Mohammad Malas, The Dream: A Diary of the Film (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2016). Pp. 181. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 9789774167997./Al-Manam/The Dream (Syria), 1987. Color, 45 min. In Arabic with English, French and German subtitles. Director: Mohammad Malas; Distributor: mec film, http://mecfilm.com/index.php?id=1624.

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-179
Author(s):  
Nadia Yaqub
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Important Work ◽  
American University ◽  
American University In Cairo ◽  
Soviet Institute ◽  
Exciting Development

In 1980 Muhammad Malas began research for a documentary about Palestinians in the refugee camps of Lebanon. Malas, who had received training in filmmaking at the All Soviet Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, had already worked for a decade directing documentaries for Syrian television. He researched and filmed in Lebanon during long visits in 1980 and 1981, but his work was interrupted by the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 1981 and 1982 and the Camps War that raged in the refugee camps of the southern suburbs of Beirut in the mid-1980s. Al-Manam (The Dream) was finally completed in 1987. It was highly acclaimed in a few venues in Europe and the Arab world, but was not widely released. Over the years the film has screened at festivals here and there, but otherwise has been difficult to see and impossible to purchase. Now, The Dream has finally been released on DVD by mec film, and an English language translation of the diary Malas kept while filming in 1980–81 and which appeared in Arabic in 1991 has been published by the American University in Cairo Press. The near simultaneous release of these two works, a formally important work of Arab cinema and a detailed accounting of the thoughts of the filmmaker as he conceptualized that work, is an exciting development for Arab film studies—a boon to both scholarship and classroom teaching.

LILIANE KARNOUK, Contemporary Egyptian Art (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995). Pp. 137.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-306
Author(s):  
Jessica Winegar
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
English Language ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Islamic Art ◽  
American University ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American University In Cairo

Studies of contemporary visual art in the Middle East are scarce compared with the vast literature on historical Islamic arts. In the past ten years, however, several notable books and articles have featured this important but under-recognized realm of visual culture in the region. These recent works often examine the ways in which art reflects social trends such as nationalism and struggles for religious identity. Karnouk's book is a worthy introduction to the world of contemporary art in Egypt, and is the first major English-language book of its kind on the subject (see also Wijdan Ali, Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity [Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997]). Contemporary Egyptian Art is a sequel to Karnouk's earlier Modern Egyptian Art: The Emergence of a National Style (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1988), in which she outlined the prominent artists and styles of the first half-century of the modern art movement within the context of Egyptian nationalism. This recent book picks up from the 1952 revolution and presents the major trends in art since that time while offering possible socio-political explanations for these trends.

On South Sudan, in English. Review of the Books by Peter Martell “First Raise A Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War but Lost the Peace” and John Young “South Sudan’s Civil War: Violence, Insurgency and Failed Peacemaking”

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
Anna Sharova
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil War ◽  
English Language ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Graham Greene ◽  
The Future ◽  
Independent Country ◽  
Spot Analysis

Anna Sharova reviews two recent books separately published by two English language authors – P. Martell and J. Young. The books are very different in style and mood. While P. Martell presents an excellent example of British journalist prose in the style of his elder compatriots Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, who did their reporting and writing from exotic countries during fateful periods of history, J. Young offers a more academic, though no less ‘on the spot’ analysis of the situation in the youngest independent country of Africa. J. Young’s considers two possible approaches to conflict resolution as possible outcomes: non-intervention cum continuation of the war, or the introduction of international governance. P. Martell comes up with a disappointing prediction about the future of South Sudan. The war will go on, the famine will return, and the threat of genocide will not disappear. People will continue to flee the country, and refugee camps will grow. New warring groups will appear, new murders will be committed. Neighbouring states will not stop competing for influence and resources. New peacekeepers will arrive. Warlords will be accused of crimes, but, as before, they will escape punishment, while some will be promoted.

Johan Eberlin Von Günzburg's Wolfaria The First Protestant Utopia

1967 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Groag Bell
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Christian Humanism ◽  
The Reformation

It is now almost a century since a German theologian first discussed the life and work of Johan Eberlin von Günzburg, the Swabian folkpreacher who doffed his Franciscan habit to follow Luther. In the ensuing period, the published writings of this minor Reformation character have been submitted to microscopic analysis, pertaining to his theological, sociological, political and philological style by a variety of German scholars. So far, however, there has been no assessment of Johan Eberlin's significance against the background of Christian Humanism as it applied to the German Renaissance. With two recent exceptions there has been almost no reference to this fascinating figure in the Reformation literature available in the English language. I intend here to remedy this injustice and to throw some light on a personality of considerable historical interest by reviewing the internal evidence of his most important work—that part of his Fünfzehn Bundsgenossen (Fifteen Confederates) which comprises his utopia.

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