Anything with Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, esp. the films he made with Youssef Chahine. For Iran: Asghar Farhadi, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi--and that's just to start. Claudia Cardinale was of Tunisian descent. Jean Reno is of Spanish descent, but grew up in Morocco, so their films might count.
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
The four Arab films that have made Oscars history in 2026 mark a breakthrough moment for Palestinian and Arab cinema ⬇️
CINEMA ARABIYYA starts 2026 with the Arab Spring drama AS I OPEN MY EYES, Wednesday at Nitehawk Prospect Park
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
![Badia Masabni (Arabic: بديعة مصابني, born Wadiha Masabni (Arabic: وديعة مصابني; 25 February 1892 – 23 July 1974) was a belly dancer, singer, actress, night club owner and businesswoman considered as the developer of modern belly dancing,[1][2] by bringing the Western and Hollywood-esque vibe into it, after living for several years in the Americas since the age of seven.[3][4]
Masabni also became known for opening a series of influential clubs in Cairo from the 1920s onward bringing Egyptian belly dance to the Western audience and popularizing it further through Egyptian cinema. As a result of her influential casinos she is credited with training and launching the careers of many Egyptian artists, especially the belly dance's stars Samia Gamal and Taheyya Kariokka.
One of the most important bridges in Cairo, the Badia Bridge, is named after her and is located next to where she had her performance hall.
Early life
Badia was born in 1892 in Damascus, Ottoman Empire, one of seven siblings, to a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother.[5] Her father owned a Soapmaking business.[6] The family's financial condition abruptly worsened when Badia's father died leaving his sons to care for the family business. Soon afterwards,[when?] the soap factory was consumed by fire and one of Badia's brothers died with fever.
She studied at a Christian school of nuns, where she was taught classical ballet and tap dancing. At the beginning of World War I she was forced by her family, with few financial resources, to marry a man she did not love. In the early 1920s she left her husband and moved to Beirut, working in a French cabaret. She later moved to Cairo, where she began a new life and her career as a theater actress and dancer.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ebgc2if76vqhdtkcpneo36re/bafkreigh25lrlhya2niiwircgznsyyef6k5ilqpic5pq2xqkk4pjpjkvua)
Badia Masabni (Arabic: بديعة مصابني, born Wadiha Masabni (Arabic: وديعة مصابني; 25 February 1892 – 23 July 1974) was a belly dancer, singer, actress, night club owner and businesswoman considered as the developer of modern belly dancing,[1][2] by bringing the Western and Hollywood-esque vibe into it, after living for several years in the Americas since the age of seven.[3][4] Masabni also became known for opening a series of influential clubs in Cairo from the 1920s onward bringing Egyptian belly dance to the Western audience and popularizing it further through Egyptian cinema. As a result of her influential casinos she is credited with training and launching the careers of many Egyptian artists, especially the belly dance's stars Samia Gamal and Taheyya Kariokka. One of the most important bridges in Cairo, the Badia Bridge, is named after her and is located next to where she had her performance hall. Early life Badia was born in 1892 in Damascus, Ottoman Empire, one of seven siblings, to a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother.[5] Her father owned a Soapmaking business.[6] The family's financial condition abruptly worsened when Badia's father died leaving his sons to care for the family business. Soon afterwards,[when?] the soap factory was consumed by fire and one of Badia's brothers died with fever. She studied at a Christian school of nuns, where she was taught classical ballet and tap dancing. At the beginning of World War I she was forced by her family, with few financial resources, to marry a man she did not love. In the early 1920s she left her husband and moved to Beirut, working in a French cabaret. She later moved to Cairo, where she began a new life and her career as a theater actress and dancer.
