Throughout March, Tate Modern is putting on a programme of Experimental Arab Cinema for the tasty price of £5 a hit.
Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now, includes films spanning a variety of genres, and from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Syria.
The subjects of these films range from delicately raw and makeshift ‘film-poems’ (The Tangier 8, Sons of the Wind) and sociological documentaries, to haunting surrealism (The Man Who Was Looking at the Windows), and witty satire (Chronicle of a Disappearance).
The Arab Cinema series offers a broad panorama of largely unknown film. Considering our current detached engagement with ‘foreign’ affairs through imported newspaper images, the Tate Modern’s decision to showcase counter-culture experimentation is timely, and self-confessedly reflective of the “pioneering drive to experiment with narrative, representation and the production of images”.
The programme extends until the end of March and can be viewed here. Films are £5 per screening.
By Leah Cowan
