Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World

255 Pages·2006·0.65 MB·English

by  Lina Khatib

Filming the Modern Middle East

Filming the
Modern Middle East
Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood
and the Arab World
Lina Khatib
Published in 2006 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
In the United States and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan
a division of St Martin’s Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2006 Lina Khatib
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book,
or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
Library of Modern Middle East Studies 57
PB ISBN 10: 1 84511 191 5
PB ISBN 13: 978 1 84511 191 5
HB ISBN 10: 1 84511 192 3
HB ISBN 13: 978 1 84511 192 2
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Typeset in Amasis by Keystroke, 28 High Street, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton
Printed and bound by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall
To Fady
For the sun will eventually shine

Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Orientalism and the Cinematic Middle East 1
Chapter I: The Politicized Landscape 15
Why space matters 15
Hollywood’s spatial political stage 18
The spatial contradictions of Arab cinemas 33
Conclusion 60
Chapter II: Gendered Tools of Nationalism 63
The changing face of the American male/nation 64
The female nations of Arab cinemas 80
Conclusion 101
Chapter III: Conflicts Within and Without:
The Arab–Israeli Conflict (and the Gulf War) 105
Hollywood’s America: world police 108
Arab cinemas: nostalgia and resistance 120
Conclusion 157
Chapter IV: From the Other Outside to the Other Within:
Representing Islamic Fundamentalism 165
Why fundamentalism matters 165
Hollywood’s fundamentalist terrorists 173
viii
CONTENTS
Islamic fundamentalism in Egyptian and Algerian cinemas:
the Other within 183
Conclusion 197
Epilogue: On Difference, Resistance, and Nationalism 201
On difference 201
On resistance 203
On nationalism 207
Beyond the East/West divide 209
Bibliography 211
Filmography 229
General Index 233
Index of Films 241
List of Figures
1. American helicopters descend on Yemen—Rules of Engagement 20
2. Arab-Americans forced into camps in The Siege 30
3. Ali in his barren space—The Terrorist 35
4. Said and his fundamentalist men—Bab el-Oued City 38
5. Fat’hallah chatting to Margaret on the internet—The Other 40
6. Graffiti in Canticle of the Stones 51
7. Um Ibrahim in her courtyard—Ticket to Jerusalem 53
8. The three men on their boat trip—A Summer in la Goulette 59
9. Spy Game’s larger-than-life American hero in Beirut 66
10. Iraqi women walk on milk-soaked ground—Three Kings 75
11. Sahar: the liberated nation as liberated woman—
The Fertile Memory 93
12. Rana awaits her wedding—Rana’s Wedding 94
13. Rachida after being attacked by Islamic fundamentalists—
Rachida 96
14. The jewels turn to blood drops—Tale of Three Jewels 128
15. The Arafat balloon—Divine Intervention 133
16. Divine Intervention’s ninja fighter 133
17. Ahmad Zaki as Nasser—Nasser 137
18. The father’s anger at his powerlessness—Nights of the Jackal 145
19. An Arab terrorist about to blow himself up in Executive Decision 176
20. Iron Eagle’s materialist Arab leader in gold-embroidered
uniform 181
21. Hamada peering at female students through a hole in
the classroom wall—The Closed Doors 189