The greatest and most famous singer of the 20th-century Arab world was Um Kalthoum, whose records and cassettes, fifteen years after her death, are available everywhere. A fair number of non-Arabs know about her too, partly because of the hypnotic and melancholy effect of her singing, partly because in the world-wide rediscovery of authentic people’s art Um Kalthoum is a dominant figure. But she also played a significant role in the emerging Third World women’s movement as a pious ‘Nightingale of the East’ whose public exposure was as a model not only of feminine consciousness but also of domestic propriety. During her lifetime, there was talk about whether or not she was a lesbian, but the sheer force of her performances of elevated music set to classical verse overrode such rumours. In Egypt she was a national symbol, respected both during the monarchy and after the revolution led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Um Kalthoum’s career was extraordinarily long, and to most Arabs it was the highly respectable while very romantic tip of the eroticism typified by the belly-dancer. Like the great singer herself, belly-dancers routinely performed in films, theatres and cabarets, and on the ceremonial platforms of weddings and other private celebrations in Cairo and Alexandria. Whereas you couldn’t really enjoy looking at the portly and severe Um Kalthoum, you couldn’t do much more than enjoy looking at fine belly-dancers, whose first star was the Lebanese-born Badia Massabni, also an actress, cabaret-owner and trainer of young talent. Badia’s career as a dancer ended around World War Two, but her true heir and disciple was Tahia Carioca, who was, I think, the finest belly-dancer ever. Now 75 and living in Cairo, she is still active as an actress and political militant, and, like Um Kalthoum, the remarkable symbol of a national culture. Um Kalthoum performed at King Farouk’s wedding in 1936, and the lavish party was also Tahia’s debut. It gave her a prominence she never lost. Dur…
Edward Said's favorite belly dancer was "Godmother of modern Egyptian belly dance" Badia Masabni- French cabaret dancer, brought Hollywood "oriental adventure" ahistorial costumes to the ancient Egyptian art, danced for King of Egypt Farouk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v1...
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
Tbh anime was huge in the Arab world when those who grew in the '80-00's
Bigger than the couple hits that broke containment in east Europe
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP6F...
(Seriously watch the Arab golden era cinema to see Arab historicism in its pure form. History starts with the Prophet, ends with al Rashid and restarts only in 1916)
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
These screenshots are from the YMMV TV Tropes page for the movie. The general consensus seems to be that the film was reasonably forward thinking for its time, if slightly dated in the 2020s. The academic Jack G Shaheen's (RIP) thoughts on the film were a bit more on the critical side though.
Question for my cinema fans and nerds, friends and oomfs!!!
Should I watch Lawrence of Arabia?
As an Arab, I'm curious to watch it.
Should I do it?
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
saleh bakri is a generational talent who has helped define modern palestinian cinema and whose work with arab women directors is expanding what we expect from masculinity onscreen. ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOU is his masterwork. you'll never forget it. @vulture.com:
www.vulture.com/article/the-...
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
3000 Nights In Arabic and Hebrew w/English Subtitles by Kathy Fennessy Film March 25, 2026 12:00 AM
3000 Nights Rating: 3.5 of 5 Production Company Cinema Politica Genre History, Drama, Political Issues, World Cinema Rating Not Rated Release Date September 12, 2015 Duration 103 minutes ▶ Click here to watch. Beirut-based Palestinian director Mai Masri (Children of Fire) drew from actual events for her first narrative feature, a harrowing account of an Arab schoolteacher incarcerated on the basis of suspicion and innuendo. In the Occupied West Bank in 1980, Nablus authorities bring Layal (Maisa Abd Elhadi) to an Israeli Detention Center at night, still clad in her nightgown, where they interrogate her about a teenager to whom she gave a ride, after which she ends up in a cell with several other women, both Palestinian detainees and Israeli inmates (she didn't know the boy, who stands accused of a deadly attack at a military checkpoint). One cellmate is missing an arm (Nadira Omran), one is a heroin addict (Raida Adon), and none are welcoming. Masri took inspiration from Ramla--now Ayalon--a real-life facility. Though Layal asks to speak to her husband, the guards reject her request, though they do offer special privileges if she spies on her cellmates. She declines. Then she finds out she's pregnant. Word gets around, but no one expresses sympathy. The guards, especially Ruti (Izabel Ramadan), are corrupt and sadistic and the prisoners are violent and suspicious.
