Hanan al-cinema : affections for the moving image /

In this dazzling, laudable study, Marks (Simon Fraser Univ.) captures the fascination surrounding Arabic cinema in the last 25 years. Hanan al-Cinema (which translates as "cinema fondness") presents a probing, wide-ranging cultural analysis of filmmaking and media arts in the Arab world during a period of dictatorships, state censorship, violence, and extremism. The filmmakers discussed in the book's 15 chapters include Elia Suleiman, Mohamed Soueid, Hala Elkoussy, Hassan Khan, Mounir Fatmi, and Sherif El Azma. In their work these filmmakers, who come from across the Arab world, address a wide variety of subjects, and Marks addresses them in detail. One of the gripping motifs she explores is the link between political Islam and the Shi'ite practices of self-flagellation and bloodletting to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, in Karbala, in the seventh century. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Abdul Sattar Jawad, Duke University