Studies
Cinema as an expression
for conflicting struggles
While profit is one of the key driving factors of
cinematic production, the content of cinematic
work is another factor for the right marketing.
Like other forms of art, cinema contributes in
building and elevating social consciousness.
This study discusses the ability of cinema to
address and heal a single issue through various
lenses, with Arab audiences straining under the
effects of that agency today. The primary matter
is that every attempt at healing an issue comes
from not only a subjective angle that fits with the
vision of the director, but also from an angle that
is compatible with his or her interests, despite
trying to strike a balance between profit and
content. This becomes apparent in the three
following discussed works. The film ‘The road
to Eilat’ tried to use simple descriptive narration
and cinematography to appeal to a wide Arab
audience. In its whitewashing of the withdrawal
of Arab regimes in 1967, the film falls nothing
short of melodramatic distortion that borders
on fraudulent demagogy after several viewings,
for it is a film with one specific aim: deceiving
Arab consciousness for the continuation of
Arab regimes. The Italian film ‘Life is beautiful’
reflects the two rules of cinema: ‘profit’ and
‘content’ in its use of multifaceted ideological
language that addresses different types of
audiences, whereas the approach of the film
18
Delta-N Journal
Summary Edition - June 2014
‘Remaining time’ is one
that has rarely been used in
Arab cinema. The director
attempts to cleverly address
the Palestinian cause, yet
the language is loaded with
symbolism and iconography
which may elude the average
Arab viewer. The film begins
as though a continuation
to the film ‘Life is beautiful’
by Roberto Benigni; where
the establishment of Israel is the demise of
Palestine. Thus, cinema has played a crucial
role in the growth of awareness surrounding
issues of public affairs; sometimes for better
while other times for worse, it can be used as
a double edged sword serving whoever uses
it. In both cases, it is the Arab viewer that
falls victim; victim to a stale state that he or
she seeks to change. Will the Arab intellectual
movement produce cinema that reflects reality
in an engaging way with the Arab viewer? This
is subject to and conditional upon its ability to
change its reality, which demolishes prevalent
consciousness to building a different type
of consciousness, because it is reality that
dictates consciousness and not the other way
around; public consciousness differs in the
context of victory as opposed to defeat. This is
what explains the intellectual gap that leaves its
traces on some