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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Studies: National Cinemas
  5. Middle East

Film Studies: National Cinemas

This guide highlights selected resources for various national cinemas.
  • Introduction
  • Streaming services
  • Afghanistan
  • Africa (General)
    • Africa, Northern
    • Africa, French speaking
    • Africa, Sub-Saharan
  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Benelux
  • Brazil
  • Cambodia
  • Canada
    • Quebec
  • Caribbean area
  • Chile
  • Chinese cinema
  • Colombia
  • Cuba
  • Czechia (Czech Republic)
  • France
  • Germany
  • Great Britain
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
    • Wales
  • Greece
  • Hong Kong cinema
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Indigenous films
  • Irish cinema
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Latin America
  • Mexico
  • Middle East
    • Egypt
    • Iran
    • Israel
    • Turkey
  • New Zealand
  • Nigeria
  • Nordic cinema
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • Iceland
    • Norway
    • Sweden
  • Pakistan
  • Palestine
    • Films by Director
    • Documentaries
    • Films by Title
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Russia & the Soviet Union
  • Slovakia
  • South Africa
  • South America
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • United States
    • Puerto Rico
  • Vietnam
  • Yugoslavia & Former Yugoslav Republics
  • Transnational & diasporic cinema
  • Journals & magazines about film

Subject Librarian

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Lucinda M. Hall
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Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
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Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
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Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

Other library resource(s)

  • Resource logoReligion and film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Terry Lindvall
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    In 1911 one of the earliest documents examining the nature and function of cinema came from the Reverend Herbert A. Jump of Connecticut, a pamphlet entitled The Religious Possibilities of the Motion Picture. His thoughtful reflections on the novel medium envisioned a fertile marriage between the moving pictures and the church, leading to revival and reform.

Internet resource(s)

  • Arab Cinema from Al-Bab
    • Link
    Al-Bab aims to introduce non-Arabs to the Arabs and their culture.
  • Arab Film Distribution
    • Link
    Distributors of Arab films.
  • Cinema from the Middle East Research and Information Project
    • Link
    The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) was established in 1971 to educate and inform the public about contemporary Middle East affairs. They have an archive of articles about cinema in the Middle East. ...
  • The Royal Film Commission - Jordan
    • Link
    To build in Jordan a world-class, cutting-edge film industry where all people of the Middle East can freely make films alongside the world’s most talented artists.

Keeping up with the journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for a national or regional cinema? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

Introduction to film in the Middle East

In the early 20th century, some filmmaking infrastructure was developed under colonial rule, especially in relation to newsreel and documentary production. British and French filmmakers also used well-known locations—the pyramids in Egypt, the kasbah in Algiers—as settings for films intended for their home markets. Films from the USA, India, and the USSR were widely viewed in the region, and from the 1930s Egypt established a large and successful film industry and became the region’s dominant producer and exporter of commercial entertainment cinema. Smaller scale film production also developed in Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Israel, the latter with its own distinct film culture.   ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Middle East, film in the. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 May. 2021

Searching the online catalog

You can use the subject headings below to find resources in the online catalog. The call number ranges are also included. Please note: these are not the only call number ranges, but they have the majority of items.

"Middle East: Political Map." World Geography and Culture Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 31 Mar. 2017

  • motion pictures middle east
    Call number range PN 1993.5 .M638 on Baker Level 4.
  • motion pictures middle east history
  • motion picture producers and directors middle east
  • middle east in motion pictures
  • motion pictures arab countries
    Call number range PN 1993.5 .A65.
  • motion pictures syria
    Call number range PN 1993.5 .S95.
  • motion pictures syria history
  • motion pictures lebanon
    Call number range PN 1993.5 .L4.
  • motion pictures lebanon history

Introductory reading(s)

