| Abstract
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By means of a close textual analysis of a group of films, this thesis explores how Arabic cinemas departed from the normative practices of the Egyptian studio system. The films are: Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, Egypt, 1958), and Fatma (Ahmed Badrakhan, Egypt, 1947), The Duped (Tawfiq Salih, Syria, 1972), The Nights of the Jackal (Abd ai-Latif Abd ai-Hamid, Syria, 1988), and Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (Nabil Ayouch, Morocco, 2000). These films reveal an engagement with the social and political reforms set in motion by pan-Arabism and the politics of the Socialist Transformation of the early and mid-1950s. In addition, these films deal with themes of unity and discord, and as such foreshadow and/or reflect on the loss of the 1967 War and the resulting defeat of the discourse and ethics of Arabism. Critical realism and self-conscious use of allegory are the stylistic and strategic approaches that unite these films. As argued in this thesis, the aesthetic and ethical positions found in this diverse group of films constitute a legacy of sensibilities that continues to define and distinguish works of Arab cinematic realism committed to the exploration of the politics brought about by a socialist transformation.
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