Re-Visiting a Film Classic: Lawrence of Arabia
The film “Lawrence of Arabia” is related to the culture of Arab that reflects the story of heroic individual T.E. Lawrence along with the struggles against natural as well as political odds for winning the freedom of Arabs in the World War…
Theeb Is a Must-See!
Theeb was released in 2014 as a drama/thriller movie and was directed by Naji Abu Nowar. Naji Abu won an award for being the best director at 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014. The movie is spoken in Arabic but contains…
Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Tale of Fantastical Violence Entwined into the Horror of War
Ahmed Saadawi artfully tells the familiar horror story of Frankenstein’s monster in the backdrop of the US occupation of Baghdad. The city, now a dichotomy of disparate pieces since the war, is a stranger. Saadawi shows how life, for some,…
Each Conflicting Part Of You Is Magic In Jess Rizkallah’s The Magic My Body Becomes
In Jess Rizkallah’s 2017 debut poetry collection and winner of the 2017 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, The Magic My Body Becomes, Rizkallah often treats her own body as an artifact of her heritage, something that has been passed down to her through the…
Jerusalem: Dividing al-Aqsa, A Review
For my review, I looked at Al Jazeera World’s short documentary titled, Jerusalem: Dividing al-Aqsa. The documentary examines and shows us the importance of al-Aqsa to both the Muslims and the Jews. It starts off with a clip from a conference between…
Barakah Meets Barakah: A Poignant Commentary on Romance in Saudi Arabia
Barakah Meets Baraka is a 2016 Saudi Arabian film directed and written by Mahmoud Sabbagh. It follows the life of Barakah, a middle-class civil servant who travels across Riyadh issuing tickets for minor offenses. He stumbles across a photoshoot of Bibi, an Instagram star…
Welad Rizk
Will Welad al Rizk brothers ever going to recover and revenge from the drug deal betrayal? Welad Rizk is an interesting movie that was based on a true story and it is very similar to American movies that relates to drugs and…
The Insult and What it Says About the Fragility of Lebanese Society
The 2017 Lebanese film The Insult, directed by Lebanese cinematographer Ziad Doueiri, is a study in the cultural and societal fractions within Lebanon, a country which in many ways still reels from the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War. The film explores a conflict…
Sand Storm (2016): A Story of Bedouin Women
The film Sand Storm, directed by Elite Zexer, tells the story of a Bedouin family in Israel, focusing on the mother-daughter relationship between Layla, played by Lamis Ammar, and her mother Jalila, played by Ruba Blal. The movie opens with Layla’s father,…
A little girl who challenges herself in order to achieve her goal
This film took place in Saudi Arabia in 2012. As it was the first film that was feature in Saudi Arabia, by Haifaa Al-Mansour, who was also the first female director in this region. This film shows us myriad about the lives…