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Reel Bad Americans: US in Post 9/11 Arab Cinema
Abstract
In the Arab world there is always a sense that Arabs fail in attracting the US interests to guarantee a fair policy while assuming the role of broker in the peace process between Israel and the Arabs. Lagging behind the West politically, economically, and culturally, Arabs believe that they became an easy prey for Western and American hegemony, dominance and of course negligence. Following the invasion of Iraq, there is a refusal to submit in any way to this hegemony. There is a rejection of any type of 'supremacy' to be exercised by these 'white' nations. Arab films come to respond to this spirit amongst the Arab nation. This paper will examine and analyze this phenomenon and its manifestation in Arab films. I will specifically focus my examination and analysis on two movies: Laylat El-Baby Doll or The Baby Doll Night (2008) and Aeez Haqi or I Want my Right (2003). The idea of 'manufacturing terrorism' is at the core of The Baby Doll Night as we see how Abu Gharib in Iraq was a source of terrorists rather than a prison for terrorists. I Want my Right makes a hint that the US and Israel are heads and tails of the same coin. The two movies are produced in Egypt after 9/11. My choice of Egyptian cinema is due to its being "the Hollywood of the East," and the biggest film industry in the Middle East. Egyptian films are distributed across the Arab world and are watched by Arabs all over the globe. Moreover, the Egyptian cinema has played an important role in feeding 'Arab nationalism' called for and defended by the Egyptian ex-President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. This Arab nationalism, or the construction of the self, resulted in anti-Americanism or the deconstruction of the other. Resurrecting the past with the brutality of the colonial West and the bravery of the colonized East has dominated Arab cinema over its history. Escaping from the cruel present into the glorious past has also marked the Egyptian cinema ever since its beginning till present. My work will draw on major theoretical frameworks from different fields that embody the larger aspects of Arab culture.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
Arab Studies