Highlights of Shubbak 2015

In a wide-ranging article which provides an overview of the Arab art scene in the West, Lana Asfour writes about the commission and performance of an opera based on the acclaimed novel Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif as part of this year's ongoing Shubbak festival. As Asfour writes, Cities of Salt is "arguably [Munif's] greatest work, …

The “New” Cinema of Palestine

Recent Palestinian films such as Suha Arraf's Villa Touma and Najwa Najjar's Eyes of A Thief have been described as "new," offering "unique" perspectives on Palestinian life. Daoud Kuttab for example, writing in Al Monitor, places Najjar's film within a cadre of filmmakers, some new, others well-established, who are "trying to show the complexity of …