  • Cover ArtArab film and video manifestos: forty-five years of the moving imae amid revolution by Kay Dickinson
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .A65 D54 2018
    ISBN: 9783319998008
    Arab Film and Video Manifestos presents, in their entirety, five key documents that have fundamentally shaken up and helped change the face of image culture in the Middle East and beyond. The book collects together, for the first time, these influential, collectively written calls and directives that span a fifty-year period and hail from a range of different countries. ...
  • Cover artThe cinema of North Africa and the Middle East by Gonul Donmez-Colin
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .A35 C523 2007
    ISBN: 9781905674114
    The Cinema of North Africa and the Middle East contains twenty-four essays, each concerning an individual film from Morocco all the way to Iran. The volume explores not only the established film cultures of Turkey, Egypt, and Israel, but also the nascent cinemas of Palestine and Syria. ...
  • Cover artCompanion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film by Oliver Leaman, ed.
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780415187039
    The Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film is a unique, one volume work which illuminates a fascinating variety of cinema which is little known outside its own area. The Encyclopedia is divided into nine chapters, each written by a leading scholar in the field. Each chapter covers the history and major issues of film within that area, as well as providing bibliographies of the leading films, directors and actors. ...
  • Cover artFilm in the Middle East and North Africa: creative dissidence by Josef Gugler, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .M53 F55 2011
    ISBN: 9780292723276
    This is the first study to cover cinemas from Iran to Morocco. Nine essays present the region's major national cinemas, devoting special attention to the work of directors who have given image and voice to dissent from political regimes, from patriarchal customs, from fundamentalist movements, and from the West. These country essays are complemented by in-depth discussions of eighteen films that have been selected for both their excellence and their critical engagement with pressing current issues.
  • Cover artHistorical dictionary of Middle Eastern cinema by Terri Ginsberg; Chris Lippard
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .M53 G56 2010
    ISBN: 9780810860902
    The Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema covers the production and exhibition of cinema in the Middle East and in communities whose heritage is from the region and whose films commonly reflect this background. It covers the cinemas of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. In addition, it includes the non-Arab states of Turkey and Iran, as well as the Jewish state of Israel. ...

Other selected book title(s)

  • Cover artCinemas of the other: a personal journey with film-makers from the Middle East and Central Asia by Gönül Dönmez-Colin
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .M638 D66 2006
    ISBN: 9781841501437
    An original collection of recent interviews with filmmakers whose works represent the trends in the film industries of their respective countries. Preceding the interviews, the author provides an introduction delineating historical information regarding the film industries of the countries included in the book. Each interview comprises of stills from important films discussed and a bio/filmography of the artist. In addition to creative concerns, the focal point of the interviews is to position the filmmaker within the social or political context of their respective country. ...
  • Cinémas du Maghreb by Michel Serceau, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .A35 C54 2004
    ISBN: 9782847061116
  • Cover artLebanese cinema: imagining the civil war and beyond by Lina Khatib
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .L4 K47 2008
    ISBN: 9781845116286
    Modern Lebanese cinema can best be explored in the context of the Civil War, in part because almost all the Lebanese films made since its outset in 1975 have been about this war. Lina Khatib takes 1975 Beirut as her starting point, and takes us right through to today for this, the first major book on Lebanese cinema and its links with politics and national identity. She examines how Lebanon is imagined in such films as Jocelyn Saab's Once Upon a Time, Beirut, Ghassan Salhab's Terra Incognita, and Ziad Doueiri's West Beirut. In so doing, she re-examines the importance of cinema to the national imagination. ...
  • Cover artMakhmalbaf at large: the making of a rebel filmmaker by Hamid Dabashi
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .I846 D325 2008
    ISBN: 9781845115326
    The name of Mohsen Makhmalbaf is almost synonymous with the dramatic rise of Iranian cinema in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution, and over the last quarter of a century, his career as filmmaker and writer has reflected the tumultuous history of his homeland and the fate of its neighbours. Hamid Dabashi draws from his friendship with Makhmalbaf, as well as his direct involvement with Makhmalbaf's films and thought, to give us this deeply engaging book on the tumultuous life and spectacular career of a great filmmaker. ...
  • Cover artPostcolonial images: studies in North African film by Roy Armes
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .A35 A76 2005
    ISBN: 9780253344441
    Postcolonial Images is a comprehensive introduction to and resource for cinema of the Maghreb. In clear and accessible prose, Roy Armes examines the political and cultural context of the films and the film industry in the post-independence era. Since the birth of cinema, North Africa has been the site of countless European and U.S. film productions. This book, however, focuses on the postcolonial period, when indigenous filmmaking in each of the three Maghreb countries--Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia--arose with the newly independent nations. ...
  • Cover artWomen, Islam and cinema by Gönül Dönmez-Colin
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1995.9 .W6 D66 2004
    ISBN: 9781861892201
    This is the first book to examine the troubled relationships between women, Islam and cinema. Film critic and author Gönül Dönmez-Colin explores the role of women as spectators, images and image constructors in the cinemas of the countries where Islam is the predominant religion, focusing on Iran and Turkey from the Middle East, drawing parallels from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the two Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, the prominently Muslim Asian countries with a challenging film industry. Some of the relevant films made in India by and for Muslim Indians are also explored. ...

