Laura U. Marks’ Hanan al-Cinema puts us in the frame of a vibrant, engaging, and outward looking cinema developing in the Arab world—a diverse and multifaceted industry that is keen to reflect artistically on cultural and political contexts but which also cares deeply about aesthetics. The ability of cinema to revitalize and interrogate a host of social and historical paradigms is rendered almost limitless throughout this book and the author makes is impossible for us to ever say that we do not have the information we need to delve deeply into the collaborations and innovations that keep Arab cinema alive and relevant. The films discussed and the nuanced critical engagements performed by Marks give us the opportunity to frame the films within the language of cinema—this is Marks' gift in many ways—to both showcase the sheer amount of impressive films to have emerged from the Arab world and accord them a cinematic and aesthetic history. The book makes clear the machinery at work behind this industry: the institutions responsible for funding, the cross-national collaborations often required to get projects off the ground, government interference and censorship, and impressive film festivals of all sizes across regions. She also highlights how countries that have become recent players in the cinematic field, such as the United Arab Emirates, shape the output of the current film industry. This does much to contribute to a sense of the region as one that is invested, in different ways, in the medium—its possibilities as well as its limitations.

The book uses short sections and subsections to move between regional and conceptual arguments, pausing every so often to concentrate on a particular film or filmmaker. Some of these are given plenty of space, Hala Elkoussy, Hassan Khan, and Sherif Al Azma among them. I imagine that it might be difficult for the newcomer to contemporary Arab cinema to gauge the particular choices made by Marks, but for those who know a little about the subject, it is uplifting to read about established filmmakers such as Yousef Chahine alongside more experimental newcomers such as Hala Lotfy. In fact, this was one of the most surprising and enjoyable aspects of the book—learning about films that are difficult to access and understanding how this difficulty is often due to high distribution costs as well as artists’ preferences for where and how their films circulate. The book also tackles the hardest question of all, “What is cinema for?”, thus reminding us that in many contexts the very purpose of cinema is still a relevant question. The instrumentalization of cinema by the state (even when the state is absent in terms of funding) is approached head on but there are no hard and fast conclusions. We are encouraged to consider censorship and its effects as it tells us much about the role of cinema in politics and is, in and of itself, a debate worthy of pursuit.

The book appears to be structured around a deep love and respect for the material under investigation, alongside the desire to render it worthy. The latter function I found to be unnecessary as many of the films discussed have enjoyed a reasonable viewership and have been discussed, appreciated, and critiqued widely in the Arab world. The films themselves are thoroughly innovative and invigorating and Marks’ encyclopedic knowledge testifies to the many ways in which one can engage with the films. Conceptually, Marks offers tools with which we may also navigate the works: one of these she calls “enfolding,” where the artwork is valued for the experience that it stimulates rather than its presumed ability to reflect a particular preconceived or predistinguished reality. This is a positive step in the realm of Arab film criticism as it provides a framework that does not seek to prioritize the work's authenticity by according it a stable set of political preoccupations that in and of themselves, and in a region so vast and complex, are bound to be in constant flux. Thus Marks’ method allows us to appreciate the works for what they may deliver in that moment. Whilst I very much liked this idea, I still witnessed plenty of context building in the book. This might reflect the fact that the conceptual model suggested assumes a certain amount of knowledge concerning identifiable concerns in the Arab world that cut across regions such as the question of Palestine; Arab modernism/modernity; uses of technology and uneven development. Thus, though it is clearly productive to allow oneself to be touched by the artistic products, it may be that for now this way of seeing is itself contingent on some underlying understanding of context, albeit always in some way tainted by a particular ideology.

There are many highlights in this book, such as the focus on the missing Palestinian film archives of the 1960s and 1970s and the history of communism and its effects in the Arab world. These are not only informative but also deeply important to the project of an alternative history of the region. The articulation of communist sensibilities and allegiances in politics, for example, gives us an insight into significant though perhaps underemphasized moments in the political trajectory of the Arab world, delivering a different context for the development of an intellectual history of the region. Marks is also interested in newer forms of devotion—to asphalt, concrete, technology, modernity, all of which have been embraced by the region. The psychogeographies of many of the Arab nations and the ways in which the ground itself is being rethought gives scope to cinema to remap the land itself. The desert is being shaped into roads, leading elsewhere to places unknown and possibilities yet to be experienced. Cinema can enact this and provide the tools for the reimagining of space itself.

Particularly poignant and informative is the section Marks calls “Archival Romances,” on the ways in which Arab cinema has approached its own cinematic history and that of other cinematic traditions. This lays the foundation for students of Arab cinema to witness the rich engagement of Arab artists with their own prolific cinematic heritage—here, icons of cinema such as actresses Asmahan and Souad Hosni are introduced to a new audience by filmmakers such as Rania Stefan in her The Three Disappearances of Souad Hosni and Hisham Bizri in his Asmahan. Reflections on Hollywood and European cinema abound in Arab films—one moment not mentioned by Marks but which is very memorable nevertheless is the presence of the poster for the 1953 film Niagra, starring Marilyn Monroe, which hangs at the train station in Chahine's 1958 Cairo Station, anticipating perhaps the disastrous end of the hopelessly obsessed Qinawi. Here the “archive” is shown to be Egypt's clear consumption of international products, interacting with the norms and mores of American culture. This idea of the archive is a very powerful one, reminding us of the ephemeral quality of “influence” and how difficult it can often be to trace multiple antecedents in art. This makes for a very engaging set of principles that Marks accentuates, reminding us that the meanings of collaboration, friendship, and competition are all forms of influence. Marks’ concept of the “fabulated” archive is also striking; here, filmmakers experiment with historical “what ifs” and this permits limitless reimaginings. Her critique of Hadjithomas and Joreige's 2014 The Lebanese Rocket Society, a film that that recasts Lebanon's missed opportunity to enter the space race, presents one powerful foray into such a fabulation.

Many of the films discussed by Marks are, however, very difficult to access. The information at the close of the book gives details on where to locate some of them. They are often extremely expensive to purchase or rent and some can only be viewed at specialist screenings and exhibits. Others can be found on YouTube or though Vimeo accounts. This often makes a full appreciation of the works discussed in Hanan al-Cinema difficult. Equally, this question of access places experimental Arab cinema squarely within the production space of contemporary art—difficult to fund and distribute, making access expensive and limited. Nevertheless, the book is a crucial one that gives much needed insight to the field of Arab cinema. Alongside Kay Dickinson's wonderful Arab Cinema Travels: Transnational Syria, Palestine, Dubai and Beyond (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Laura U. Marks’ book offers us a truly invigorating approach to contemporary Arab film, reminding us of the scale and scope of filmmaking in the region and producing memorable tropes and conceptual tools for experiencing the works themselves.