Cinemas of of the Middle East and North Africa 2

Key information

Start date
End date
Year of study
Any
Duration
Term 2
Module code
15PNMH049
FHEQ Level
7
Credits
15

Module overview

The module will offer a survey of films from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as an overview of the historical development of film in the region and a grounding in the socio-cultural contexts in which films have been produced. Films will be analysed aesthetically, with an awareness of multiple aspects of film technique, and meanings will be interrogated through a number of interdisciplinary and theoretical prisms. Students will be taught the basics of film language and to support their interpretations of films with aural, visual, and narrative evidence. Secondary readings are drawn from films studies, anthropology, sociology, religion, and literary theory and will enable the students to situate the perspectives expressed in the films within contemporary artistic, cultural and political debates. Cinemas of the Middle East and North Africa 1 focuses on earlier periods of cinematic production in the region, surveying films produced between the 1930s and the 1980s, while its companion module, Cinemas of the Middle East and North Africa 2, concentrates on more contemporary film production.

Workload

The module is taught over 10 weeks

Scope and syllabus

The module will offer a survey of films from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as an overview of the historical development of film in the region and a grounding in the socio-cultural contexts in which films have been produced. Films will be analysed aesthetically, with an awareness of multiple aspects of film technique, and meanings will be interrogated through a number of interdisciplinary and theoretical prisms. Students will be taught the basics of film language and to support their interpretations of films with aural, visual, and narrative evidence. Secondary readings are drawn from films studies, anthropology, sociology, religion, and literary theory and will enable the students to situate the perspectives expressed in the films within contemporary artistic, cultural and political debates.

The module will be divided into thematic units, such as the following:

Narrative Identities and their De/Construction

In this unit films that problematise constructions of religious, ethnic, national, or sexual identity through the use of specific narrative techniques and devices relating to perspective, voice, and sequencing that destabilise the stance of the protagonist/s. Explorations of these films will focus on the political implications of these destabilised identities in their specific societal contexts.

Feminist Chronotopes

Films articulating concerns about women’s rights and questioning patriarchal values run the gamut from those that are conventional and formulaic to those that are highly experimental. In this unit we will examine contrasting examples of feminist films, with a special emphasis on cinematic elaborations of time and space and whether and how the films relate women’s experiences to historical chronologies.

Religious Discourses and Cinematic Aesthetics

This unit will investigate a variety of films exploiting aspects of religious heritage, broadly interpreted, for the purpose of artistic innovation: from the direct engagement with contemporary religious perspectives, to symbolic manifestations of Sufi Philosophy, to the strategic treatment of the religious icon, to the narrative implications of the cinematic privileging of Word over Image, to the circumvention of what are seen as religious proscriptions on screen representations.

Method of assessment

  • 40% - Sequence analysis (1,000 words)
  • 60% - Essay (2,500 words) or presentation (10 minutes)
  • The exact assessment deadline dates are published on the relevant module Moodle/BLE page

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules