occupied territories illustrates of interweaving layers of social, cultural illegal settlements in the West Bank and a discord from the usual checkpoints and political issues – of Palestine and East Jerusalem and the ensuing increase seen in Palestinian fi lms. Whereas in Palestinians. As Edward Said put it in in the numbers of illegal Israeli settlers most fi lms the checkpoints symbolise his book Aft er the Last Sky: ‘Since the and the regular land confi scation, house confi nement and subjugation, in Nation main features of our [Palestinian] present evictions and demolitions. In the fi lm, the Estate, elevators, enclosed spaces and existence are dispossession, dispersion, and irrationality of a state consisting of cities underground tunnels refl ect the existence yet also a kind of power incommensurate vertically stacked on top of each other of pseudo-sovereignty; residents can travel with our stateless exile… essentially refl ects the irrationality of negotiations smoothly yet they are still behind the wall unconventional, hybrid and fragmentary or pleas for a state of Palestine. Th e trapped comfortably in the skyscraper. Th is forms of expression should represent us irrationality lies in the fact that these refl ects the crippling restrictions imposed [Palestinians]’(1986). negotiations do not take the above Israeli by the Israeli military on the mobility of measures into consideration, nor do they Palestinians in the occupied territories. In Zeina Shanaah is a PhD candidate at take into account the lack of freedom of using a dynamic imaginative genre, sci-fi the SOAS Centre of Media Studies. Her movement Palestinians endure and the in Nation Estate facilitates the illustration research focusses on subversive techniques in dismissal of the UN recognised right of of Palestinian geopolitical contemporary Palestinian fi lms made in the 21st century return and compensation for Palestinians reality by presenting Palestinians living expelled and displaced in 1948. Th e impossibility of having an autonomous, © Larissa Sansour viable and self-sustainable Palestinian state is symbolised through the irrational piling of Palestinian cities on top of each other in a sophisticated panopticon behind the wall. Th e confi nement and prison-like existence of many Palestinians in reality has been portrayed in fi lms on Palestine, most of which depict captivity through claustrophobic or single-location settings and special lighting eff ects such as Degrade (2015) and 3000 Nights

(Opposite and right) Nation Estate photo series, 2012, Larissa Sansour. Images courtesy of the artist

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 9 FFILMILM

Yonatan Sagiv on what the new phenomenon of Israeli horror fi lms can tell us about the Israeli-Palestinian confl ict IIsrael,srael, PPalestinealestine aandnd zzombiesombies

inety-four years: that is the fi lms, opting instead for ‘highbrow’ social 1967 war and to a euphoric, public feeling length of time it took the Israeli dramas and war epics. Produced aft er the that the external threat against Israel had Nfi lm industry to produce its fi rst establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, fi nally been lift ed, these highly successful horror fi lm since its modest beginnings the Israeli fi lms of the 1950s and 1960s movies turned for the fi rst time to address in 1911 with the creation of the fi rst tended to present the fl edgling state as a the internal ethnic tensions that divided Zionist documentary, simply titled Th e humanist, socialist and Western society Israeli society since the mass immigration First Film in Palestine by British Zionist battling against an abstract Arab enemy of Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and Murray Rosenberg. Th is somewhat for national independence and survival. North Africa in the 1950s. surprising delay in fi lm production can It was only in the mid-1960s when Similar to the emergence of this popular be explained by the fact that in the fi rst Israeli cinema began to produce slapstick cinema, promoted and prompted by few decades of its existence, Israeli cinema comedies, musicals and melodramas, Israel’s intensifi ed national and economic had avoided ‘lowbrow’ genres such as known in Israel as the Bourekas genre. confi dence in the late 1960s, the second romantic comedies, thrillers and horror Responding to the Israeli victory in the wave of cinematic entertainment in Israel – especially the rise of the urban romantic comedy genre – was also triggered by the Th e horror genre responds to and expresses the political context changing political landscape of the 1990s. Facilitated by the 1994 peace treaty with of the last two decades in Israel, marked by the collapse of the Jordan and the 1993 Oslo Accords with peace process and the renewed violence of the national confl ict the PLO, romantic comedies such as Th e

10 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 Song of the Siren (1994) and Yana’s Friends Th e new phenomenon of Israeli horror cinema in (1999) refl ected the socio-cultural feeling st that Israel was on the verge of what the 21 century certainly discloses a pessimistic Shimon Peres, then Israel’s Minister of and ambiguous image of Israel Foreign Aff airs, coined as ‘the new Middle East’; a new era of political, cultural and economic cooperation in which violent who takes the identity of a casual lover to JeruZalem, the horror comedy Freak national confl icts would be a thing of the who was severely wounded in a bomb Out locates its ‘terror’ within the political past. Th is change in the Israeli national explosion outside a club in Tel Aviv. As reality of the Israeli-Palestinian confl ict. narrative was also earlier shaped by Meow’s identity shatters, she and the Centring around four Israeli soldiers Israeli fi lms of the previous decade – viewer eventually discover that the person who guard an army base surrounded by among them Behind the Walls (1984) and who lies wounded under the mummy- ‘Arab villages’, Freak Out initially presents Fictitious Marriage (1987) – which began like dressings in the hospital is not her the Palestinian villagers as threatening, to represent Palestinian characters not lover but she herself. Subsequently, many faceless would-be-zombies through the only as enemies, but also as victims and later Israeli horror fi lms also present point of view of its frightened protagonist even potential allies. the national territory as a literal and Matan. However, as a killing spree Th e evolution of comedies in Israel metaphorical source of violence. While erupts in the base, the actual horror lies provides an explanation to the very the horror comedy Rabies, for example, within the character of the army-base recent proliferation of the horror genre follows a group of teens as they are commander, the orphaned Russian- in Israel with the production of such terrorised by a serial killer in a secluded Jewish immigrant Stas who killed a fi lms as Frozen Days by Danny Lerner forest laced by mines from earlier wars, Palestinian boy trying to poison the base’s (2005), Rabies by Aharon Keshales and the concept of the horror lurking beneath water reserves. Th rough juxtaposing Stas’s Navot Papushado (2010), Jeruzalem by our feet is manifested in JeruZalem in murder of a Palestinian child with Matan’s Doron and Yoav Paz (2015), Freak Out which the holy city is being overtaken fear of Palestinian attacks, Freak Out by Boaz Armoni (2015) and others. Like by zombies arriving from below in an constructs a political and cinematic play Israeli-produced comedies refl ecting apocalypse supposedly prophesised by of refl ections; a national allegory in which disparate political contexts, the horror Judaism, Islam and Christianity. the Israeli state projects its own violence genre responds to and expresses the Although all these fi lms portray on the image of the Palestinians. political context of the last two decades the national territory as a location of Th e new phenomenon of Israeli horror in Israel, marked by the collapse of the past, current or impending violence, cinema in the 21st century certainly peace process between Israel and the they employ diff erent strategies when discloses a pessimistic and ambiguous Palestinian authority and the renewed accounting for the relation of the image of Israel. Utilising the genre’s violence of the national confl ict. Th us, Palestinian-Israeli confl ict to the horror emphasis on emotional and physical it is no coincidence that the fi rst Israeli which they display. While Frozen Days violence, Israeli horror fi lms present fi lm to feature horror motifs is the highlights Palestinian acts of violence dread, pain and anxiety as an inherent psychological thriller Frozen Days which in Tel Aviv as a cause for the horror part of Israeli-Jewish existence while came out fi ve years aft er the failure of the and deconstruction experienced by the ambivalently portraying Palestinians, 2000 Camp David Summit. A climate (Jewish-Israeli) self, JeruZalem both either as the harbingers of such violence of alienation and suspicion dominates alludes to and evades the confl ict as or alternatively as its ultimate victims. Frozen Days which tells the story of a it frames its supernatural horror plot young female drug dealer named Meow mostly in theological terms. In contrast Yonatan Sagiv is an Author and a Scholar of Israeli culture. His recent books include: Indebted: Capitalism and Religion in the Writings of S.Y Agnon and the novel Your Secret’s Safe with Me

(Opposite and left) Images from the movie Freak Out (2015). Courtesy of the director, Boaz Armoni

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 11 FFILMILM

Suzanne Gauch examines how North African cinema has been evolving recently, cultivating and responding to critical audiences PProteanrotean rreefl ections:ections: ttrendsrends iinn NNorthorth AAfricanfrican ccinemainema

orth African fi lm-makers, their least three perspectives: for evidence of and Tunisia (1956). In the two decades audiences and critics have pandering to neo-colonial interests or state following independence, North African Nagreed about one thing since the propaganda; for its simultaneous socio- fi lms explored, through a range of emergence of narrative fi lm-making by political relevance and entertainment perspectives, such themes as the suff ering Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians: fi lm value; and for its ability to hold its own and growing political consciousness functions as a refl ection. Yet the substance among globally circulating fi lms. From its of the colonised (Mohamed Lakhdar of that refl ection, as much as its purpose, very beginnings, however, Maghrebi fi lm Hamina, Th e Wind of the Aures, 1966, has been and continues to the object of anticipated, and indeed, cultivated, critical Algeria), anti-colonial and revolutionary much dispute. audiences. struggle (Ahmed Rachedi, Th e Damned, Today, in the wake of the rise of digital North African cinema emerged into 1965, Algeria; Abdellatif Ben Ammar, technologies, satellite television and popular and global consciousness soon Sejnane, 1973, Tunisia), the challenges of the internet, audiences in the region aft er the region’s independence from modernity in the new nation state (Latif sometimes known as the Maghreb are France, and was thus immediately and Lahlou, Spring Sunshine, 1969, Morocco; acutely conscious not just of stubborn closely intertwined with nation-building Mohamed Bouamari, Th e Charcoal Burner, persistence of nefarious stereotypes of in Algeria (1962), Morocco (1956) 1972, Algeria; Ridha Behi, Hyenas Sun, Arabs and Africans in global media, but also of the absence of Algerian, Moroccan By refl ecting previously suppressed histories and diff erent facets and Tunisian fi lms on the broader regional and world stages. As a result, North of social life in the new nation, fi lm was seen as fostering a African fi lm is scrutinised through at collective, national consciousness in new citizen-viewers

