Women, the Future of Arab Cinema (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798272518712)

The text explores the evolution of women's presence in Arab cinema from its beginnings in Egypt in 1927 with Aziza Amir's film Layla, which marked the true starting point of Egyptian and Arab cinema. The writer draws a line from this foundational moment to another one ninety years later at the Carthage Film Festival, where Arab women directors won most of the awards - a sign of a qualitative shift that placed women at the heart of the film industry rather than on its margins. The author highlights the roles of pioneering figures in Egyptian cinema such as Fatma Rushdi, Bahija Hafez, Assia Dagher, and Amina Mohamed, who led the founding phase before women's leadership waned for decades, only to return forcefully with a new generation - Inas El-Degheidy, Asma El-Bakri, Hala Khalil, and Kamla Abu Zekry - who introduced bold and innovative women's cinema.

The analysis extends to Palestinian cinema, which underwent a major transformation beginning with Michel Khleifi's films that presented women as active protagonists, and later with Mai Masri, Annemarie Jacir, Cherien Dabis, and Najwa Najjar, who established a new female current in Palestinian filmmaking, shifting the image of women from a political symbol to real human beings of flesh and blood. The text then discusses Lebanese cinema from Jocelyne Saab and Randa Chahhal Sabbagh to Nadine Labaki, as well as Tunisian, Moroccan, and Saudi cinema, where figures such as Kaouther Ben Hania, Leyla Bouzid, Maryam Touzani, and Haifaa Al-Mansour stood out. The writer concludes that women are no longer simply part of the Arab cinematic scene - they have become its cornerstone, and the future of Arab cinema is undoubtedly female.