Part 10: “The Arabs Now” by Basim Musallam. Comments by: Dr. Saad Bin Tefla. What do the Arabs believe to be the most potent forces in their society at the present time and how do they assess their condition today? How possible is criticism of that condition and who will be the most effective critics? The intellectuals? The politicians? Arab youth? Fifty percent of all Arabs are under the age of twenty and 20,000,000 Arab children are in school today. What effect will this explosion in education have on society? What will be the effect of the huge labour-migration across the Arab world or the revolution in communications, as air-travel,…

Part 9: “Family Ties” by Nadia Hijab. Comments by: Dr. Yusur al-Madani. Most Arab women’s lives still centre on the family, their traditional responsibilities to their own children and the power of parents and relatives to dictate their role in life. Writer and journalist Nadia Hijab weaves this film around a large extended family of Jordanians living in Amman. The mother, Umm Ghassem, is clearly the powerful heart of this family ¬strong and humorous and frank in her description of her life. In spite of its traditional restraints, the extended Arab family is seen to work ¬ as secure and loving and caring as it has always been. But we…

Part 8: “Building a Nation” by Mahfoud Bannoune. Comments by: Dr. Zouaoui Beghoura. The last three films in “The Arabs” focus on the processes of post-Colonial change in the Arab world. Mahfoud Bannoune analyzes the problems faced by Arabs as they constructed their new nations over the past quarter of a century and the solutions open to them. He does so by reference to his own country, Algeria, which achieved its independence in 1962, with appalling loss of life. If old ways were obsolete and a new age had to be created in the aftermath of an eight-year war, what industrial and economic options were open to the Algerians? Mahfoud…

Part 7: “The Shadow of the West” by Edward Said. Comments by: Dr. Souad al-Enezi and Dr. Numan Jubran. This film assesses the changes which came about as the Arab countries were drawn into the new political and economic order of modern times. Those changes not only affected the Arab countries but also the way in which they came to be viewed by people in Europe and America. Its main focus is on the plight of the Palestinians, which can be seen as the most enduring residue of the modern encounter between the Arabs and the West. Edward Said is a Palestinian living and working in New York. He is…

Part 6: “Ways of Faith” by Ali el-Mek. Comments by: Mr Fareed Abdal. Muslim author and poet Ali al Mek looks at the ways and meaning of the Islamic Faith as they affect one particular group of Muslims within his own experience, the people of the village of Umduban in central Sudan. No single community or village can ever adequately represent the entire Islamic Faith, but this encounter with the religious life of Umduban leads to an understanding of that living Islam which informs the very existence of Muslims the world over. Umduban is also a religious centre. The film follows small groups of individuals who have come to the…

Part 5: “New Knowledge for Old” by Abdulhamid Sabra. Comments by: Dr Mohammad al-Wuhaib. 900 years ago Arab Muslims were the world’s greatest seekers after knowledge and wisdom of the Greeks. Today that Arab scholarship is a natural part of the inheritance of all scientists and thinkers, not least of the modern generation of Arab research-workers, many of whom work in the new Institutes in the Gulf States which we visit in the course of this film. Only forty years ago Kuwait was dominantly a small community of traders, fishermen and pearl divers on the Eastern fringe of the Arab world. But there was already the promise of oil. The…

Part 4: “The Power of the Word” by Khalida Said. Comments by: Dr Turki al-Mughaid. The ancient Arabic language, transplanted, with the spread of Islam, from the Arabian Peninsula to Europe and the borders of China, remains the pivot of Arab culture today. Arabic, the language of the Quran, is the sacred language for all Muslims and has played a major role in shaping and maintaining Arab society. Poetry remains the forum for political debate, and major poets attract thousands to hear them recite their latest works. In the words of our writer, Khalida Said: “Poetry is the best witness to our crisis it’s our creative response to these bad…

Part 3: “The City Victorious?” by Galal Amin. Comments by: Dr Mohammad al-Rumaihi – Mr Sami al-Nesf. This film looks at changing fortunes in the traditional relationship between Arab city and countryside. We focus on one small corner of Cairo and one small village in the Nile Delta, sixty miles to the north. In the village we meet a young peasant, Mitwali Balah, and come to understand his arduous life which he wishes to exchange for the seemingly magical prospects of life in Cairo. The lives of these young peasants are looked at not only in the context of the overburdened, overpopulated Cairo of today but in the context of…

2) Between Two Worlds What was Arab society like during the thousand year period following the decline of the Arab Empire? What memories, what feelings, does it provoke in the minds of today’s Arabs, caught as they are in the turbulence of 20th Century change? Abdelmalek Tazi is a member of an influential family of Fez, ancient seat of the rulers of Morocco. As Abelmalek plays with his children, looks for business contacts in the Arabian Gulf states, prays at his father’s tomb, or revisits his childhood haunts in the medieval quarter of Fez, our writer, Abdallah Hammoudi, questions how deeply the manners, beliefs, attitudes and values of the old…

Documentary film, The Arabs at Yarmouk Cultural Centre.