12 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 Films from the 1980s and 1990s examined the demise of heated, regarding their accessibility, representativity and political, cultural, post-independence ideals in pointed and nuanced ways social and national allegiances. Yet such debates only attest to the continued vitality 1977, Tunisia), or women’s social and many recent trends. Some explored the of fi lm in North Africa today. Alongside political struggles (Sid Ali Mazif, Leila confrontation of regional and globally increasing accessibility of the tools of fi lm- and the Others, 1978, Algeria; Moumen circulating cultures, others examined the making, they prompt the emergence of Smihi, El Chergui, 1975, Morocco; Omar pressures fuelling migration and others new fi lm-makers who continue to redefi ne Khlifi , Screams, 1972, Tunisia; Selma still refl ected on the history and practice what fi lm refl ects and how, in North Africa Baccar, Fatma 75, 1978, Tunisia). By of fi lm-making. Most of all, however, fi lms and beyond. refl ecting previously suppressed histories from these decades examined the demise and diff erent facets of social life in the of post-independence ideals in pointed Suzanne Gauch is Associate Professor new nation, fi lm was seen as fostering and nuanced ways, and in a range of of English at Temple University in a collective, national consciousness in styles: Jilali Ferhati, Reed Dolls, 1981, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she new citizen-viewers. Meanwhile, as fi lms Mohammed Abderrahmane Tazi, Th e Big teaches fi lm, postcolonial and gender travelled internationally, they testifi ed to Trip, 1981, Morocco; Nouri Bouzid, Golden studies. She is the author of Maghrebs in the new nations’ cultural life, modernity Horseshoes, 1989, and Bezness, 1992, Motion: North African Cinema in Nine and legitimacy. Tunisia; Ferid Boughedir, Halfaouine, 1990, Movements (Oxford University Press, 2016), In these fi rst decades aft er independence, Tunisia; Mohamed Chouikh, Th e Citadel, and Liberating Shahrazad: Feminism, North African fi lms had already 1988, Algeria; Hakim Noury, Stolen Postcolonialism, and Islam (University of encompassed a range of visions, genres, Childhood, 1993, Morocco; Moufi da Tlatli, Minnesota Press, 2007) aesthetics, and fi lm-making styles. Th ey Th e Silences of the Palace, 1994, Tunisia; included comedies, melodramas, historical Merzak Allouache, Bab el Oued City, 1994, and adventure fi lms; experimental, Algeria; Mohamed Zran, Essaida, 1996, message and documentary fi lms; and Tunisia; Abderrahmane Bouguermouh, fi lms intended to critique, inform, engage, Th e Forgotten Hillside, 1996, Algeria; Nabil mobilise and entertain. Co-productions Ayouch, Mektoub, 1997, and Ali Zaoua, among North African, African and 1999, Morocco. Slowly but surely, the European countries and beyond were spaces that North African fi lms refl ected not unusual, but only Algeria formally and which they infl uenced continued to nationalised fi lm production aft er expand, even as traditional movie-going independence. Film-makers themselves audiences seemed to dwindle. came from a range of backgrounds. Over the past two decades, Algerian, Some had attended fi lm school abroad Moroccan and Tunisian fi lm-makers have (Opposite) Poster for the fi lm Sejnane, directed or trained in television, and others were increasingly explored the region’s twinned by Abdellatif Ben Ammar self-taught. Although their notions of what stereotyping and invisibility on a global (Below) Poster for the fi lm El Chergui, directed by fi lm should show and do diff ered, all were level. Conscious of audience expectations Moumen Smihi obliged to work within the constraints of at home and abroad, fi lm-makers from the overt and subtle forms of censorship and region grapple with the varied legacies of to negotiate the spectres of neo-colonial the moving image in nation-building, as infl uence raised by French support of post- a tool of social change and as a means of independence fi lm-making. cultural bridge-building. Contemporary From the 1980s onward, state support fi lm-makers such as Nabil Ayouch, Faouzi for fi lm-making generally increased in Bensaidi, Nouri Bouzid, Moncef Dhouib, Morocco, declined in Algeria and varied in Nadia El Fani, Nacer Khemir, Djamila Tunisia. At the same time, new sources of Sahraoui, Lyes Salem and Tariq Teguia funding and logistical support continued make very diff erent kinds of fi lms. All, to emerge in Europe and increasingly however, have expanded the range of from fi lm festivals. Audiences throughout refl ections associated with North African the Maghreb, meanwhile, quickly grew cinema while reconsidering the work that wary of state-sponsored representations as fi lm should do. Among other things, their the promises of independence remained fi lms explore the politics of culture at home unfulfi lled, and the repression of political and abroad, reinvent globally popular dissidents and activists increased. As tropes in regionally specifi c ways, expose Algeria sank into a protracted internal war the blind spots of projects of national in the 1990s, the circulation of images and cinema, reinvent fi lm form and language information was sharply restricted and in fi lms that defy easy categorisation and those images and material that emerged challenge recent formulations of global were viewed with intensifi ed suspicion. cinema by questioning the perspectives Films made in this challenging climate in on which they are built. A number of the 1980s and 1990s nonetheless prefi gured them have given rise to debate, sometimes

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 13 FFILMILM

Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad and Asal Bagheri ask whether the depth and prominence of Iranian cinema is likely to end with the death of Abbas Kiarostami WWitherither IIranianranian ccinema?inema? FFilm-makingilm-making iinn tthehe ppost-Kiarostamiost-Kiarostami eerara © Tasnim News Agency, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

016 has been a tragic year for who fi rst drew international attention demise has left , one should consider Iranian cinema. Iranian fi lm- to Iranian cinema with Where is the briefl y his major contributions to Iranian 2maker, Abbas Kiarostami, one Friend’s House? made in 1989 and later and world cinema. Kiarostami brought of the most prominent directors in by winning the Palme D’Or for A Taste a new minimalist style to fi lm-making, contemporary ‘world cinema’, died on 4 of Cherry in 1997 in Cannes. Ironically, balancing his fi lms on a tightrope July 2016. Within days, tributes poured it was from France that his body was between the fi ctional and the real, using in from world-renowned fi lm-makers, returned to Tehran, where a red carpet mise-en-abyme, or ‘fi lm within a fi lm’ including the American director Martin was rolled out at the airport to welcome as a signifi cant element in his art and Scorsese. Kiarostami’s contribution to his remains. Th e question to ask now is employing non-professional actors to great Iranian cinema has been immense over whether Kiarostami’s death will signal the eff ect. Kiarostami’s innovative style had a many decades, particularly in the post- beginning of the end for Iranian cinema. major impact on fi lm-making practices revolutionary period. It was Kiarostami To understand the void that Kiarostami’s in Iran, infl uencing many younger fi lm-makers, such as Bahman Ghobadi One wonders whether Iranian cinema will continue (A Time for Drunken Horses, 2000) and Samira Makhmalbaf (Th e Apple, 1998). to pose questions on fi lm with the same intensity Kiarostami’s impact in international or signifi cance as Abbas Kiarostami’s fi lms did festivals also opened the door to fi lm

14 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 Rakhshan Bani-Etemad has highlighted women’s issues in fi lms have continually attracted interest across boundaries in appealing to both contemporary Iran, breaking various cultural taboos in subtle ways international and domestic festivals. Bani- Etemad received an honorary doctorate circuits worldwide for other Iranian could hope for. Importantly, the same is from SOAS in 2008 in recognition of her fi lm-makers, to the degree that from the true of audiences in Iran who fl ocked to work. mid-1990s no reputable festival would be see the fi lm, making it the most popular On 10 July 2016, Kiarostami’s funeral without at least one or two Iranian fi lms. fi lm of the year. No fi lm from Kiarostami brought together almost all major fi gures Kiarostami’s signifi cance, however, has ever become nearly as popular with of Iranian cinema, including Asghar was beyond matters of style and festival Iranian audiences. Th e interpretation Farhadi and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. recognition and should be located in of Iranian box offi ce fi gures, however, is Others such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, his unique approach to philosophical rather complex. In Iran, as in the West, a another Iranian master fi lm-maker, and dilemmas that pervaded every one of his fi lm’s distribution and release play a major Ramin Bahrani, an emerging Iranian- feature fi lms: for example, the protagonists role in whether or not it ever has a chance American auteur, sent their tributes from in Taste of Cherry and Th e Wind Will Carry of box offi ce ‘success’. For example, if the outside Iran. Th e funeral speeches and Us wondered about life and death through Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance tributes were unanimous in exalting Abbas deceptively simple plot lines. decides that a fi lm will not appeal to the Kiarostami’s contribution to Iranian and In the post-Kiarostami era, it is highly general public but art-house audiences, indeed world cinema. One would hope likely that Iranian cinema will remain it will receive a small release in fewer that he rests in peace having known that prominent at diverse fi lm festivals. cinemas limiting its potential at the box Iranian cinema would continue to fl ourish However, apart from winning Western offi ce (see Zeydabadi-Nejad’s Th e Politics of in diverse ways aft er him. accolades, one wonders whether Iranian Iranian Cinema, 2010, for a more in depth cinema will continue to pose questions on discussion of the topic). Dr Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad lectures at fi lm with the same intensity or signifi cance Another prominent fi lm-maker, who the Centre for Media Studies, SOAS and as Abbas Kiarostami’s fi lms did. has appealed to large audiences in Iran, is the Institute of Ismaili Studies. He is the In order to answer this question, we Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. Bani-Etamad’s author of Th e Politics of Iranian Cinema: need to look beyond the circle of fi lm- fi lms explore the lives of working-class Films and Society in the Islamic Republic makers who have more or less emulated female protagonists, exposing gender (Routledge 2010), and he has appeared on his style. One of the most prominent of issues beyond simple binaries of male/ BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3 these is Asghar Farhadi. Farhadi has had a female, traditional/modern, or rich/ distinctive trajectory: his fi rst fi lm Dancing poor. One of the fi rst women to enter Asal Bagheri has a PhD in Semiology and in the Dust featured at Iran’s prominent the hitherto masculine milieu of Iranian Linguistics, with a specialisation in Iranian Fajr International Film Festival in 2003. cinema, she draws on her long experience cinema. She’s the author of the thesis Men & While the fi lm received some good as a documentary fi lm-maker with women relationships in post-revolutionary reviews, it did not win any of the festival’s distinct awareness of nuances in complex Iranian Cinema: Directors’ strategies and main awards. However, what made it lives of women from poor suburbs of semiotic analysis. She has been teaching stand apart from the few quality fi lms in Tehran. She has highlighted women’s linguistics, semiology and communication competition was that it was clearly not issues in contemporary Iran, breaking courses in universities such as Sorbonne Kiarostami-inspired in style or in plot. His various cultural taboos in subtle ways. Her Paris Descartes, Paris Est Creteil, Paris Est subsequent fi lms confi rmed the arrival of Marne La Vallee and Rennes an original auteur on the Iranian cinema © GTVM92, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 scene. Ever since that beginning, in each of his own fi lms as well as scripts written for others (he wrote the fi rst fi lm script for Low Heights, 2002, directed by Ibrahim Hatamikia), he has focussed on complex, intertwining moral dilemmas in the lives of urban characters in contemporary Iran. Farhadi’s unique place in Iranian cinema was further emphasised by his fi lm A Separation (2011) receiving an Oscar, a coveted award which had never been won by an Iranian fi lm. While cineastes generally do not consider the Oscars anywhere near as important as the more ‘arthouse’ European awards such as Cannes, Venice or Berlin, no one can deny the appeal of Oscar-winning fi lms at (Opposite) Abbas Kiarostami. Photograph by the box offi ce. A Separation was indeed a Mohammad Hassanzadeh, Tasnim News Agency box offi ce ‘mini-hit’ in the West, which is (Left) Abbas Kiarostami's grave at Lavasan, the best that a non-English language fi lm Tehran, Iran. Photograph by GTVM92

