Yet Tunisian filmmakers have managed to develop their industry by introducing new genres, technologies and ideas. Two excellent examples of the invention and innovation found in the country’s cinema are Abdelhamid Bouchnak’s Dachra (2018) and Ala Eddine Slim’s Tlamess (2019). Dachra is the country’s first horror film and ushered in an impending wave of genre filmmaking in the country, using horror tropes to criticize the domination of religion that shows a new means of expression for filmmakers to circumvent censorship . Meanwhile, using a very distinctive form of surrealism, Tlamess touched on militarism, attributing gender roles and existential consequences, while giving Arab theater the very first scene of nudity.
Elsewhere, in Yemen, Libya and Syria, the main focus on filmmaking has portrayed the deteriorating conditions in these countries, as detected in various documentaries by filmmakers now living in exile, such as Libyan director Naziha Arebi, Freedom Fields in London (2018 ); Syrian director Feras Fayyad, Copenhagen, The Cave (2019); Sir Syrian Wad Al-Kateab’s co-director for Sama, who documented her way out of her war-torn homeland; and Sufian Abulohom, Jef: The Silent War, based in Los Angeles (2018).
The future of Arab theater
A decade later, the revolutionary energy of the Arab Spring is still alive and on the big screen. The popular uprisings in Algeria and Lebanon in 2019 and 2020 have created images that accept narratives similar to those of the early Arab Spring films – of Karim Aïnouz’s colorful portrait of the Algerian revolutionary youth, Nardjes A. (2020 ), to several Lebanese projects in the pipeline that could now be scrapped after the explosion in Beirut last summer, dashed hopes of a happy ending for protesters.
Meanwhile, a revolution took place in Sudan nine years after the first wave of the Arab Spring began which also led to the rise of cinemas in the country. While Sudanese filmmakers reflect on events, it appears from their films that they have learned the precious lesson that revolutions can fail at any moment and that the road to democracy is long and difficult. Two documentaries from 2019 capture the essence of a country at the point of change, but question the tangible possibility of extensive institutional overhaul. In Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees, a group of veteran filmmakers try to revive an old cinema outside Khartoum, only to be confronted with a suffocating red tape that is not expected to be resolved in the near future. The same oppressive rules are faced by a group of female athletes who are striving to assemble the country’s first women’s soccer team in the Khartoum Offside in Marwa Zein, emphasizing that the country’s dominant patriarchy will continue to challenge the reform efforts.
As for the original uprisings? The legacy and aftermath of the Arab Spring still haunts the region’s cinema, and a full version of what happened in 2010 and the years that followed has yet to be told. The most popular hits about the uprisings – The Square of Jehane Noujaim (2013) from Egypt; aforesaid Beauty and the Dogs of Tunisia; the countless Syrian documentaries – provide straightforward, digestible narratives for a largely Western audience unaware of the nuances and complexities of the region and its history. And since almost all independent Arab films rely on European capital for funding, productions are usually shaped by what the west of the Arab world expects, and are ultimately evaluated by Western critics with little or no knowledge of the region.
The rise of Sudanese cinemas and the remarkable evolution of Tunisian films will ensure that the spirit of the Arab Spring stays on the big screen. The true story of the rise and fall of the Arab uprisings, on the other hand, is still waiting to be told.
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