Ambiguities of Domination by Lisa Wedeen

Author:Lisa Wedeen [Wedeen, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015-09-08T18:30:00+00:00

Film

Whereas cartoons and slapstick comedies enjoy a mass audience, Syrian films tend to appeal to the bohemian intellectual community;40 it may be that the limited audience for feature films is what permits them to be produced at all, despite the censorship.41 Many films critical of the regime have been produced by the National Film Organization, but not all have gained Syrian distribution rights. Censors approve production on the basis of a script that usually omits incendiary language or cinematic directions that might later be included in the actual film, but could be construed as blatantly critical. When a film is completed, the National Film Organization hosts an opening night to which dignitaries and some of the intellectual community are invited. Only after the premiere do government censors decide on the fate of its distribution. Some films emerge from the censors’ offices to be shown to a general audience. Those that gain acceptance tend to be ones that have won recognition in Europe, are not particularly critical of the regime, or situate their criticisms in scenarios predating the Baʿthist era.

The National Film Organization was originally established in 1969 by the Baʿthist Regime of Salah Jadid to produce state propaganda films, but under Asad the Film Organization has not served that function.42 Instead, artists have tended to struggle with the regime for control over cinematic signification, i.e., over representing the intersections between politics and everyday life. In 1974, four years after coming to power, Asad dismissed the Organization’s director, Hamid Marʿi, and appointed a replacement who banned the production of documentary films. The regime, however, continued to permit critical films in fictional form, and has actually sponsored their production. As a result, the production and discussion of films have grown to become a center of intellectual life and discourse, especially when compared to other outposts of the intelligentsia such as the university. In the 1970s, film clubs (nawadi al-sinama), which exist in every Syrian city, became gathering places for Syria’s intellectual elite and centers of secular oppositional activity.

The activities of the film clubs were sharply curtailed in the spring of 1980 as part of the regime’s extensive efforts to eliminate opposition to its rule. Some of Syria’s foremost film makers went into exile at this time. Yet despite increasing state intervention, a new group of internationally recognized, politically critical film makers emerged in the 1980s, under the auspices of the National Film Organization.43 Some of the films they produced do not have an overtly political content. Others, although produced by the National Film Organization, have not been shown to general audiences because of their biting political commentary.

Nujum al-Nahar (Stars of the day) (1988) is perhaps the most politically critical film ever to have been made in Syria. Usama Muhammad, the film’s director, initially sent the film abroad, where it won first prize at the Festival of Valencia and the International Festival of Rabat. The film was well-received at Cannes and gained commercial distribution in France, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland. In May 1989,

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