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 15 FFILMILM

Yasmin Fedda talks about some of the Syrian fi lm-makers risking their lives to tell their stories KKeepingeeping AAleppoleppo aalivelive

ne of the most recent, 2011, I fi nd these developments striking from starvation. Th e short fi lms they made heartbreaking images of the Syrian especially in a country where independent about a community garden and about Oconfl ict was that from 17 August fi lm-making and journalism had been young people sitting in the dark capture 2016 of the young boy Omar Daqneesh, curtailed by the state. Although there were rare and moving moments of human sitting, shocked and silent in an ambulance, diffi culties associated with navigating tragedy and resilience. Other workshops covered in blood and dust aft er being the offi cial and bureaucratic hurdles have been held in nearby countries such as pulled from the rubble of a building which in place for fi lm-makers at that time, Turkey, including the workshop organised had been hit by an air strike. Th is image, those diffi culties pale in comparison to by the Syria Mobile Film Festival – which along with the vast majority of images those experienced by fi lm-makers and screens fi lms made on mobile phones and fi lms coming out from Aleppo, was journalists working in Syria today. Finding across Syria and abroad – which I took taken by journalists working at the Aleppo solutions to manoeuvre around these part in as a trainer in the summer of Media Centre (AMC), which was set up in new diffi culties is an everyday struggle. 2015, running a series of fi lm-making 2012 by a group of young Syrian activists However, collectives such as the AMC and workshops. and journalists aft er Aleppo’s split along others manage to come up with ingenious Th e festival is an initiative of Al-Sharee, pro and anti-regime lines with the aim of ideas. For example, Bidayat (a Syrian fi lm- a collective of artists and journalists in focussing on ordinary people’s struggles making initiative which helps fi rst and Syria, who, like ordinary people in the as they cope with incessant violence and second-time fi lm-makers produce fi lms country, began to use accessible technology trauma. Th e AMC is not, however, the only by providing training sessions) ran a series and cameras to witness, document and outfi t working on making creative media of online mentoring sessions with fi lm- share with the world what was happening (fi lm, documentary, music, satire, poetry makers in the Yarmouk Palestinian camp around them. Some of the material fi lmed and performance) even in the context of in Damascus while it was under siege and was shot spontaneously, such as capturing extreme violence and repression. Some where many inhabitants were suff ering a protest or an arrest, while others were other notable fi lm initiatives include Bidayat, Hakawati and Abu Naddara. As a fi lm-maker who produced fi lms Th ere are now thousands of clips, reports and fi lms uploaded in Syria before the uprising began in online, archiving diff erent moments of the Syrian confl ict

16 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 ‘Aleppo is one of the most dangerous places now, and city have managed to speak to the outside world through the work of Syrian activists, the world might not hear what is happening here. journalists and fi lm-makers in the city. It is important for us to cover these stories now’ Hasan and Mujahid’s fi lms made for the Syria Mobile Film Festival can be seen at more planned and developed into edited help us to understand what is happening http://syriamobilefi lms.com/en/, while reports or fi lms. Th ere are now thousands now and understand it in the future. Right the work of the AMC can be followed on of clips, reports and fi lms uploaded online, now we are focussing on the bombing Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ archiving diff erent moments of the Syrian campaigns as that is the biggest threat to AleppoAMCen/. confl ict. During this workshop I met some us at the moment.’ Mujahid himself told of the AMC fi lm-makers, among them me of a very close call he had with a bomb; Yasmin Fedda is a Documentary Film- Hasan who, in his fi lm Clustered, decided he described how he had no choice but to maker. Her past fi lms have focussed on to focus on the story of Hussein, a young run, unable to help those who had been themes ranging from Edinburgh bakeries boy disabled by a cluster bomb. Clustered hit. Hasan had a similar experience while to Syrian monasteries, some of which have manages to make visible a quiet struggle fi lming with a volunteer for the Syrian been made for broadcast while others of a poor family fi nding ways to survive in Civil Defence, or the White Helmets, for have been screened at international fi lm Aleppo with the added pressure of their many months. Tragically, the person he festivals. She has a PhD in Transdisciplinary son having lost his hands to a bomb he was fi lming was killed. Documentary Film, and is also a Co- thought was a toy. As Hasan recalls: ‘Th e At the time of writing, Aleppo, Syria’s founder and Programmer of Highlight Arts, cluster bombs are still being dropped largest city before the confl ict began an organisation that works with artists in on us every day, the story continues and in March 2011, has been regularly times of confl ict these weapons will stay in the city for a bombarded for fi ve years and has suff ered long time’. Some time aft er the fi lm was sieges and military incursions. But those completed, Hussein and his mother tried suff ering inside the eastern part of the to leave Syria. Th ey set out for Turkey to try to get him a prosthetic limb. Both Hussein and his mother went missing en route; nothing has been heard of them since, despite numerous eff orts by Hasan and the AMC to locate them. During the Syria Mobile Film Festival workshop, Mujahid Abou Aljoud’s fi lm Th e Architect was made. Th e Architect focusses on how a young boy sought to rebuild his destroyed city out of cardboard sculptures exhibited in a room in his house. As Mujahid explained: ‘Children have suff ered a lot in this confl ict, the regime has destroyed childhood.’ Th e AMC is not the only media centre operating out of Aleppo – there are several others such as the Halab News Network and Shahra Press, but what distinguishes it is the focus on turning real events into fi lms despite the dangers posed to the journalists and fi lm producers. As Mujahid said: ‘Aleppo is one of the most dangerous places now, and the world might not hear what is happening here. It is important for us to cover these stories now. Th rough fi lms you can document history. Th is will

(Opposite) Still from The Architect by Mujahid Abou Aljoud. Filmed during the 2015 Syria Mobile Film Festival workshop. Photograph courtesy of Mujahid Abou Aljoud (Right) Poster for the fi lm Clustered, directed by Hasan Kattan

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 17 FFILMILM

Mizgin Mujde Arslan on the inception and growth of the foundations of Kurdish cinema NNascentascent KKurdishurdish ccinemainema

ft er the fi rst ‘defi nable’ Kurdish as do black humour and fairy tales in such fi lms at the end of the 1990s, fi lms as those by Hiner Saleem. His well- AKurdish cinema offi cially launched known Vodka Lemon balances drama and at the beginning of 2000. Prior to that humour excellently and is easily described date, directors were hesitant to share their as bittersweet. Moreover, in Vodka Lemon Kurdish identity for fear of oppression. It the impossible love story – between a was only aft er 1999 – when Turkey sought Yazidi man forbidden to marry outside his to improve its record on democracy and community and an Armenian woman – is human rights in a bid to gain entry to the itself a fairy tale. Likewise, in Ghobadi’s EU – that some of these directors started Nivemang (‘Half Moon’, 2006) a man falls to identify themselves as Kurdish and the in love with a woman’s voice; in the same Kurdish language was used in fi lm. fi lm a fairy woman appears on a bus and Since then, several Kurdish fi lms shown then disappears. Poster for the fi lm A Time for Drunken Horses, at international fi lm festivals have been Since the beginning of 2000 and the directed by Bahman Ghobadi nominated for major awards, including steps taken towards Kurdish reconciliation Bahman Ghobadi’s Dema Hespê n SerxweŞ in Turkey, many Kurdish fi lms have (‘A Time for Drunken Horses’, 2000), which received positive interest from festivals and won the Caméra d’Or award at the Cannes fi lm-lovers. In the last decade, aft er support cities lack cinemas. Generally Kurdish Film Festival; and Hiner Saleem’s Vodka from the Kurdish Regional Government fi lms can only be seen at Kurdish fi lm Lemon, which received the San Marco grew (mainly in response to discovering festivals, which unfortunately do not run Prize at the 60th Venice International the power fi lm had on publicising the regularly. In the past, some fi lm festivals Film Festival in 2003. Another work that situation of Kurds in the Middle East), the have been held irregularly in Duhok, deserves mention is the short fi lm Ax number of Kurdish fi lms has risen, but Sulaymaniyah and Amed (Diyarbakir). In (‘Land’, 1999) created by the fi lm-maker the quality and storytelling remain poor; 2001 the London Kurdish Film Festival Kazim Oz. Ax helped raise awareness of most directors have not attended cinema made its debut, but it has been held only the Kurdish quest for a homeland while schools and the Regional Government nine times since then. Other such fi lm also revealing the denial and suppression of seems preoccupied with producing more, festivals have taken place in Berlin and Kurdish identity in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and not better, fi lms. Paris and more recently an initiative was Iran, an element common to these fi lms. Dengbej (storytelling) is an old tradition announced to hold the fi rst Kurdish fi lm But it is A Time for Drunken Horses that among Kurdish people and stories are festival in New Mexico in May 2017. captures the essence of Kurdish cinema given life via many diff erent art forms, Although denial continues in those by telling a story of relatively obscure including through music and oral literature places with little to no demand from the people living within the borders of several and through Kurdish folk arts such as audience, a fl edgling Kurdish cinema countries, a prevalent theme in the milieu. carpet weaving, embroidery and metal persists even while the land and its people Other fi lms – such as Th e Road (Yol, 1982) ornamentation. And though Kurdish fi lms face renewed pressures from the Turkish by Yılmaz Güney and Hisham Zaman’s are essentially exercises in storytelling, it is government and death at the hands of the Before Snowfall (2015) – deal also with diffi cult to say that there exists a Kurdish- so-called Islamic State. questions of invisibility as well as the long speaking audience that follows and or journey to recognition. Th emes of war, even knows about Kurdish cinema. Th is Mizgin Mujde Arslan worked as a Reporter trauma, borders, death and agony abound, is mainly because many of the towns and for six years before transitioning to fi lm- making. She has received various awards Kurdish fi lms help raise awareness of the Kurdish for her short and documentary fi lms and is the author of Rejisor Atıf Yılmaz, Kurdish quest for a homeland while also revealing the Cinema: Statelessness, Boundary and denial and suppression of Kurdish identity Death, and Yeşim Ustaoglu

18 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 FFILMILM From unforgiving realist depictions to © ADR Productions – Own work, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 those lauding socialist values and from epic war fi lms to something a bit more ‘indie’, Nazli Tarzi relays a brief history of Iraqi cinema

CChanginghanging ttrendsrends iinn IIraqiraqi ccinemainema

Abbas Fadhel on the set of Dawn of the World, 2007. Photograph by ADR Productions

‘ t the height of culture in Iraq, cinema troupes founded by graduates from humble Baghdad home. Ja’afar Ali’s Th e Bus theatres in Baghdad absorbed as Baghdad’s Institute of Fine Arts toured Conductor (1968) – another realist success Amany as 10,000 spectators a day’ urban cities teaching and performing plays. – also commits itself to this trend with recalls Iraqi fi lm-maker Fadhel Abbas. Th eir abilities were put to the test in the its unfl inchingly realistic portrayal of the Th ough quantitatively limited, Iraq boasts 1940s and 50s, as Iraqi and co-produced daily struggles of a bus conductor and his a rich history of fi lm production. Indeed, feature fi lms burst onto local screens working class passengers. Other important since fi lm was introduced in the 1930s, under the rubric of realist cinema, which productions include Andrea Chotan’s Aliya cinematic currents have done more to addressed the realities ordinary masses and Isam (1948), and Haydar Al-Omar’s publicise the traumas generations of Iraqis encountered daily. Fitna and Hassan (1955), in which currents have suff ered than to construct an idyllic Most memorable in this trend is Kameran of realism, melodrama and romance merge. past. Th ese fi lms off er visual scripts capable Hassani’s Sa’id Eff endi (1957), recorded at a Another fi lm that stands out is Yaha Fa’ik’s of lift ing the curtain on the ways society and time when the fortunes of Iraq’s monarchy Wardah (1956) which, though little known, state have perceived themselves, and varying had turned. Th e plot centres on a petit provides an implicit message of female reactions to these perceptual worlds. bourgeois teacher and his relations with empowerment – that women, too, can be In tracing the beginnings of Iraq’s impoverished citizens. To circumvent agents of their own change. motion pictures, we land at the year 1908, accusations of subversive content Hassani As the monarchy crumbled in 1958, when urbanites converged for a screening cleverly conceals Mr Sa’id’s economic class attitudes towards cinema markedly at Al-Shifa house, perched on the banks and does not use set or ornate props, just a changed. In an attempt to modernise of the Tigris. Silent fi lms dominated in the early years as cinema, some claim, Since fi lm was introduced in the 1930s, cinematic currents came into being as the natural successor to Iraqi theatre. Spurred on by artistic have done more to publicise the traumas generations of accomplishments in Egypt and Lebanon, Iraqis have suff ered than to construct an idyllic past

