Even so, Tunisian filmmakers managed to develop their industry by introducing new genres, technologies and ideas. Two important examples of the invention and innovation occurring in the country’s cinema are Dachra by Abdelhamid Bouchnak (2018) and Tlamess by Ala Eddine Slim (2019). Dachra is the country’s first horror film and has started a next wave of gender cinema in the country, with its use of terror troops to criticize the dominance of religion, showing a new means of expression for filmmakers to bypass censorship. Meanwhile, using a highly distinctive form of surrealism, Tlamess addresses militarism, assigning gender roles and existential boredom, while giving Arab cinema its first full frontal nudity scene.
Elsewhere, in Yemen, Libya and Syria, the main focus of cinema has been to depict deteriorating conditions in these countries, as shown in several documentaries by filmmakers who now live in exile, such as London-based Libyan director Naziha Arebi’s Freedom Fields (2018); The Cave (2019) by the Syrian director residing in Copenhagen, Feras Fayyad; Syrian colleague Waad Al-Kateab co-directed For Sama, documenting his departure from his war-torn homeland; and Sufian Abulohom’s Yemen: The Silent War (2018), from Los Angeles.
The future of Arab cinema
A decade later, the revolutionary energy of the Arab Spring is still in evidence, in life and on the big screen. The popular uprisings in Algeria and Lebanon in 2019 and 2020 generated images that adopt narratives similar to those of the first Arab Spring films – from Karim Aïnouz’s colorful portrait of Algerian revolutionary youth, Nardjes A. (2020), to various Lebanese projects in the pipeline that could now be shattered after the explosion in Beirut last summer has shaken hopes for a happy ending for protesters.
In Sudan, nine years after the beginning of the first wave of the Arab Spring, there was a revolution that also led to the emergence of cinema in the country. However, as Sudanese filmmakers reflect on events, it is clear from their films that they have learned the precious lesson that revolutions can fail at any time and that the road to democracy is long and arduous. Two 2019 documentaries capture the essence of a country on the brink of change, but cast doubt on the tangible possibility of broad institutional reform. In Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees, a group of veteran filmmakers tries to revive an old cinema outside Khartoum, only to be confronted by a suffocating bureaucracy that is not likely to dissolve in the near future. The same repressive rules are faced by a group of athletes who strive to bring together the country’s first women’s soccer team at Marwa Zein’s Khartoum Offside, who emphasizes that the country’s patriarchy will continue to challenge reform efforts.
As for the original uprisings? The legacy and consequences of the Arab Spring continue to haunt the region’s cinema, but a full account of what happened in 2010 and the years to come is yet to be told. The most popular hits on the riots – The Square (2013) by Jehane Noujaim from Egypt; the aforementioned Bela and the Dogs of Tunisia; the countless Syrian documentaries – offer simple and easy to understand narratives, catering to 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 finance, productions are generally shaped by what the West expects the Arab world to be and are rated by Western critics with little or no knowledge of the region.
The rise of Sudanese cinema and the remarkable evolution of Tunisian films will ensure that the spirit of the Arab Spring remains alive on the big screen. The true story of the rise and fall of Arab revolts, on the other hand, is still waiting to be told.
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