She finally meets with some desperately-needed kindness when she visits the infirmary after a skirmish with a cellmate. Ayman (Karim Saleh), a Palestinian doctor and fellow detainee, patiently attends to her needs. In time, she speaks to her husband, her mother, and a kindly Israeli lawyer, but despite no incriminating evidence, she receives an eight-year sentence. As Layal and her husband drift apart, however, she gradually grows closer to her cellmates in a manner that recalls Alan Parker's 1978 cause célèbre Midnight Express, in which an American citizen ends up in a Turkish prison. Though his character is guilty of a crime, the punishment proves excessive, and his alliances help him survive years of brutal treatment. Layal gives birth to a healthy baby, but her time with Nour is limited. As the situation outside the cell walls, in both Palestine and Lebanon, worsens, the schism between the Jewish and Arab prisoners leads to a hunger strike, and all hell breaks loose, culminating in a fatality, though several women go free due to a PLO-brokered prison exchange. Layal isn't one of them. She'll have to wait her turn, which eventually arrives. Masri, who also served as writer and coproducer, doesn't explain why Israeli authorities targeted Layal, only that it's a pattern. As a closing title notes, "Since 1948, 700,000 Palestinians have been detained in Israeli prisons." In 2015, the year of the film's release, 6,000 Palestinians were under detention. Discover trusted film reviews tailored to librarians and educators. 3000 Nights followed a series of Palestinian documentaries, many of which Masri made with her late husband, Jean Khalil Chamoun. It's a film that hasn't aged a day, and Maisa Abd Elhadi gives a strong performance as a woman who loves her son with all her heart, but can also draw on hidden reserves of strength no matter how hopeless the situation seems. Notably, the entire cast, with the exception of Lebanese-American actor Karim Saleh, is Palestin…
3000 Nights is the 2015 narrative debut from Mai Masri, a longtime Palestinian documentarian. It did well on the festival circuit, and found a big fan in Ken Loach, but Masri hasn't made another narrative since. I hope that changes. @seattlecritics.bsky.social
Link: tinyurl.com/28xmz3ye
Today in what Muslim women look like:
Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi, better known as the iconic Madhubala, a legend of Indian cinema.
Moonlight was released as the first LGBTQ-themed mass-marketed feature film with an all-black cast and was, at the time of its release, the second-lowest-grossing film domestically (behind The Hurt Locker) to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Joi McMillon became the first black woman to be nominated for an Editing Oscar, and Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to win an acting Oscar.
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
Thanks to posting this jewel ❤️🙏🏽. The „Golden Age“ of Egyptian cinema and song brought together Jewish, Christian and Muslim and Druze artists from Egypt and the Levante. An joyful antidote to the toxic sectarianism of our age 🥰
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
In my latest Al Bustan Seeds of Culture column, I explore why an Arab-American cinema never materialized and examine the dominant Sunni–Muslim–heterosexual–male gaze that continues to shape the works made by diasporic Arabs in the U.S.
www.albustanseeds.org/news/whereis...
I need some people to evaluate this Middle Eastern representation list I've. Genuine criticism is welcomed. Please send to other people that may be interested 🙏
boxd.it/tvvug
This course critically examines the intersection of religion, culture, and politics through the lens of Islam in cinema. Students will study films that portray pivotal moments in Islamic history, explore Muslim women’s roles in society, and address contemporary challenges such as Islamophobia and social justice movements. Special attention is given to how Muslims use film to reclaim their own narratives of identity and belonging. Sample titles include Fetih 1453, The Two Aishas, Reel Bad Arabs, Timbuktu, and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night.
Register for Dr. Kelly Pemberton's Spring 2026 course Religion and Film: Islam on Screen (REL 2990.83). The course will be taught on Wednesdays from 12:45-3:15pm.
The only upside of being sick is that this guy just lays on me all day
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) movie poster
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) 🎬☔️💙
The Matrix (1999) movie picture collage
The Matrix (1999) 🎬🖤
Directed by The Wachowskis