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 19 Although punitive sanctions, cyclical wars and occupation and the almost non-existent professional training. Renowned fi lm-maker Maysoon brought Iraq’s nascent fi lm industry to a grinding halt, a new, Pachachi uses her own experience in largely independent cinema has emerged since Saddam’s ouster making this point. She set up a training centre for actors and producers in Baghdad in 2004, but closed it down ten years later the industry, Iraq’s fi rst offi cial cinematic Although punitive sanctions, cyclical wars because of logistical diffi culties, security institution – Th e Iraqi Film and Th eatre and occupation brought Iraq’s nascent fi lm issues and a lack of funds. Organization – came into existence to industry to a grinding halt, a new, largely But for Pachachi and other Iraqis, eff orts embellish the rule of Abdulkarim Qasim independent cinema has emerged since to revive Iraqi cinema must go on. As and cultivate nationalist sensibilities. Th is Saddam’s ouster. Its pioneers – mainly she said in a recent interview with Dina historical juncture marked the modest expatriate Iraqis – have ventured back Matar: ‘In Iraq, people are trying but you beginnings of a new socialist cinema which to their homeland to relight Iraq’s long cannot see them…. fi lm tells their stories expanded following the Baathist seizure extinguished cinematic fl ame. and stories of what is going on and aims of power in 1963. Hits included Th e Head Th e year of Iraq’s Short Film Festival is to construct a narrative. It is a way of (1976), Houses in the Alley (1977) and a memorable year on the cinema calendar. communicating. It’s a way to produce a Th e Experiment (1978) among other fi lms Th e six-day event – screening a total 58 national discourse which is immediate. Film honouring socialist values. Gradually fi lms – symbolised a new wave of fi lm- for me creates a space for critical thinking. fi lms became more distinctly political and making, fuelled by the search for an Iraqi Film gives a sense of what people are up propagandist, favouring reimagined tales of identity. Th e trauma of life in today’s Iraq against. But ultimately fi lm is an act of Arab struggles, revolts and liberation. serves as the backdrop to many of these resistance to the acts of endless destruction Attempts to resuscitate the realist trend fi lms, the most celebrated of which include we are living in. And in this act of resistance, or clone the Egyptian melodrama were met Mohamad Darraji’s Kingdom of Garbage, fi lm tries to make something out of a dire with little enthusiasm. Screened the year of Son of Babylon and In My Mothers Arms; situation.’ the Baathist coup, Hikmat Labib’s Autumn Sahim Kalifa’s Baghdad Messi; Maysoon Leaves (1962) drew an astonishingly low Pachachi’s Return to the Land of Wonders; Nazli Tarzi is an independent Journalist, turnout. In his next two fi lms, 7 O’clock Abbas Fadhel’s Iraq Year Zero and Sajjad whose writings and fi lms focus on Iraq’s Train (1963) and Farewell Lebanon (1967), Abbas’s Iraqi Superhero alongside many ancient history and contemporary political Labib reverts to realism. But while the spectacular Kurdish productions. and cultural landscape aesthetic is masterfully craft ed in both, However, despite these successes, since the public had by then lost its appetite for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 Iraqi cinema realist cinema hollowed of critical content. has struggled to survive and remains As directors like Labib became faded icons, suspended, as Abbas notes ‘somewhere others, such as Mohamed Shoukry Jamil between home and exile’. Th is condition emerged as glittering stars. Most recognised is exacerbated by a lack of funding, the Poster for fi lm Autumn Leaves, directed by for his fi lms Th e Th irsty (1971), Th e Walls deteriorating security situation in Iraq Hikmat Labib (1979) and Clash of Loyalties (1983), Jamil’s fi lms showcased a politicised current of cinema grounded in documentary-style. Jamil’s career began in documentary in 1953, training shoulder-to-shoulder with English technicians at the Iraq Petroleum Company’s (IPC) fi lm department. Iraq’s 1980s cinematic archive is replete with epic war fi lms, as the state geared all its energies towards winning the war against Iran. Films such as Al Qadisiyya (1981), Th e Long Days (1986), and King Ghazi (1990), fi nanced by Saddam’s regime, intended to mobilise support for his foreign and domestic policies. Th e fi lm that typifi ed this ideological cinematic trend most is Infl amed Borders (1985), centred on the eight-year Iraq-Iran confl ict. Cinematic decline followed, set off by the advent of the second Gulf war, the era with which western scholarship is most preoccupied with. In these years, regime loyalty was what mattered most, and fi lm-makers, no diff erent from other artists, worked to evade rather than please their censor.

20 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 FFILMILM

Ehab Galal analyses three Egyptian fi lms made after 2011 that off er lenses into the many ways the uprisings aff ected various societal groups EEgyptiangyptian ccinemainema aafterfter tthehe uuprisingsprisings

Poster for the fi lm Nawara, directed by Hala Khalil

ince the fall of the Mubarak regime across social and political divides. Th e TV host endorsing the state discourse in in 2011, there has been a new trend following three movies exemplify the order to pursue a personal career; and Sin fi lm production centred on the main three paradigmatic critiques in these an intelligence agency boss who fed the socio-political problems that characterised productions: the lack of political freedom, regime ideas about how to subdue the his 30-year rule. Addressing the regime’s the devastating dominance of wasta people. Egyptian intelligence arrested inhumane treatment of Egyptian citizens, (nepotism) and the enduring iniquity. Amro because he demonstrated against some fi lms have succeeded in expressing the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2009. He popular sentiments, reproducing Egyptian Lack of political freedom went to prison and was ruthlessly tortured. cinema’s trend of criticising the political El sheita elli fat (‘Th e Winter of Aft er his imprisonment he joined the system, its use of violence, its corruption Discontent’, 2012) is a drama that uprisings when they began in 2011. and absence of social justice. Rather focusses on the lack of political freedom, During the uprisings, Farah reported the than exploring the 2011 uprisings, these the widespread use of torture and the state’s perspective loyally until the day she fi lms address diff erent societal problems impossibility of freely voicing political saw the police torturing demonstrators. while connecting these problems to discontent under Mubarak. Th e movie has Appalled, she left her job and joined the distinct groups within Egyptian society; three main fi gures: Amro, an engineer and uprisings where she and Amro met again. they tell the story of how the uprisings a political activist; his former girlfriend When the regime fell, the intelligence refl ect the life and agency of Egyptians and opportunist Farah, who becomes a boss left his position and went back to his family at the seaside. Th ese three movies tell the story of how the uprisings refl ect the While Amro personifi es the activist, Farah represents the Egyptian who still has life and agency of Egyptians across social and political divides a sound awareness of justice, but who has

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 21 Th e iniquity that the poor faced before the uprisings politically dissatisfi ed but passive middle class and the poor who use all their energy did not get better aft erwards, only worse to survive. Whereas the critique of the political system and corruption is similar temporarily succumbed to the temptation weeks of uprising. Th e uprisings become to movies from before 2011, such as Hena of personal success. Th e intelligence boss a background that Nawara follows on the Maysara (‘Waiting for Better Days’, 2007) embodies the always-willing instrument television, on her way to work and through and Heya Fawda (‘Th e Chaos’, 2007), the of power who, despite losing his power, the rich family’s responses to the events. three mentioned above directly expose returns to his family unaff ected. Th e While Nawara’s family and neighbours live Mubarak’s lack of credibility. For example reunifi cation of Amro and Farah at in an area deprived of water and electricity, in Th e Black February, Mubarak is seen Tahrir symbolises the reunifi cation of the her rich employers are preoccupied with waiting in the airport to welcome home Egyptian people, and the movie ends with rebuking the demonstrators as idiots and the national football team instead of doing the success of the uprisings in the spirit of the willing tool of the country’s enemies. anything to solve the problems his country optimism and hope for change. Th e rich family fl ees the country as soon as is facing. Mubarak is arrested, and Nawara is thrown Th e three movies highlighted in this Devastating dominance of wasta in prison regardless of her innocence. article were produced in 2012, 2013 and Febrair el-Isud (‘Th e Black February’, Th us, the movie tells the story of the 2015 respectively. Th e decline of optimism 2013) is a black humour comedy that poor Egyptians who paid the price for the over time across the three appears to refl ect criticises the Egyptian system of wasta or uprisings. Th e iniquity that the poor faced the general development of the Egyptian nepotism. It tells the story of two brothers, before the uprisings did not get better population’s mood since the uprisings: both university professors, and their aft erwards, only worse. Seen through the from optimism and hope to disillusion and families. Th e two brothers are depressed; eyes of Nawara, the uprisings do not off er ultimately hopelessness. they feel they are not being acknowledged any hope or optimism for change. for their professional accomplishments. Ehab Galal is Associate Professor in Media And they worry because they do not have From optimism to disillusion to and Society in the Middle East at the the right connections to, or protection hopelessness Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional from, the politicians, the court system Th ese three movies not only critique Studies, University of Copenhagen in or the business people who run the political repression, nepotism and iniquity, Denmark. Among his latest publications are country. Unsuccessful in their attempts to they also represent the voices of particular Arab TV Audiences: Negotiating Religion immigrate, instead they scheme: they look socio-political positions and agencies in and Identity (2014). His current research for a suitable marriage partner for the older Egypt during the time of the uprisings: focusses on media strategies of Islamist brother’s daughter in order to secure useful the confi ned but mobilised activist, the political parties connections to the ruling power. So the daughter leaves her fi rst love, a scholar, and gets engaged to a judge. She then leaves the judge, who was removed from his position, and gets engaged to an intelligence offi cer instead. Just as the two were due to wed, they heard the demonstrations in the streets. So her father calls off the wedding immediately. He argues that she should wait until they know which direction the uprisings will lead. In the last scene of the movie, the three fi ancés are sitting on a sofa waiting for the result of the uprisings. Th e two disillusioned professors personify the Egyptian middle class whose eff orts were hindered by a corrupt system of nepotism. Th e critique is articulated through the absurd and tragicomic attempts of the professors to adapt to this system. Th e response to the uprisings is hesitation, waiting without active participation.

Enduring iniquity Nawara (2015) is a movie about a poor young woman, Nawara, who lives in a deprived area and works as maid for an extremely rich family. Th e movie depicts Poster for the fi lm The Black her personal struggles during the three February, directed by Mohamed Amin

22 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 PPHOTOHOTO COMPETITIONCOMPETITION MiddleMiddle EEastast iinn LLondonondon pphotohoto competitioncompetition rresultsesults ((2016)2016)

or four years now we have hosted provocative), they give us glimpses into As always, we are grateful to all who an annual photo competition, the history, culture and humanity of the took part in the competition. We intend Finviting our readers to submit region. to continue with this annual tradition, so their photographs of the Middle East. Th is year it was Iman Nabavi’s image check back during the summer months Each year we are awed anew by the of the Emamzadeh Ebrahim in Kashan, for the details of the 2017 competition. quality of the images submitted: vibrant Iran that won fi rst place. Two additional and evocative (or even sometimes photographs won commendations. © Iman Nabavi

Winning photograph ‘The Emamzadeh Ebrahim’ Iman Nabavi is an Iranian photographer infl uenced by art and visual imagery. His love aff air with photography began in 1995. For him, photographs off er a way to fi nd common ground, to break through the insubstantial obstacles that keep people apart. ‘Why struggle to open a door between us when the whole wall is an illusion?’ he asks. Photography’s strength, then, lies in its ability to evoke a sense of shared humanity. Th is photograph depicts the Emamzadeh Ebrahim, a historical structure in Kashan, Iran well known for its turquoise dome, tiled minarets and iwan.

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 23 Samir Kassam has long had an interest in studying the Middle East, eventually leading him to post-graduate study at SOAS. During the course of his studies, he travelled to the region seeking to understand local perspectives. ‘Shooting for the Improbable’ came to life on one of his last days in the Old City of Jerusalem. Waiting for the Maghrib call to prayer, Samir found the passion of the kids’ play inspiring and their pleas to join them unrelenting. To him, it symbolised the warmth, hospitality and kindness he experienced throughout his travels, superseding the political contestation of the grounds they played on.

