Arab filmmakers adapt to making films in times of conflict

As conflicts escalate in the Middle East and North Africa, from Palestine to Yemen and Sudan, filmmakers are seeing increased solidarity within the local creative community to find ways to continue making films in the region. Still, producers and directors are struggling to navigate an increasingly tense and politicized international arena and have expressed concerns about the future of an industry that has experienced unexpected growth over the past five years.

“We are in a very frightening situation now and we don’t know when it will end,” said film producer Alaa Karkouti, CEO and co-founder of MAD Solutions, the most prolific distributor of Arabic film content in the Arab world. . “There is the issue of local production, but any non-Arab productions will also take into account the political situation before arriving in the region. This is the most pressing problem in the world right now.”

Karkouti, who distributed Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia, mentioned how the drama, which became the first Sudanese film to screen as part of the official selection at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, opened doors for Sudanese filmmakers, who then saw those doors close tightly after civil war in the country. “A lot of hot projects have come out of Sudan and it is now impossible to film in the country.”

“I have said it many times and I believe it: we are living in the golden age of Arab cinema. But we are talking about stability,” Kakuti added. “Of course talent, budget and passion are important, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have stability.”

One of the region’s most prominent producers and Film Clinic CEO Mohamed Hefzy told Variety that he is currently working on a Sudanese project that had to be filmed in Egypt due to the war. “This is just one of many examples I’m involved in where people come together to try to find solutions to help films finish. Filmmakers always find creative ways. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, so it’s really about necessity—you can’t just stop telling stories, so we find ways and adapt.”

Hefzy also recently faced challenges while working on Cherien Dabis’ All That Remains of You, which will have its market premiere as part of the prestigious Atlas Masterclasses at the Marrakech Film Festival. “After October 7, we suddenly had to change plans. We had to shoot somewhere else, which made it more difficult because not only was the budget much higher, but we had to change plans pretty quickly to find extra money. It was a real uphill battle.”

Leila Abbas, whose sophomore thesis “Thank you for partnering with us!” Having just had its regional Arab premiere at the El Gouna Film Festival, she also speaks openly about her current struggles as a Palestinian director whose future in the film industry is becoming less and less clear by the day.

“We have to be realistic. I had two stories for my next films and now I have to think about them differently,” she said. Diversity. “I need to be honest with myself; a lot has changed in terms of who I can collaborate with. “Thank you for cooperating with us!” it’s a co-production between Palestine and Germany, and I don’t know if I can do it anymore. People are now very afraid of everything Palestinian. This is a completely new world for us.”

Abbas also talked about traveling to festivals with her film during such a difficult time in her home country. “The smallest decisions become very difficult. How should I introduce myself? How can I even think about doing hair and makeup for festivals? This doesn’t seem right. I feel like I should wear black. I’m trying to make it work, but it’s such a challenge.”

Due to the strong politicization of conflicts in the region, directors and producers fear they will no longer be able to produce co-productions with Europe, which is still the most common practice in the MENA world. With this in mind, some industry leaders have turned their attention to the possibility of local co-production, where neighboring countries join forces to leverage growing funds in the region while sharing expertise.

“Independent film production in the region has long been dependent on European co-productions, but given the political positions we are seeing, the question is: will films be censored?” asked producer Rula Nasser, founder of Jordanian company The Imaginarium Films. “I don’t think people want to talk about the conflict. The ideologies are getting deeper, but what we do is not just storytelling. It’s also about documenting what’s happening because it will live forever.”

As questions remain over the future of film production in the Middle East and North Africa region, another major concern is what will happen to the films that do get made. In Guna, the feeling among some leading industry executives is that major festivals are wary of programming overtly political films about ongoing conflicts, while distributors are also becoming more and more formidable.

“Festivals are sometimes the only lifeline for these films,” Hefzy reflected, highlighting the importance of platforms such as El Gouna, Marrakesh and Cairo. “It’s very difficult to get distribution. Distributors today are less willing to take risks, which is unfortunate, but festivals can give films life.”

Nasser is worried but remains hopeful: “Resistance creates means. Perhaps platforms will be launched specifically for these films because people will be looking for them. If there’s a problem in the world that you don’t know much about, you start looking for information beyond scrolling on social media. Where there is a thirst for knowledge, there is a way.”