Cinema of the Middle East

rdf:langString Cinema of the Middle East

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rdf:langString Gal Gadot and Avi Nesher

rdf:langString Lior Raz and Natalie Portman

rdf:langString Salah Zulfikar and Soad Hosny, stars of Egyptian Cinema

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rdf:langString Salahzulfikar1.jpg

rdf:langString Suad Husni.jpg

rdf:langString Avi nesher.jpg

rdf:langString Gal Gadot cropped lighting corrected.jpg

rdf:langString Lior Raz, February 2018 .jpg

rdf:langString Natalie Portman Cannes 2015 5 .jpg

rdf:langString Middle Eastern Cinema collectively refers to the film industries of Western Asia and part of North Africa. By definition, it encompasses the film industries of Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As such, the film industries of these countries are also part of the cinema of Asia, or in the case of Egypt, Africa. Since the inception of cinema in Europe and the United States, many people assumed that cinema in the Middle East arrived much later than Western Cinema. However, it was found that cinema was brought into most of the Arab countries by the beginning of the 20th century by Pathé Frères or the Lumière Brothers. Eventually by the 1950s Egyptian cinema was the main dominating Arab and Middle Eastern film industry and this led to many other Middle Eastern countries incorporating Egyptian conventions into their own films. Each Middle Eastern country has a different and distinctive culture of cinema which differs in both history and infrastructure. The historical component includes key events and trigger points which led to the inception or emergence of cinema in the Middle East. The infrastructural component defines the current institution and/or systems in place which facilitate the financing/development/exhibition of cinema, locally or internationally.