Commendation photograph ‘Shooting for

© Samir Kassam the Improbable’

Th is photograph shows the Jameh Mosque of Qazvin, one of the oldest mosques in Qazvin province, Iran. Th rough his photography Iman Nabavi hopes to remind the peoples of the Middle East – and those elsewhere – of the beauty and importance of preserving heritage and culture so that it can be shared. ‘Th ere is no fate but what we make!’ he says.

Commendation photograph ‘Jameh Mosque

© Iman Nabavi of Qazvin’

24 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF JJihadismihadism TTransformed:ransformed: AAl-Qaedal-Qaeda aandnd IIslamicslamic SState’state’s GGloballobal BBattleattle ooff IIdeasdeas Edited by Simon Staff ell and Akil Awan

Jihadist narratives have evolved dramatically over the past fi ve years, driven by momentous events in the Middle East and beyond; the death of bin Laden; the rise and ultimate failure of the Arab Spring; and most notably, the rise of the so-called Islamic State. For many years, al-Qaeda pointed to an aspirational future Caliphate as their utopian end goal – one which allowed them to justify their violent excesses in the here and now. Islamic State turned that aspiration into a dystopic reality, and in the process hijacked the jihadist narrative, breathing new life into the global Salafi -Jihadi movement. Th is collection of essays examines how jihadist narratives have changed globally, adapting to these turbulent circumstances. As these analyses demonstrate, the success of the ISIS narrative has been as much about resonance with local contexts, as it has been about the appeal of the global idea of a tangible and realised caliphate.

November 2016, Hurst, £30.00 TThehe MMakingaking ooff a SSalaalafi MuslimMuslim WWoman:oman: PPathsaths ttoo CConversiononversion By Anabel Inge Th e spread of Salafi sm – oft en referred to as Wahhabism – in the West has intrigued and alarmed observers since the attacks of 9/11. Many see it as a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that condones the subjugation of women and fuels Jihadist extremism. Yet in Britain, growing numbers of educated women – oft en converts or from less conservative Muslim backgrounds – are actively choosing to embrace Salafi sm’s literalist beliefs and strict regulations, including heavy veiling, wifely obedience and seclusion from non-related men. Th is book draws on more than two years of ethnographic fi eldwork in London. It examines why Salafi sm is attracting so many young Somalis, Afro-Caribbean converts and others, and how these women negotiate strict religious interpretations with everyday life in Britain.

November 2016, Oxford University Press, £22.99 UUndernder tthehe SShadow:hadow: RRageage andand RevolutionRevolution inin ModernModern TurkeyTurkey By Kaya Genç

Turkey stands at the crossroads of the Middle East – caught between the West and ISIS, Syria and Russia, and governed by an increasingly forceful leader. In Under the Shadow Kaya Genç meets activists from both sides of Turkey’s political divide: Gezi park protestors who fought tear gas and batons to transform their country’s future, and supporters of Erdogan’s conservative vision who are no less passionate in their activism. He talks to artists and authors. He interviews censored journalists and conservative writers. He meets Turkey’s Wall Street types who take to the streets despite the enormity of what they can lose as well as the young Islamic entrepreneurs who drive Turkey’s economy. He shows a divided society coming to terms with the 21st century, and in doing so, gets to the heart of the compelling confl icts between history and modernity in the Middle East.

September 2016, IB Tauris, £12.99

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 25 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF RRoutledgeoutledge HHandbookandbook oonn HHumanuman RRightsights aandnd tthehe MMiddleiddle EEastast aandnd NNorthorth AAfricafrica Edited by Anthony Tirado Chase

Recent events such as ‘Iran’s Green Revolution’ and the ‘Arab Uprisings’ have exploded notions that human rights are irrelevant to Middle Eastern and North African politics. Increasingly seen as a global concern, human rights are at the fulcrum of the region’s on-the-ground politics, transnational intellectual debates and global political intersections. A multidisciplinary approach from scholars with a wide range of expertise allows this book to capture the complex dynamics by which human rights have had, or could have, an impact on Middle Eastern and North African politics.

November 2016, Routledge, £150.00

RReturneturn ttoo tthehe SShadows:hadows: TThehe MMuslimuslim BBrotherhoodrotherhood aandnd AAn-Nahdan-Nahda ssinceince tthehe AArabrab SSpringpring By Alison Pargeter Th e Arab Spring heralded a profound shift in the Middle East, bringing to power Islamist movements which had previously been operating in the shadows. For a while, it looked as though the region was entering the dawn of a new Islamist age. But navigating their respective countries through diffi cult and painful transitions ultimately proved too challenging for these forces, and, just as suddenly, the Muslim Brotherhood was dramatically overthrown in Egypt and left severely weakened in Libya. In Tunisia, An- Nahda managed to pull itself through the crisis, but its failure to articulate and deliver the hopes and aspirations of a large section of Tunisian society damaged its credibility. In this book, Alison Pargeter charts the Islamists’ ascent and subsequent fall from power.

October 2016, Saqi Books, £16.99 LLifeife aafterfter RRuin:uin: TThehe SStrugglestruggles ooverver IIsrael’ssrael’s DDepopulatedepopulated AArabrab SSpacespaces

By Noam Leshem

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the landscape of Israel-Palestine was radically transformed. Breaking from conventional focus on explicit sites of violence and devastation, Noam Leshem turns critical attention to ‘ordinary’ spaces and places where the intricate and oft en intimate engagements between Jews and myriad Arab spaces takes place to this day. Leshem builds on interdisciplinary studies of space, memory, architecture and history and exposes a rich archive of ideology, culture, political projects of state-building and identity formation. Th e result is a fresh look at the confl icted history of Israel-Palestine: a spatial history in which the Arab past isn’t in fact separate, but inextricably linked to the Israeli present.

October 2016, Cambridge University Press, £64.99

26 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF TThehe PPricerice ooff a VVoteote iinn tthehe MMiddleiddle EEast:ast: CClientelismlientelism aandnd CCommunalommunal PPoliticsolitics iinn LLebanonebanon aandnd YYemenemen By Daniel Corstange Clientelism and ethnic favouritism appear to go hand in hand in many diverse societies in the developing world. But, while some ethnic communities receive generous material rewards for their political support, others receive very modest payoff s. Th e Price of a Vote in the Middle East examines this key – and oft en overlooked – component of clientelism. Th e author draws on elite interviews and original survey data collected during his years of fi eld research in Lebanon and Yemen; two Arab countries in which political constituencies follow sectarian, regional and tribal divisions. He demonstrates that voters in internally- competitive communal groups receive more, and better, payoff s for their political support than voters trapped in uncompetitive groups dominated by a single, hegemonic leader. Ultimately, politicians provide services when compelled by competitive pressures to do so, whereas leaders sheltered from competition can, and do, take their supporters for granted.

September 2016, Cambridge University Press, £64.99 TThehe PPoisonedoisoned WWell:ell: EEmpirempire aandnd iitsts LLegacyegacy iinn tthehe MMiddleiddle EEastast By Roger Hardy Almost 50 years aft er Britain and France left the Middle East, the toxic legacies of their rule continue to fester. To make sense of today’s confl icts and crises, we need to grasp how Western imperialism shaped the region and its destiny in the half-century between 1917 and 1967. Roger Hardy unearths an imperial history stretching from North Africa to southern Arabia that sowed the seeds of future confl ict and poisoned relations between the Middle East and the West. Drawing on a rich cast of eye-witnesses – ranging from nationalists and colonial administrators to soldiers, spies, and courtesans – Th e Poisoned Well brings to life the making of the modern Middle East, highlighting the great dramas of decolonisation such as the end of the Palestine mandate, the Suez crisis, the Algerian war of independence and the retreat from Aden.

August 2016, Hurst, £20.00 IInsidenside tthehe MMuslimuslim BBrotherhood:rotherhood: RReligion,eligion, IIdentity,dentity, aandnd PPoliticsolitics By Khalil al-Anani Inside the Muslim Brotherhood provides a comprehensive analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt since 1981. Th e book unpacks the principal factors that shape the Brotherhood’s identity, organisation and activism, investigating the processes of socialisation, indoctrination, recruitment, identifi cation, networking and mobilisation utilised by the movement. Khalil al-Anani argues that the Brotherhood is not merely a political actor that seeks power but also an identity maker that aims to change societal values, norms and morals to line up with its ideology and worldview. As a socio- political movement, he fi nds, the Brotherhood is involved in an intensive process of meaning construction and symbolic production that shape individuals’ identity and gives sense to their lives.

December 2016, Oxford University Press, £47.99

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 27 LISTINGS EEventsvents iinn LLondonondon

HE EVENTS and of the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918 in Israeli studies of occupation and IBG members. Pre-registration organisations listed southern Jordan. Saunders reveals argue that deconstructing critical required. Ondaatje Th eatre, Tbelow are not necessarily the Ottoman army camps, railway occupation studies reveals an array Royal Geographical Society endorsed or supported by The ambushes, Rolls-Royce armoured of assumptions that contradict (with the Institute of British Middle East in London. The car raiding camps, hilltop forts, its immediate intentions. Khalili Geographers), 1 Kensington accompanying texts and images machinegun strong-points, and a Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 Gore, London SW7 2AR. T 020 are based primarily on information long-forgotten Royal Flying Corps 4330/4490 E [email protected] W 7591 3000 W www.rgs.org / www. provided by the organisers and do landing strip that all emerged www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cps/events/ crossingtheemptyquarter.com not necessarily reflect the views from the desert. Admission free. of the compilers or publishers. Pre-registration required. BP 7:00 pm | Crossing the Empty While every possible effort is Lecture Th eatre, Clore Education Quarter - Mark Evans (Lecture) Monday 5 December made to ascertain the accuracy of Centre, BM. T 020 7323 8181 W Organised by: Royal Geographical these listings, readers are advised www.britishmuseum.org / www. Society (with the Institute of 5:15 pm | A Puzzle of Resilience: to seek confirmation of all events pef.org.uk British Geographers). British Th e Islamic Schools of Law using the contact details provided explorer Mark Evans describes between South Asia and the for each event. 7:00 pm | 1967 Bypassing 1948: A his 49 day, 1,300km journey Middle East (Seminar) Simon Submitting entries and updates: Critique of Occupation Studies in last winter on foot and by camel Wolfgang Fuchs (Gonville and please send all updates and Israeli Critical Th eory (Lecture) across the world’s biggest sand Caius College, University of submissions for entries related Amal Jamal (Tel Aviv University). desert, tracing Bertram Th omas’ Cambridge).Organised by: to future events via e-mail to Organised by: Centre for Palestine fi rst – and the only – previous Department of History, SOAS. [email protected] Studies, SOAS. Lecture by Jamal in crossing in 1930 (see Exhibitions, Near and Middle East History which he will engage with critical p. 37). Tickets: £7/£5 RGS- Seminar. Convenor: Derek BM – British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG SOAS –SOAS, University of Crossing the Empty Quarter (see event above, 7.00pm, Thursday 1 December and Exhibitions p. 37) London, Th ornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG LSE – London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2 2AE

DECEMBER EVENTS

Th ursday 1 December

4:00 pm | Lawrence and the Arab Revolt: Archaeology of a Desert Insurgency 1916- 18 (Lecture) Nick Saunders (University of Bristol). Organised by: Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) in association with the BM Department of the Middle East and ASTENE. Evans Memorial Lecture. Bristol University’s ‘Great Arab Revolt Project’ investigated the archaeology and anthropology

