Issue 23, winter/spring 2017 https://doi.org/10.70090/MMK17POP Read an excerpt of Marwan Kraidy's latest book The Naked Blogger of Cairo here. On Tuesday, December 6, 2016, a strange sight appeared on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. Close to city hall, passersby saw a four-meter high gilded statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in …

Issue 23, winter/spring 2017 https://doi.org/10.70090/YD17PPFV During a lecture entitled “‘I Think We Will be Calm During the Next War’: Past, Present, and Future Violence in Lebanese Comics,” Ghenwa Hayek, assistant professor of Modern Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago, discussed Lebanese comics as a means of reflecting war and …

Issue 23, winter/spring 2017 https://doi.org/10.70090/GH17BEBP The field of comics scholarship has expanded radically in the past decade as the medium has entered into the realm of mainstream academic discourse, thanks to the contributions of scholars who are themselves comic artists, like Will Eisner and Scott McCloud, and others, notably Hillary …

Issue 23, winter/spring 2017 https://doi.org/10.70090/RARB17RA In an article published on December 17, 2014, Surti Singh, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Cairo (AUC), wrote that “a new set of questions is crystallizing about the role of art in contemporary Egypt” and posed the following questions: “Can …

Issue 23, winter/spring 2017 https://doi.org/10.70090/GA1710AF The following is an excerpt from the anthology Ten Arab Filmmakers edited by Josef Gugler and published by Indiana University Press (2015). Mohamed Chouikh occupies a key position as a kind of relay between the post-colonial, idealized Algeria of the 1960s and what one might …

Enduring Commitment Syrian drama has oscillated between accommodating and challenging persistent authoritarianism, the Islamic tendency, and the neoliberal moment. In addition to sensational thrillers and costume dramas, Syrians continue to produce works that harken back to an earlier era of Arab cultural production. Realist dramas join sociopolitical satires in critiquing …

Eshtebak (Clash) defies convenient stereotypes of heroes and villains. There are no comfortable answers, and there is no feel-good storyline; it is unapologetically raw and gritty. Clash compels audiences to doubt their perceptions of conflict and political antagonism, a vexing challenge for an Egyptian public accustomed to propagandist narratives on …

July 31, 2016—Friction between passionate football supporters and their depiction in sports media has developed over the past few years. Ultras Ahlawy, the Egyptian organization under which the fans gather, is at the epicenter of violence and anti-government conspiracy theories.

TUNIS—The American Embassy in Tunis and the fan club Star Wars Tunisia will host “Star Wars Day” tomorrow. The day is dedicated to exploring the iconic films and their roots in Tunisia. Many scenes from the first six films were taped in the south of Tunisia, including nearly all of …

July 26, 2016—Following a sudden health crisis, Egyptian director and filmmaker Mohamed Khan died this morning at age 73. He changed the face of Egyptian cinema in the 1980s with the expansion of neo-realism. Khan was born in Cairo in 1942 and studied at the London International Film School.