The Hindu : New Delhi News : Co-production necessary for Arab Cinema

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Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007
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New Delhi

Co-production necessary for Arab Cinema

THIS FOR ``TALK OF THE TOWN” WITHOUT PICTURE.

Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema now under way in Delhi saw an a

Animated discussion on Tuesday on how films from the Arab world are tackling a range of contemporary issues.

From homosexuality and love scenes to fundamentalism and war films, the IBM2 session titled ‘New Forms and Subjects in Arab Cinema’ saw speakers -- Egyptian filmmaker Hala Khalil and Intishal Al Timimi, the Artistic Director of the Arab Film Festival, Rotterdam -- express concern over the problems faced by Arab cinema. They were of the view that co-production is the only way to popularise and make better quality Arab films.

Another speaker, Kenji Ishizaka, who has been instrumental in screening of Arab films in Japan, held forth on how Arab films are being popularised in his motherland.

Speaking about constraints of filmmakers in Egypt, Hala said big companies call the shots as they finance movies. “These companies want filmmakers to make commercial movies with a big star cast. It is not easy to deal with these companies. Lately the mechanism of funding has become different as satellite channels have started financing film projects. This has resulted in production of good quality films.”

Stating that filmmakers in her country also have to cope with censorship, Hala said films highlighting politics, sex and religion cannot be made. “I faced problem with the Censors back home over a love scene in one of my movies. Egyptian filmmakers these days are mostly focusing on social dramas,” she said. Stating that the geographic territory from Algeria to Iraq was colossal, Intishal said: “This does not, however, mean that a number of films are being produced in the Arab world. Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Morocco are the main filmmaking countries. A lot of problems are being faced by Arab filmmakers as films are controlled by the Government.”

Touching upon the subject of co-production, Itishal said Syrian filmmakers have realised the positive side of partly financing films. “Now filmmakers want to co-produce to make better quality movies.”

Madhur Tankha

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