28 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 LONDON MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE SOAS, University of London LONDON MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE

TUESDAY LECTURE PROGRAMME ON THE CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST SPRING 2017 10 January Turkey's attempted coup d'état and its afternath William Hale (SOAS) 17 January The Poisoned Well: Empire and Its Legacy in the Middle East Roger Hardy (formerly BBC World Service) 24 January The Invention of Palestinian Citizenship, 1918-1947 Lauren Banko (University of Manchester) in conversation with Nelida Fuccaro (SOAS) Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies 31 January Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon's Party of God Joseph Daher (Lausanne University, Switzerland) 7 February Inter-Ethnic Marriages in a Divided Society: Palestinian-Jewish Families in Israel Maha Karkaby Sabah (Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS) 14 February Reading Week 21 February The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present Bashir Abu-Manneh (University of Kent) Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies 28 February The Importance of Marmaduke Pickthall Peter Clark (formerly British Council) 7 March Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran Orkideh Behrouzan (King's College London) 25 April Hadhramaut and its Diaspora: Yemeni Politics, Identity and Migration Organised jointly with the Hadhramaut Research Centre 2 May 'The Commander', a political biography of Fawzi al-Qawuqji Laila Parsons, (McGill University)

TUESDAYS 5:45 PM Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Paul Webley Wing (Senate House), SOAS The Lectures are free and open to all. For further information contact: London Middle East Instutute, SOAS University of London, MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA. T: 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 29 Communication. Convenor: Diana fsnet.co.uk W www.exiledwriters. Stein (Birkbeck). Admission free. co.uk Venue B102, SOAS. E ag5@soas. ac.uk W http://banealcane.org/ Tuesday 6 December lcane/ 2:00 pm | Political Ecology of 6:45 pm | Turkey: Internal Agricultural Virtual Water Flows Turmoil, International Concern in Palestine during the Post-Oslo (Talk) Ayça Çubukçu (Centre for Period (Seminar) María J. Beltran. the Study of Human Rights at Organised by: Department of LSE). Organised by: Friends of Le Development Studies, SOAS. Monde Diplomatique. Doors open Applying a political ecology 6:30pm. Çubukçu gives a talk on approach, Beltran's paper shows the situation in Turkey aft er the how socio-ecological conditions failed military coup in July, and are sustained by and organised Erdogan’s response in the name of through both social and metabolic- the ‘national will’ have increased ecological processes. Admission tensions within the country free. London International where a state of emergency has Development Centre, 36 Gordon now been declared. Tickets: Square, Kings Cross, London £3/£2 conc. Th e Gallery, Alan WC1H 0PD. W www.soas.ac.uk/ Baxter & Associates LLP, 70/77 development/ Cowcross Street, Farringdon, London, EC1M 6EL. E enquiries@ 5:45 pm | Iranian Cinema mondediplofriends.org.uk W Uncensored: Contemporary www.mondediplofriends.org.uk Film-Makers Since the Islamic Revolution (Lecture) Shiva 7:00 pm | Screening: Th e Rahbaran. Organised by: London White Helmets + Discussion Middle East Institute, SOAS (Documentary) Organised by: (LMEI) and the Centre for Iranian Frontline Club. Dir Orlando von Studies. Lecture by Shiva Rahbaran Einsiedel, 40 mins. More than 50 on her book Iranian Cinema bombs and mortars a day land on Uncensored: Contemporary Film- some neighbourhoods in Syria. Makers Since the Islamic Revolution Mnemosyne (video still) by Inas Halabi (2016). Image courtesy of the artist. In a place where public services (I.B.Tauris, 2016) in which she Pattern Recognition (see Exhibitions p. 37) no longer function unarmed reveals that the seeds of the New volunteers, known as the White Iranian Cinema were sown long Helmets, risk their lives to help before the revolution, and that anyone in need – regardless of Iranian fi lm-makers gave rise to J Mancini-Lander (SOAS). Unexpected Find" - Th e their religion or politics. Followed a cinema which became a global Admission free. B104, Brunei Synagogue at Dura-Europos by a discussion with director phenomenon despite censorship, Gallery, SOAS. E dm40@soas. and its Place in Local Society Orlando von Einsiedel, producer sanctions and political isolation. ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/history/ (Lecture) Ted Kaizer (University Joanna Natasegara and others. Part of the LMEI's Tuesday events/ of Durham). Organised by: Tickets: £10/£8 conc. Frontline Evening Lecture Programme on Anglo-Israel Archaeological Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London the Contemporary Middle East. 6:00 pm | Th e Chilcot Inquiry: Society (AIAS) and the Institute W2 1QJ. T 020 7479 8940 E Admission free. Wolfson Lecture Lessons for Strategy? (Talk) of Jewish Studies, UCL. Followed [email protected] W Th eatre, Paul Webley Wing Sir Roderic Lyne (member of by refreshments. Admission free. www.frontlineclub.com (Senate House), SOAS. T 020 7898 the Iraq inquiry committee of Harrie Massey Lecture Th eatre 4330/4490 E [email protected] W 5 Privy counsellors, chaired (E8), 25 Gordon Street, London 7:30 pm | Exile Lit Cafe presents www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ by Sir John Chilcot) and WCIH OAY. T 020 8349 5754 E "Out of the Ashes" (Poetry Bronwen Maddox (Institute for [email protected] W http:// Reading) Organised by: Exiled 6:00 pm | In Search of the Government). Organised by: aias.org.uk/ Writers Ink! Monthly Exile Lit Umma: Th e Social Imaginary Centre for International Studies Cafe. With poets: Wafaa Abed Al and its Discontents (Lecture) and Diplomacy, SOAS.Chair: 6:15 pm | A Place for Everything: Razzaq, Peter Godismo, Hamdi James Piscatori (Australian Leslie Vinjamuri (SOAS). Alumni Ritual Space in Kaneshean Khalif, Gregory Spis and David National University). Organised Lecture Th eatre, Paul Webley Households (Seminar) Yağmur Clark. Open Mic. Tickets: £5/£3 by: Department of Politics and Wing (Senate House), SOAS. E Heff ron (UCL). Organised by: Th e 2016 Exiled Writers Ink members International Studies, SOAS. [email protected] W www.soas. London Centre for the Ancient and asylum seekers. Betsy SOAS Centenary Lecture. ac.uk/cisd/events/ Near East. Part of the Ancient Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, Piscatori examines how Muslims Near East Seminars: Ancient London EC1R 3BL. T 020 8458 have dealt with the idea of 6:00 pm | "An Even More Ritual Techniques, Artefacts and 1910 E jennifer@exiledwriters. solidarity, even unity, as seemingly

30 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 CENTRE FOR IRANIAN STUDIES – SCHOLARSHIPS

SOAS, University of London, is pleased to announce the availability of several scholarships in its Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS). The Centre, established in 2010, draws upon the range of academic research and teaching across the disciplines of SOAS, including Languages and Literature, the Study of Religions, History, Economics, Politics, International Relations, Music, Art and Media and Film Studies. It aims to

build close relations with likeminded p 25 . of the School Oriental and African Studies, London, 2007, Treasures institutions and to showcase and foster the best of contemporary Iranian talent in art and culture. MA in Iranian Studies *O

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2016/17. Thanks to the generosity of the Fereydoun Djam Charitable Trust, a number of Kamran Djam scholarships are available for BA, MA and MPhil/PhD studies. MA in Iranian Studies For further details, please contact: Dr Nima Mina (Department of the Languages and Culture of the Middle East) Scholarships Offi cer E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4315 T: +44 (0)20 7074 5091/ 5094 W: www.soas.ac.uk/nme/programmes/ W: www.soas.ac.uk/scholarships ma-in-iranian-studies Centre for Iranian Studies Student Recruitment Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Chair) T: +44(0)20 7898 4034 E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4747 W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 31 contradictory trends unfolded – with Christina Lamb: Nujeen Centre for Jewish Studies, SOAS. (Lecture) Organised by: Islamic as states became entrenched in Mustafa’s Journey from War- Admission free. Room B111, Art Circle. SOAS Centenary the Muslim world and as broader Torn Syria (Talk) Organised by: Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, Islamic Art Circle Lecture. networks have emerged. Chair: Frontline Club. Born with cerebral SOAS. W www.soas.ac.uk/ Lecture by Nasser D Khalili, Salwa Ismail (SOAS). Admission palsy, sixteen-year-old Nujeen jewishstudies/events/ world-renowned scholar, collector free. Pre-registration required. Mustafa fl ed war-torn Aleppo in and philanthropist, and leader in Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, 2015, completing a 3,500-mile 6:00 pm | A 'Revolutionary the pursuit of peace and inter-faith SOAS. E [email protected] journey with her sister Nisreen Education'? Algeria, West Africa, dialogue. Chair: Scott Redford / [email protected] W www.soas. from Syria to Germany all in a and the Postcolonial Politics of (SOAS). Followed by a reception. ac.uk/politics/events/ wheelchair. Sharing her full story Islam (Lecture) Andrew Lebovich Admission free. Pre-rgistration for the fi rst time, she has co- (Columbia University). Organised required W www.eventbrite.co.uk 6:00 pm | Th e MENA Youth authored a book, Nujeen, with by: LSE Middle East Centre and Brunei Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T Agenda – Transition, Frustration the journalist Christina Lamb. the Society for Algerian Studies. 07714087480 T 020 7 898 4120 E and Aspiration (Lecture) Charis With Christina Lamb and Nujeen Lebovich examines the largely [email protected] W www. Boutieri and David Know. Mustafa (via Skype). Tickets: unexplored connections in the soas.ac.uk/art/islac/ Organised by: Department of £12.50/£10 conc. Frontline Club, colonial and postcolonial era Middle Eastern Studies (DMES), 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 between reformist Muslims Friday 9 December King's College London and the 1QJ. T 020 7479 8940 E events@ in Algeria and West Africa. British Council. Admission free. frontlineclub.com W www. Admission free. Pre-registration 6:00 pm | Gender and Generation S-2.18 (Lucas Lecture Th eatre), frontlineclub.com required. Room 9.04, Clement's in the Aft ermath of the Uprisings. Stand Campus, London WC2R Inn, Tower 2, LSE. T 020 7955 Political Visions, Desires, 2LS. E [email protected] W www. Wednesday 7 December 6198 E [email protected] W www. Movements in the Middle East kcl.ac.uk/sspp/sga/mems/events/ lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/ / and North Africa Today (Two- events.aspx 5:30 pm | From Aliyah to www.algerianstudies.org.uk Day Conference: Friday 9 - Immigration Country (Lecture) Saturday 10 December) Organised 7:00 pm | In Conversation Yoav Peled Israel. Organised by: 7:00 pm | Th e Art of Collecting by: London Middle East Institute

THE ORIGINS OF ISIS The Collapse of Nations and Revolution in the Middle East Simon Mabon and Stephen Royle

The rapid expansion of ISIS and its swathe of territorial gains across the Middle East have been headline news since 2013. While ISIS remains a relatively new phenomenon, this book considers both the historical and local dynamics that have shaped the emergence of the group in the past decade. Simon Mabon and Stephen Royle provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the roots, tactics and ideology of the group, exploring the interactions of the various participants involved in the formative stages of ISIS. Based on original WGLSPEVP]WSYVGIWERH½VWXLERHVIWIEVGLMRXLIVIKMSRXLMWFSSO TVSZMHIWEREYXLSVMXEXMZIERHGPSWIP]EREP]WIHPSSOEXXLIIQIVKIRGI SJSRISJXLIHI½RMRKJSVGIWSJXLIIEVP]X[IRX]½VWXGIRXYV] Paperback November 2016 256 pgs | 198 x 126 mm ‘This book should be required reading for £10.99 | 9781784536961 the incoming Secretary of State’ www.ibtauris.com – Hassan Hassan, author of ‘ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror’

