Part of New York African Film Festival 2026

DIRECTOR: Férid Boughedir

YEAR: 1987

COUNTRY: Tunisia / France

RUNTIME: 65 minutes

LANGUAGE: Arabic and French with English subtitles

VENUES: Francesca Beale Theater

Férid Boughedir’s Caméra arabe is a fast-paced documentary exploring the rise of politically engaged cinema in North Africa and the Middle East from the 1960s onward. Through film clips and filmmaker testimonies, it links this cinematic movement to major historical events like the Six-Day War and the Lebanon War, highlighting how directors grappled with questions of identity and expression. Featuring key voices such as Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina and Youssef Chahine, the film stands as a passionate tribute to a bold, independent wave of Arab cinema. Writing in Variety upon its 1987 release, Anthony Yung says “Chahine’s intelligent, anguished battle to describe Arabs’ shaken sense of their own identity in a world rocked by dramatic political events rather sums up the film.”

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