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In Lebanon vintage film posters question Western cliches

In Lebanon, vintage film posters question Western cliches

BEIRUT: A pale woman rides through the desert, flanked by armed men on camels, a palace shimmering in the distance. This is Lebanon — or so someone thought in the 1950s.

At a Beirut cultural centre, Lebanese film buff Abboudi Abu Jawdeh is exhibiting vintage film posters from his collection that show off a lost art, but also offer insight into decades of Western cliches of the Arab world.

On a guided tour, the collector gestures towards the desert scene, which is an Italian poster for the 1956 French movie “The Lebanese Mission”.

“This is from the artist’s imagination,” the 61-year-old says, standing beside the image featuring the camel riders and a palace resembling India’s Taj Mahal.

“He knew Lebanon was in the East, so he did this,” he says, despite the country having ski slopes and sand only on its Mediterranean beaches.

Abu Jawdeh moves along to another poster for the same film, this time featuring an oil well.

“I hope we will have some,” he says, as his country only this year starts exploration for the hydrocarbon off its coast.

A glance at the film’s synopsis reveals more inconsistencies.

A Frenchman falls for the daughter of a Lebanese nobleman while in Lebanon hunting for uranium, a metal not mined in the country.

Abu Jawdeh first began collecting posters in his teens, starting with films starring American actors Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood.

Visiting old cinemas in Lebanon and across the region, he unearthed a world of images — for more foreign films, but also thousands of prints advertising films from the Arab world.

 

 

 

 

 

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M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.