32 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 and the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS in partnership with the Istituto Aff ari Internazionali. Sponsored by: Power2Youth. Conference exploring the predicament of young women and men in and from the MENA region in contemporary times. It will bring together scholars and activists with the aim to analyse the visions, desires and projects emerging in the post-uprisings contexts among youth individuals, aff ective communities, social and political movements and social non-movements. Conveners: Ruba Salih (SOAS), Lynn Welchman (SOAS) and Elena Zambelli (Institute of Development Studies and SOAS). Admission Free. Pre-registration required. Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E vp6@soas. ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ events/

12:00 pm | Turkey: Th e Land Qatari Matryoshka by Hana Al Saadi, painted wood (2016). Reconnecting: Contemporary Art from Qatar (see Exhibitions p. 37) of Conspiracies and the ‘Enemy Within’ (Seminar) Corry Guttstadt (Independent Researcher, Hamburg) Organised Narrate: Forced Migration Wednesday 14 December carpets. Tickets: £7/£5 students/ by: SOAS Modern Turkish Studies from the Caucasus to Ottoman membership of one year for 11 Programme (London Middle East Lands in the Soviet Literary 6:00 pm | Between Rome and events at £20. St James Conference Institute). Sponsored by: Nurol Imagination (Seminar) Rebecca Parthia: Palmyra and Dura- Room, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J Bank. Admission free. London Gould (University of Bristol). Europos (Lecture) Samuel 9LL. E membership.orts@gmail. Middle East Institute, SOAS Organised by: Department of N.C. Lieu (formerly Macquarie com / W www.leggecarpets.com / (LMEI), University of London, History, SOAS. Near and Middle University, Australia). Organised www.orientalrugandtextilesociety. MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell East History Seminar. Convenor: by: Council for British Research in org.uk Square, London WC1B 5EA. E Derek J Mancini-Lander (SOAS). the Levant (CBRL). Lieu examines [email protected] / gm29@soas. Admission free. B104, Brunei the two ancient Syrian sites of Th ursday 15 December ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ Gallery, SOAS. E dm40@soas. Palmyra and Dura Europos, both events/ ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/history/ key strategic locations in their day 6:00 pm | Tel Lachish and Khirbet events/ and important centres of ancient Arai: Searching for the Early trade, with their reach extending Phases of the Kingdom of Judah Saturday 10 December to Greece in the West and as far as (Lecture) Yossi Garfi nkel (Hebrew Tuesday 13 December China in the East. Admission free. University of Jerusalem). Annual 9:00 am | Gender and Generation Pre-registration recommended. King's Bible and Archaeology in the Aft ermath of the 7:00 pm | When the Mirzas British Academy, 10-11 Carlton Lecture. Organised by: King's Uprisings. Political Visions, met Mr D’Arcy: Six Persian House Terrace, London SW1Y College London in association Desires, Movements in the Students in Regency London 5AH. E [email protected] W with the Palestine Exploration Middle East and North Africa (Lecture) Nile Green. Organised http://cbrl.org.uk/ Fund and the Anglo-Israel Today (Two-Day Conference: by: Th e Iran Society. Doors open Archaeological Society. Admission Friday 9 - Saturday 10 December) 6:30pm. Followed by the Society's 7:00 pm | Th e ORTS Trip to free. K2.31 (Nash Lecture Th eatre), See above event listing on Friday Christmas Party. Tickets: £35. Pre- Iran 2015 and Field Research King's College London, Strand 9 December for more information, booking required. Pall Mall Room, (Talk) Christopher Legge (ORTS). Campus, Strand, London WC2R venue and contact details. Th e Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall Organised by: Oriental Rug 2LS. E [email protected] W Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress and Textile Society (ORTS). www.kcl.ac.uk / www.pef.org.uk / code calls for gentlemen to wear Presentation and discussion http://aias.org.uk/ Monday 12 December jacket and tie). T 020 7235 5122 with Legge on his trip to Iran E [email protected] W www. in September 2015 that he led, Friday 16 December 5:15 pm | Th e Obligation to iransociety.org / www.therag. together with his observations and Migrate and the Stimulus to co.uk previous fi eld research into Persian 1:15 pm | Th e Lore of Tripe:

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 33 Photograph © Iselin-Shaw

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www.soas.ac.uk34 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 Middle East and Beyond JANUARY EVENTS development to their social and Empire and Its Legacy in the (Seminar). Sami Zubaida political contexts. Convened by: Middle East (Lecture) Roger (Birkbeck and SOAS Food Studies Scott Redford, SOAS. Admission Hardy (formerly BBC World Centre). Organised by: SOAS Tuesday 10 January free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, Service). Organised by: London Food Studies Centre. Admission SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 E vp6@ Middle East Institute, SOAS free. Room 4426, SOAS. E 5:45 pm | Turkey's Attempted soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/art/ (LMEI). Talk by Hardy on his [email protected] W Coup d'État and its Aft ermath islac/ latest book Th e Poisoned Well: www.soas.ac.uk/foodstudies/ (Lecture) William Hale (SOAS). Empire and Its Legacy in the Middle forum/ Organised by: London Middle Friday 13 January East (Hurst, 2016) in which he East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Th e unearths an imperial history attempted coup in Turkey of 16- 7:00 pm | Th e Rawza of ‘Ali at stretching from North Africa to Saturday 17 December 17 July 2016 failed ignominiously, Mazar-i Sharıf: Centring a City southern Arabia that sowed the but the aft ermath has had (Lecture) Robert McChesney seeds of future confl ict. Part of the 11:00 am | Exploring Egyptian some important and worrying (New York University). Part LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Mummies (Digital Workshop) implications for the future of of the Yarshater Lecture Series Programme on the Contemporary Organised by: BM. Sponsored by: Turkish politics. Part of the in Persian Art. Second of four Middle East. Admission free. Samsung. Use digital microscopes LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture lectures by Robert D. McChesney Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, Paul to explore materials used in Programme on the Contemporary on Four Central Asian Shrines: Webley Wing (Senate House), embalming, and view the CT scans Middle East. Admission free. Islamic Architecture in Society. See SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E of Egyptian mummies to make Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, Paul above event listing on Th ursday [email protected] W www.soas. your own museum discovery. Webley Wing (Senate House), 12 January for more information, ac.uk/lmei/events/ Admission free. Great Court, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E venue and contact details. BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www. [email protected] W www.soas. 6:00 pm | Th e Genealogies of britishmuseum.org ac.uk/lmei/events/ Monday 16 January Intervention: Humanitarianism in Nineteenth-Century Lebanon 13:15 pm | Creation Myths of 7:00 pm | Tamerlane’s Tomb: (Lecture) Andrew Arsan Ancient Egypt (Gallery Talk) Th ursday 12 January Conjuring a Greater Glory (University of Cambridge). George Hart (Independent (Lecture) Robert McChesney Organised by: Council for British Speaker). Organised by: BM. 4:00 pm | Olga Tufnell: Life (New York University). Part of Research in the Levant (CBRL). Room 4, BM. Admission free. of a Petrie Pup (Lecture) the Yarshater Lecture Series in Arsan will seek to trace out a T 020 7323 8181 W www. John MacDermot (Palestine Persian Art. Th ird of four lectures new genealogy for humanitarian britishmuseum.org Exploration Fund). Organised by Robert D. McChesney on Four intervention by examining the by: Palestine Exploration Fund Central Asian Shrines: Islamic ways in which Britain and France (PEF) in association with the BM Architecture in Society. See above responded to the outbreak of EVENTS OUTSIDE Department of Middle East and event listing on Th ursday 12 sectarian strife in Ottoman Mount LONDON the Council for British Research January for more information, Lebanon in 1860. Admission free. in the Levant (CBRL). Admission venue and contact details. Pre-registration recommended. free. Pre-registration required. BP British Academy, 10-11 Carlton Th ursday 8 December Lecture Th eatre, Clore Education Tuesday 17 January House Terrace, London SW1Y Centre, BM. T 020 7323 8181 W 5AH. E [email protected] W 9:00 am | Turkey- Regional & www.britishmuseum.org / www. 4:30 pm | Th e Merchant Elite and http://cbrl.org.uk/ International Implications pef.org.uk Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait: (Conference) Organised by: Th e Dynamics of Business 7:00 pm | Kandahar's Mantle of European Centre for the Study of 7:00 pm | Abu Nasr Parsa’s Tomb: Political Participation in a the Prophet: Sanctifying Fibre Extremism. Topics will include Reconfi guring Sacred Legacies Rentier State (Lecture) Anastasia (Lecture) Robert McChesney understanding the relationship (Lecture) Robert D. McChesney Nosova (LSE). Organised by: LSE (New York University). Part of the between the current Syrian (New York University). Organised Kuwait Programme. Nosova looks Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian refugee crisis and its possible by: SOAS, University of London at why some merchant families Art. Last of four lectures by Robert implications on Turkey; Turkey’s and the London Middle East engage in parliamentary politics, D. McChesney on Four Central evolving system of governance; Institute. Sponsored by the Persian while others do not, and why at Asian Shrines: Islamic Architecture the relationships between relevant Heritage Foundation (New York). times the merchant community in Society. See above event listing factors and the rise in terrorist Part of the Yarshater Lecture allies with the opposition. Chair: on Th ursday 12 January for more activity; the possible continued Series in Persian Art. First of four Courtney Freer (LSE Kuwait information, venue and contact rise in jihadist insurgents; lectures by Robert D. McChesney Programme). Admission free. details. the policy towards Turkey's on Four Central Asian Shrines: Pre-registration required. Room minorities; and the foundations of Islamic Architecture in Society 9.04, 9th fl oor, Tower 2, Clement’s Turkish-Russian rapprochement. in which he will examine the Inn, LSE. T 020 7955 6639 E Wednesday 18 January Tickets: Various. University of architectural development of [email protected] W www.lse. Cambridge. E [email protected] four major Central Asian shrines ac.uk/middleEastCentre/kuwait/ 7:00 pm | Gillian Vogelsang- W www.eurocse.org found today in Afghanistan home.aspx Eastwood on the Work and and Uzbekistan and relate the Collections of the Dutch Textile 5:45 pm | Th e Poisoned Well: Research Centre in Leiden

