Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
07/14/2010 - Issue 41
Syria and the Hollywood Screen
by Courtney Hagen
Syria has played a rather quiet role in mainstream films throughout the history of cinema. In the 1950s, Humphrey Bogart had a brief flirtation with Damascus when he tackled Syrian rebels fighting French invaders in “Sirocco.”
In 1969, Aleppo emerged on cinema screens when Maria Callas played the title role in “Medea,” filmed in the northwestern city. Ironically, the most famous, recent film associated with Syria is the George Clooney film “Syriana,” which isn’t even about Syria at all. Here depictions of Arabs are marginalized into that of oil sheikh, religious fundamentalist, or terrorist.
This is the clichéd portrayal of the dark, mysterious Arab, which has been lurking on films for decades. Add to this September 11th and the residual fall-out of former US President George W. Bush’s now infamous “Axis of Evil” speech, which set the scene for an antagonistic system and you get a lot of cultural confusion, oversimplification and a series of film and media images hyper-focused on Arabs as political and religious enemies.
In a post-9/11 society a new subculture of Hollywood films emerged, seemingly obsessed with the war on terror and the war in Iraq, from “The Kingdom” to “The Green Zone.” Yet these filmic portrayals of Arabs are consistently two-dimensional, loosely based around two stereotypes: the “bad” Arab with a terrorist vendetta waiting to blow himself up, or the “good” Arab in the process of Americanization acting for his new friends as an interpreter or guide into the misunderstood Arab psyche.
“These portrayals have existed before media existed,” says Moustafa Bayoumi, associate professor of English at the City University of New York and an editor of the Middle East Report. “These caricatures are nothing new, but in a lot of ways, after 9/11, there has been an attempt to make more complex movies that involve the Middle Eastern setting in recent years. Unfortunately, I don’t think they succeed in building more complex characters.”Bayoumi published a book entitled: How Does it Feel to be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America, as a way to highlight Arab stories in the American community from struggling minority groups who are either unable to or don’t have access to represent themselves in the media.
Syria, historically, maintains a rather muted position, free from representational opportunities in mainstream cinema. Yet, a new crop of Syrian actors and producers are trying to ignore the status quo and forge their own complex characters on the global film production scene.
“The more money for a role, the more stereotyped the part,” says Ziad Adwan, Damascene actor who has played Arab roles in a handful of films from Steven Spielberg’s ”Munich” to Paul Greengrass’ “The Green Zone.” “This limits the horizon. But it’s not my question. I don’t negotiate the stereotype.
When I play an Arab terrorist, I’m just playing a character, like I would if I played a drug-dealer or anything else.”
Adwan, who also teaches at the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts in Damascus, has enjoyed a wide range of work from Syria to London, where he studied for a PhD. Like Bayoumi, he recognizes a shift in Arab portrayals in film post-9/11, but critiques over-politicization as a reactionary element: “They have tried to make the bad guys less stereotyped. But in the process of humanizing the terrorist, they are stereotyping the Arab character as a political character. The problem is not in the portrayal of the terrorist but in millions of Arabs believing it’s talking about them. It happens when people take an element as representation.”
Mustafa Al-Khani is another Syrian actor who has fought for more complex roles both in Syria and abroad. The award-winning Al-Khani has staged works across the Middle East and Europe. He most famously plays Nemes in the beloved Syrian television series “Bab Al-Hara,” a role he endeavored to make more multidimensional. Al-Khani recognizes it is the responsibility of the Arab World to work to change portrayals on screen: “We can’t say there is one way for American cinema.
In one way they show the Middle East without deep or complicated portrayals. This is a surface concept, it doesn’t show the reality. In any society there are a lot of bad people, a lot of good people, all kinds of people.”
Both Al-Khani and Adwan echo each others sentiments in the need for less politicized collaborations between Western and Syrian producers. The end of this year Al-Khani is off to Hollywood to work on the “Jurassic Park” television series while Adwan is working on producing his own script and returning to acting in London. He anticipates a day when Arab characters will have less controversials role in film, “I’d like a character who speaks and doesn’t have to reveal anything about political, religious, or fundamental topics … If Woody Allen ever did an Arab I’d be so happy.”.
Dressed in white while swimming in oil, often gullible, conniving and filthy rich-or nasty terrorist. These characteristics have been used to describe Arabs in Hollywood culture, before, during, and after 9-11. Is that starting to change?
