New Arab cinema tells intimate stories

[emad]

Snip By Lucy Williamson
BBC Middle East reporter

A new Lebanese film is breaking taboos in Arab Cinema

Egypt has tended to dominate Arab cinema through its state subsidised production houses

Filmgoers in London are getting the chance to see what a new generation of Arab film-makers have to say. The UK's national film theatre is hosting a festival of contemporary Arab films. A new Lebanese film is breaking taboos in Arab Cinema.Terra Incognita is a film about Beirut. Or more precisely it's a film about Beirutis, in particular a young woman called Soraya.

You see her smoking, you see her drinking; you see her naked; then you see her having sex - fully clothed - in a doorway. Then you see her naked again. Now, be honest, is this really what you expected from an Arab film festival?

According to Mona Tayara-Deeley, the film festival's curator, the main change in Arab cinema is that directors have decided to tell small, intimate stories instead of flag-waving or political issues.

"They're really focusing on the point that people in the Middle East are living lives like everyone else - love, friendship, boredom, entertainment - it's just that the context they live in is different."

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3591528.stm

Wonder what the Sharia Courts would make of this in downtown Riyadh or Tehran?