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 35 (Lecture) Gillian Vogelsang- quartet that draws on infl uences conversation with Fuccaro on her iransociety.org / www.therag. Eastwood (Textile Research including contemporary classical, book Th e Invention of Palestinian co.uk Centre). Organised by: Oriental Polish folk and Middle Eastern Citizenship, 1918-1947 (Banko, Rug and Textile Society (ORTS). music. Admission free. Foyer L. Edinburgh University Press, Wednesday 25 January Vogelsang-Eastwood’s illustrated Spaces, Southbank Centre, 2016) in which she situates the talk about the work and Belvedere Road, London SE1 evolution of citizenship at the 6.30 pm | Building a Dam, Fixing collections of the Dutch Textile 8XX. T 020 7960 4200 W www. centre of state formation under a Nation: An Infrastructural Research Centre in Leiden will southbankcentre.co.uk the quasi-colonial mandate Ethnography of Turkey (Lecture) act as a prelude for the ORTS administration in Palestine. Chair: Laurent Dissard (Institute visit to Leiden in Th e Netherlands Dina Matar (SOAS). Part of the of Advanced Studies, UCL). on 22 March 2017. Tickets: Monday 23 January LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Organised by: LSE Chair for £7/£5 students/membership of Programme on the Contemporary Contemporary Turkish Studies. one year for 11 events at £20. St Time TBC | Tribal Landscapes Middle East. Admission free. Dissard examines how Turkey’s James Conference Room, 197 in Palestinian, Jordanian & Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, Paul eff orts to 'modernise' through Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. E Syrian Women's Embroidered Webley Wing (Senate House), infrastructural development have [email protected] / Garments (Talk) HRH Princess SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E simultaneously redefi ned the W www.leggecarpets.com / www. Wijdan Al Hashemi. Part of [email protected] W www.soas. future and the past of the nation. orientalrugandtextilesociety.org. Embroidered Tales and Woven ac.uk/lmei/events/ Part of the Anthropology of Turkey uk Dreams (see Exhibitions p. 37). and Beyond lecture series. Chair: Admission free. Venue TBC.T 020 7:00 pm | Qajar Persia and Esra Özyürek (LSE Chair for 7898 4023/4026 E gallery@soas. Imperial Russia, the Memoirs Contemporary Turkish Studies). Friday 20 January ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/ of Prince Arfa’, Diplomat and Admission free. COW 1.11, LSE. T Statesman (Lecture) Michael 020 7955 6067 E Euroinst.Turkish. 5:30 pm | Sirkis/Bialas Noel-Clarke. Organised by: [email protected] W www.lse. International Quartet Tuesday 24 January Th e Iran Society. Doors open ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/ (Performance) Collaboration 6:30pm. Followed by the Society's ContemporaryTurkishStudies/ between Israeli UK-resident and 5:45 pm | Th e Invention of Christmas Party. Tickets: £35. Pre- Home.aspx drummer/composer Asaf Sirkis Palestinian Citizenship, 1918- booking required. Pall Mall Room, and Polish vocalist/composer 1947 (Lecture). Lauren Banko Th e Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall Tuesday 31 January Sylwia Bialas, with London-based, (University of Manchester) Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress Scottish bassist Kevin Glasgow, and Nelida Fuccaro (SOAS). code calls for gentlemen to wear 5:45 pm | Hezbollah: Th e and Frank Harrison on piano and Organised by: London Middle East jacket and tie). T 020 7235 5122 Political Economy of Lebanon's keyboards. Performance by the Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Banko in E [email protected] W www. Party of God (Lecture) Joseph Daher (Lausanne University, Switzerland). Organised by: London Middle East Institute, Crossing the Empty Quarter (see December Events, 7.00pm, Thursday 1 December, p. 28 and Exhibitions p. 37) SOAS (LMEI). Talk by Daher to mark the publication of his book Hezbollah: Th e Political Economy of Lebanon's Party of God (Pluto Press, 2016). Where previous books have focused on aspects of the party’s identity, the military question or its religious discourse, Daher presents an alternative perspective, built upon political economy. Part of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Programme on the Contemporary Middle East. Admission free. Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, Paul Webley Wing (Senate House), SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E [email protected] W www.soas. ac.uk/lmei/events/

EXHIBITIONS

Until 3 December | What Language Do You Speak

36 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017 Stranger? First UK solo exhibition idea of Globalising the Local and mechanics of representation in the of French-Algerian artist Katia Localising the Global. Admission context of Palestine. Admission Kameli, featuring fi lms and an free. P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton free. Th e Mosaic Rooms, A.M. installation, presents some of the Street, London, NW1 1JD. T 020 Qattan Foundation, Tower House, artist’s central concerns with issues 7121 6190 E [email protected] W 226 Cromwell Road, London of dual identities, multiplicity, and www.p21.gallery SW5 0SW. T 020 7370 9990 E the potential for residing in this [email protected] W http:// ‘in-between’ space. Admission Until 8 January | Barjeel Art mosaicrooms.org/ free. Th e Mosaic Rooms, A.M. Foundation: Mapping the Qattan Foundation, Tower House, Contemporary II Th e last in 226 Cromwell Road, London a series of four chronological Th ursday 19 January SW5 0SW. T 020 7370 9990 E displays highlighting works from [email protected] W http:// the Barjeel Art Foundation’s Until 25 March | Embroidered mosaicrooms.org/ collection. Artists from Algeria, Tales and Woven Dreams A Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine colour-coded social history of the Until Th ursday 15 December | and elsewhere in the region tell the vast and geographically varied Crossing the Empty Quarter - story of Arab art from the modern landscape, known as the 'the Silk Mark Evans Photographs, fi lm, to the contemporary period. Road', the exhibition examines maps and memorabilia from the Mapping the Contemporary II the identity of the Central Asian, fi rst expedition across the Rub explores how a generation of Middle Eastern and South Asian al Khali by Bertram Th omas in multi-media artists has artistically landscapes, through the heritage 1930 and the second by Mark engaged with the cities where they of their Embroidered Textiles and Evans in 2015 (see December either live or work. Admission free. Costumes (see January Events on Events, 7:00pm, Th ursday 1 Gallery 7, Whitechapel Gallery, Monday 23 January, p. 36 for details December, p. 28 for details of 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, of a talk on Tribal Landscapes in a lecture by Evans). Admission London E1 7QX. T 020 7522 7888 Palestinian, Jordanian & Syrian free. Royal Geographical Society E [email protected] W Women's Embroidered Garments). (with the Institute of British www.whitechapelgallery.org Admission free. Brunei Gallery, Geographers), 1 Kensington SOAS. T 020 7898 4023/4026 E Gore, London SW7 2AR. T 020 Until 25 January | Zarah Hussain: [email protected] W www.soas. 7591 3000 W www.rgs.org / www. Numina Hussain’s sculptural ac.uk/gallery/ crossingtheemptyquarter.com installation takes the artform of Islamic geometry and adds Until 16 December | Th e Hidden a whole new dimension to it, Face of Iran An exhibition of Numina combines designs found images by French photographer, in the art and architecture of the Bernard Russo, which capture the Islamic world with contemporary everyday life of ordinary people digital arts, bringing to life a in Iran, images rarely seen in usually static artform by mapping the West where Iran is typically animated geometric patterns presented as a land of culture, onto a sculpture composed of religion, and the centre of Sharia tessellating pyramids arranged law. Th e Street Gallery, Institute of on a hexagonal grid. Admission Arab and Islamic Studies, Stocker free. Foyers, Barbican Centre, Road, University of Exeter, Exeter Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. EX4 4ND. T 01392 72 4040 E Admission free. T 020 7638 8891 [email protected] W http:// W www.barbican.org.uk socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/iais/ events/exhibitions/ Until 25 March | Pattern Recognition Young Artist of Until 24th December | the Year Award 2016 (YAYA16). Reconnecting: Contemporary Newly commissioned work from Art from Qatar Showcase of the nine artists who are shortlisted eighteen established and emerging for the 2016 edition of the Young Qatari artists and six fi lmmakers Artist of the Year Award (YAYA refl ecting on the ways they 2016), open to Palestinian artists connect with their identity, culture up to the age of 30, organised and surroundings in an era in every two years by the A.M which their country is constantly Qattan Foundation. Straddling shift ing. Taking its name from the grey zones between fact and Sheikha Al Mayassa’s Ted Talk in fi ction, original and copy, ruin and 2012, the exhibition discusses the repair, the works re-imagine the

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 37 Middle East Summer School y 192423 June-20JuneJune-24 – 26July July July 2017 2014 2013

AnAn intensive intensive five-week five-week programme programme which which includes includes a two choice courses: of two courses: a language one (Persian or Arabic, the latter at two levels) andan Arabicanother Language on the 'Government Course (introductory and Politics or ofintermediate) the Middle East'and or 'Cultureanother and on Society‘Government in the andMiddle Politics East'. of the Middle East.

Beginners Persian (Level 1) Government and Politics of the Middle East Th is is an introductory course which aims to give the students a reasonable grounding in the basics of Persian grammar and syntax Th is course provides an introduction to the politics of the Middle as well as to enable them to understand simple and frequently used East and North Africa (MENA) region. It gives on a country by expressions related to basic language use. Th ey will be able to hold country basis, an overview of the major political uncomplicated conversations on topics such as personal and family issues and developments in the region since the end of the First information, shopping, hobbies, employment as well as simple and World War and addresses key themes in the study of contemporary direct exchanges of information related to familiar topics. By the Middle East politics, including: the role of the military, social and end of the course they will also progress to read simple short texts. economic development, political Islam, and the recent uprisings (the ‘Arab Spring’). Beginners Arabic (Level 1) Culture and Society in the Middle East

Th is is an introductory course in Modern Standard Arabic. It Th is course examines the major cultural patterns and institutions teaches students the Arabic script and provides basic grounding in of the MENA region. It is taught through a study of some lively Arabic grammar and syntax. On completing the course, students topics such as religious and ethnic diversity, impact of the West, should be able to read, write, listen to and understand simple Arabic stereotyping, the role of tradition, education (traditional and sentences and passages. Th is course is for complete beginners and modern), family structure and value, gender politics, media, life in does not require any prior knowledge or study of Arabic. city, town and village, labour and labour migration, the Palestinian refugee problem and Arab exile communities, culinary cultures, music and media, etc. Beginners Arabic (Level 2)

Th is course is a continuation of Beginners Arabic Level 1. It completes the coverage of the grammar and syntax of Modern Standard Arabic and trains students in reading, comprehending and writing with the help of a dictionary more complex Arabic Timetable sentences and passages. Courses are taught Mon-Th u each week. Language courses are taught To qualify for entry into this course, students should have in the morning (10am-1pm) and the Politics and Culture Courses are already completed at least one introductory course in taught in two slots in the aft ernoon Arabic. (2:00-3:20 and 3:40-5:00pm).

FEES Session (5 weeks) Programme fee* Accommodation fee** 1924 June-20June–26 July July 2017 2013 (two (two courses) courses) £2,700 £2,500 from from £300/week £300/week (one course) £1,400 * An Early early bird bird discounts discount of 10%10% applyapplies to to course course fees fees before before 1 March15 April 2013. 2014. * An early bird discount of 10% applies to course fees before 30 April 2017. A** discount Accommodation of 15% applies fees mustto SOAS be paid alumni by 1and March 20% 2013 to SOAS to secure students. accommodation. ** Rooms Please cancheck be ourbooked website at the from Intercollegiate mid-October Halls 2012 which for confiare located rmed prices. in the heart of **Bloomsbury: Rooms can www.halls.london.ac.uk. be booked at the Intercollegiate Halls which are located in the heart of Bloomsbury: www.halls.london.ac.uk.

For more information, please contact Louise Hosking on

38 [email protected]. Middle East in London December Or check 2016 – January our website2017 www.soas.ac.uk/lmei February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 35 Gender and Genera on in the A ermath of the Uprisings

Poli cal Visions, Desires, Movements in the Middle East and North Africa Today

Friday 9 and Saturday 10 December 2016 Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London Admission Free - Pre-registra on Required T: 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/

Photos courtesy FRAME, top and bo om (Cairo) by Ibrahim Ezzat Hendy, middle (Beirut) by Zeinab Chour

December 2016 – January 2017 The Middle East in London 39 The Yarshater Lectures in Persian Art

7 Sides of A Cylinder - 7 Short Films by 7 Iranian Filmmakers (See December Events, Tuesday 8 December, above)

Four Central Asian Shrines: Islamic Architecture in Society

Four lectures by Robert D. McChesney, Emeritus Professor, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University

7.00pm, Thursday 12th, Friday 13th, Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th January 2017

Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London

Admission Free - All Welcome T: 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/

Images: Sepia founda on, R. Frye, R. Schinasi, S. Mahendrarajah

40 The Middle East in London December 2016 – January 2017