Finding scholarly articles & journals

You can find many publications which feature articles on Middle Eastern cinema. Our collection does not have journals that cover Middle East cinema exclusively. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.

  • Resource logoFilm & television literature index by EBSCO Publishing
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    Use this index to find articles about Middle Eastern cinemas.
  • Resource logoIndex Islamicus
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    Use the term "cinema" to search in this database.
  • Resource logoScreen studies collection by ProQuest
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    A comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
  • Resource logoThe web of science citation databases by ISI (Institute for Scientific Information)
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    The online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.

Selected movie titles

Find more Middle Eastern films in the library's collections.

  • Cover artBab'Aziz = Bab'Aziz: the prince who contemplated his soul by Nacer Khemir
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #8305
    Bab'Aziz, a very old blind dervish is on his way to a place unknown where a Sufi gathering is to take place. Guiding him across a sea of sand is his granddaughter Ishtar, a little girl, who loves her grandpa but who is afraid they might never reach their destination, all the more as the meeting is organized only once every thirty years. But Bab'Aziz is undeterred. He knows that if he "listens to the infinite silence of the desert with his heart" he will find the place. While making their way, they meet strange persons and Bab'Aziz tells Ishtar strange tales.
  • Cover artBarakat! = Enough! by Djamila Sahraoui
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 8272
    The story of two women. Emel is a Westerner whose husband, a journalist, is missing - perhaps kidnapped or even killed. Khadija is an older woman who has lived through the country's decades-long struggle. Together they search for Emel's husband.
  • Cover artIncendies by Denis Villenevue
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #13432
    After the death of their mother, a set of twins make a life-altering discovery. The pair travels to the Middle East on a mission to uncover the truth about the father they thought was dead who is still very much alive, and the brother they never knew existed. Along the way they will piece together the story of the woman who brought them into the world, discovering a tragic fate as well as the courage of an exceptional woman.
  • Cover artL'enfant endormi by Yasmine Kassari
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 5336
    In the northeast of contemporary Morocco a pregnant young wife watches her husband leave the country to go underground the day after their wedding. Time goes by and the husband does not come back.
  • Cover artMadinat bab el-oued = Bab el-Oued City by Merzak Allouche
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 7251
    ISBN: 9781565805910
    Bab el-Oued is a working class district of Algiers. A young worker commits an act which puts the entire district in turmoil.
  • Cover artA new day in old Sana'a by Bader Ben Hirsi
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 7920
    Handsome young Tariq is about to marry Bilquis, eldest daughter of a prominent and powerful judge. But as he wanders the ancient city of Sana'a late one night, he spots a beautiful young woman dancing in the street and falls madly in love with her.
  • Cover artOmaret Yakobean = ʻImārat Yaʻqūbiyān = Yacoubian building by Marwān Ḥāmid
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 5965
    We meet the residents of the Yacoubian building and through them learn something about the city of Cairo, albeit the more disturbing side of corruption, fundamentalism, prostitution, sexuality, and drugs.
  • Cover artPoupées d'argile = Clay dolls by Nouri Bouzid
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 7591
    Omrane, 40, a former domestic, feels liberated when he sets up a modest housekeeping business. He transports "maids of all work" in his delivery van from his native village -- renowned for the women's know-how in the arts of Berber pottery -- to the nouveau riche families recently settled in the posh part of town. He vouches for the women's safety and for their salaries to their parents. Rebeh, rebellious and beautiful, is his most exuberant employee. Although submerged by harsh housework, she gets caught on the breeze of freedom and the joys of life and takes off. She remains on Omrane's conscience and he sets out to look for her in the city. He's accompanied by Fedah, 9, one of his new girls who has yet to find a job.
  • Cover artThe Syrian bride = ha-Kalah ha-Surit by Eran Riklis
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD # 5112
    ISBN: 9781417200870
    Mona's wedding day may be the saddest day of her life. Once she crosses the border between Israel and Syria to get married, she will never be allowed back to her family in the Golan Heights.
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  • Last Updated: May 15, 2025 12:12 PM
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