Cinema Story

There is one story for cinema, but there are many narrators, and the book published in Cairo more than seventy years ago presents one of those narratives. In his book, the first edition of which was published in 1950, the historian and film critic Salah Zhani tells the story of cinema from the beginning of its invention, and stops at cinema. Silent, then speaking, and stops when Arabs enter the cinematic field.
The author noticed early on - and he wrote his book during his period of studying cinema in Paris between 1949 and 1950 - to the falsification of the image of the Arab in world cinema. He says: "The shameful form in which we have imagined the sidebars, no conscious Arab can be satisfied with it at any time." In any case, we are all nomads who know nothing of life except the tent, the camel, or the horse. The faces of our men are dark to the point of blackness, and their eyes reflect ferocity, betrayal, and love of blood. Their heads are rectangular, topped with a keffiyeh, or a keffiyeh, or a white turban, and their bodies! They are covered with a dirty white dress that hangs down to their feet, and they are often armed with a Great War-style rifle!! As for our women, the veil that surrounds their heads covers most of the face, with only the eyes visible!