On December 17, 2010, uprisings began in Tunisia that led to the fall of Ben Ali’s autocratic regime. From January 2011 onwards, the uprisings spread across much of the Arab world, bringing about significant political change in some countries, such as Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Sudan. Although the political and social situation in many of these places is far from having reached the democratic ideals that drove the original protests, the popular uprisings known as the Arab Spring already form an important chapter in the region’s contemporary history.

To mark their tenth anniversary in this year of 2021, many different seminars, articles, reports, etc., will be published to commemorate those events and try to unravel the complex equation in which the region now finds itself, ten years later. That is why Casa Árabe and the streaming platform Filmin would like to help with this process of reflection, by jointly offering this retrospective series titled “Tenth Anniversary of the Arab Uprisings in Film,” with a hybrid schedule of both in-person and online film screenings.

In this special film series, we sought to bring back some of the essential titles in Arab film from recent years that give a good account of both the revolutions and the consequences they had in each country. Many of these films were included in prior film series at Casa Árabe, including “Cinema and Censorship, Cinema and Democracy?,” “A Year of Spring” and “Connected to the Amplifier,” as well as other scheduled events and the broad catalogue of movies on the Filmin streaming platform. The selection of 10+10 titles presented here is but a small sample out of the huge number of films produced about those crucial events, unparalleled in the modern history of Arab cinema.  

The euphoria of this revolutionary time experienced in the streets of so many Arab cities was immediately portrayed in cinema, which reacted with urgency to tell what was being lived. Both in these films and in others made after some time had passed, the same themes are underlying, with criticism of the political elites, abuses and corruption, while showing the yearning for freedom of expression, rarely experienced by filmmakers or everyday citizens up to that moment. Many of these films became icons of the revolution, admired all over the world, and thus graced the screens of top film festivals such as Cannes and Venice.  

These films were not made with the intention of deepening the analysis, or to make predictions about where the changes might lead, but rather to bear witness to the events experienced. A sense of jubilation permeates the tone of these films. Today, seen with the hindsight of the past ten years and in light of the dramatic developments in certain countries like Syria and Libya, for many it may already seem like a mirage. But they are undoubtedly important documents in the history of the region’s cinema.
 
Other films made one or two years after the beginning of the revolutions already took n a more cautious or skeptical tone when reacting to the difficulties faced as a result of these processes of change. These are films not only from Egypt or Tunisia, the two countries where the uprisings had the greatest media presence, but also from other countries such as Yemen, Libya, Syria or Morocco.

In Syria, where peaceful protests were harshly repressed from the outset, some films were only seen in a nearly underground manner. The civil war that has ravaged the country has meant that cinema has focused primarily on denouncing the devastating impact of violent repression and war on the civilian population. The dramatic situation of hundreds of thousands of refugees has been the subject of many socially committed works over the years.  

And, in general, what many films made more recently by Arab directors tell us about are the problems and difficulties faced by the societies in their own countries. As is well known, the outcome of the popular uprisings has been very uneven and, except in the case of Tunisia, there is not much to celebrate. The emergence of ISIS in the region, with all its apparatus of violence and repression; the confirmation of an unequal situation in terms of women’s rights and the persistence of patriarchal social customs; and the return of authoritarian and military governments which are once again imposing repression and censorship are themes in current Arab cinema often presented as side effects of the Arab Springs.

But despite the dark tone that many films display, the Arab Springs have opened the door to new approaches and new ways of telling stories with the camera. Whether documentary or fiction, many of these emerging filmmakers have brought us closer, taking the veils off of the realities of a young Arab world that wants to maintain its dynamic energy despite the enormous troubles it is going through. This is demonstrated by the uprisings in Sudan a little over a year ago or the most recent revolts, also in the heat of the tenth anniversary in Tunisia itself. Casa Árabe and Filmin have joined forces to try to ensure that the screen, whether at home or in the movie theater, remains a window from which we can enjoy the latest cinema production from these countries.