Cairo-Berlin Return: Early Arab-German Cooperation in Film – The Egyptian-German Example

Authors

  • Irit Neidhardt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22032/dbt.47742

Keywords:

cinema, pioneers, sound-movies, Weimar Republic, Egypt, anti-colonial liberation, international co-production, transnational cooperation

Abstract

The Arab-German cooperation in film began after World War I in 1919/1920 when the first Egyptians came to learn the then brand new art in Germany, and has been continuing with different Arab partners ever since. Yet there is neither a public nor a professional awareness of this history. When Arab and German film professionals meet at international co-production platforms today, they practically get together as strangers. Despite its richness, the common history does not serve as a point of reference. It is not written. This paper, therefore, attempts to shed light on this forgotten period of cooperation. It looks at how and why such a collaboration was initiated. Moreover, it describes its different formats and also why the Egyptian-German encounter eventually came to an end.

Author Biography

Irit Neidhardt

Irit Neidhardt is running mec film, an international distribution company for films by Arab directors and a freelance writer, curator and speaker in the field of cinema and the Arab World.

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Published

2021-02-19

How to Cite

Neidhardt, I. (2021). Cairo-Berlin Return: Early Arab-German Cooperation in Film – The Egyptian-German Example. Global Media Journal - German Edition, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.22032/dbt.47742

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2020): Autumn/Winter 2020

Section

From the Field

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Irit Neidhardt

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.