Kawalis | Cinema, Television & Theater from the Arab World

Arabs are a remarkably theatrical population, yet many remain unaware of the profound importance and relevance that theater holds in daily life. Scholar and performer Dr. Samer Al-Saber discusses his award-winning book, A Movement's Promise, which charts the history of contemporary Palestinian theater. The conversation explores how a small, tenacious community of artists used storytelling and comedy as forms of resistance under occupation while navigating pervasive institutional censorship. From the legendary tours of Al-Hakawati Theatre to the unique role of commercial theater in shaping regional consciousness, this episode highlights a world-class cultural heritage that continues to endure.



00:00 Introduction

01:15 First Memories of the Live Stage

03:20 The Intertwined Destinies of Theater and Media

05:46 Dualities of Performance

08:25 The Mechanics of Exportation & the VHS Era

11:59 The Roots of Social Commentary

15:19 Mapping a Movement: Theater as Liberation

19:55 The Walled-Off Era & Global Ambassadors

23:55 Characters Every Arab Should Know

28:05 Ideologies, Regimes, & the Arab Body Politic

31:47 Theater as a Leading Indicator

35:36 Creating Art Under Pressure

42:03 Tracing the Legal Frameworks of Pervasive Control

45:04 The Precarious State of Spaces & Cultural Institutions



Samer Al-Saber is a critical scholar, historian, director, and playwright at Williams College, where he is Associate Professor of Theatre. He comes to Williams after serving for over a decade at the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, the School of Theater at Florida State University, and the Theater Department at Davidson College. He received the Walter J Gores Award at Stanford and the Undergraduate Teaching Award at Florida State University, the most prestigious teaching awards at these institutions. His monograph A Movement's Promise: The Making of Contemporary Palestinian Theater (Stanford University Press, 2025) is the first comprehensive history of the Palestinian Theater Movement. He is co-editor of the anthology Stories Under Occupation and Other Plays from Palestine (Seagull Press/University of Chicago Press), editor of To The Good People of Gaza (Bloomsbury Press), and co-editor of Arab, Performance, and Politics (Routledge, 2024). Directing credits include Returning to Haifa (Golden Thread Productions, 2025), Betty Shamieh's As Soon As Impossible, Hasan Abdelrazzak's The Prophet, and others. He holds a PhD in Theatre History and Criticism from the University of Washington (2013).



Connect with Samer Al-Saber 👉 https://instagram.com/samer.al.saber

Hosted by Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu



Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns

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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl7IMTj6Jk7yAJXCMMqxaP5A&feature=shared

ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra

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Rooted in a profound sense of cultural duty, Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-recognized filmmaker and poet Hind Shoufani unpacks a lifetime of artistic resistance and stateless identity. This conversation navigates the complexities of Palestinian liberation and the enduring legacy of the PLO through the poignant lens of her activist family. From the relentless grit behind her feature documentary, Trip Along Exodus, to her fifteen-year multimedia endeavor tracking Arab women poets in, The Poeticians, the discussion explores voices that boldly challenge both Western and Arab expectations. The episode culminates with an inside look into her upcoming 2027 release, They Planted Strange Trees,, which serves as a classical love letter to the resilience of indigenous Palestinian Christians reclaiming their ancestral land.

 

00:00 Introduction

01:02 Growing Up Secular & Socialist in the Arab World

06:03 Independent Paths & the Complexity of Belonging

09:44 Documenting Untold Realities

16:01 The Grit of Filmmaking a Father's Legacy

24:59 Subverting Expectations with The Poetitions Project

31:40 Giving Voice to Erotica, Grief & Diaspora During Conflict

37:18 A Poet's Impulse & Channeling Words in Dark Times

38:15 Reclaiming the Galilee: A Love Letter to Ancestral Roots

43:35 Structural Themes of Resilience and Looking Toward 2027

 

Hind Shoufani is a Palestinian filmmaker and writer living in New York. A Fulbright scholar and MFA graduate in Filmmaking from NYU, she was a writer in residence at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2011. Hind was also recently awarded a 2026 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in NonFiction Literature.

Her film work has earned international recognition, including a BAFTA and an Academy Award nomination for the short film The Present. She has directed, produced, and edited dozens of documentaries and experimental films over her 28-year career. Hind's feature documentary Trip Along Exodus screened in more than 40 cities, and she produced the Palestinian film Heavy Metal, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous international publications, and for nearly two decades she has curated Poeticians, a collective of poets and musicians performing in Beirut, Dubai, and Brooklyn. Dark Star Requiem is her first full poetry collection published in the United States with Diode Editions. She is currently working on her second Palestinian feature film "They Planted Strange Trees.

 

Connect with Hind Shoufani 👉 https://www.instagram.com/gonewiththehind/

 

FOLLOW & RATE THE KAWALIS PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/afikra-movie-night/id1646405109
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6wG6CeZgE9LGtOVKwB6d5U
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1044639402

THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl7IMTj6Jk7yAJXCMMqxaP5A&feature=shared

ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra

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Hania Mroue, founding director of Metropolis Cinema, breaks down the wild journey of building a cultural sanctuary in the heart of Beirut. From opening its doors one day before a war to being evicted with only 48 hours' notice, this is a story of grit and pure love for the big screen. We dive into the urgent mission of preserving Lebanon’s decaying film memory and why independent cinema is actually for everyone, not just the elite. It’s a raw look at how art survives in an unstable world, and why you should definitely skip the sofa for a real theater seat.

 

00:00 Introduction

02:11 Early Aspirations for a National Narrative

04:14 Establishing the First Regional Arab Film Festival

06:52 Testing the Waters of Public Interest

08:33 A Debut Marked by Regional Instability

10:50 Scaling Up the Vision

13:58 Navigating Sudden Displacement of the Cinema

16:54 The Broader Regional Film Network

24:50 The Fate of Physical Archives

27:35 The Weight of Global Platforms and Political Statements

33:44 Shifting Economic Realities and Streaming Impact

45:34 Challenging the Notion of Exclusive Spaces

51:04 The Irreplaceable Nature of the Theater

 

Hania Mroue is the founder and director of Metropolis Cinema, which opened in 2006 and is Lebanon’s only art house movie theater. In 2010, she launched MC Distribution, a company dedicated to selling and distributing Arab and international independent titles in the MENA region. She is a founding member of Aflamuna (formerly Beirut DC), created in 1998 to promote and support independent Arab films. For 10 years she has been the managing director of the Arab film festival Ayam Beirut al Cinema’iya. She was appointed as chief Arab programmer at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (2010-2012). She has served as jury member for several film festivals around the world, including for Cannes’ Critics Week, the Berlinale, Cinema Du Réel and others. Most recently, she was a consultant for Arab film programming and industry events at the Marrakesh International Film Festival from 2020 to 2023.

 

Connect with Hania Mroue 👉 https://instagram.com/mrouehania

 

FOLLOW & RATE THE KAWALIS PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/afikra-movie-night/id1646405109
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6wG6CeZgE9LGtOVKwB6d5U
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1044639402

THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl7IMTj6Jk7yAJXCMMqxaP5A&feature=shared

ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra

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Moving to Chad as a child in the late 1990s, filmmaker and scholar Bentley Brown grew up speaking Chadian Arabic. He discusses how his unique upbringing shaped his perspective on identity and storytelling and explores the complexities of being a chameleon between cultures. Using film and comedy to bridge gaps in understanding and challenge misconceptions about the Sahel region, he tells us about his early films screened at international festivals and his presence on social media to his recent work documenting the Sudanese Revolution and water crises in Chad, highlighting the power of art to preserve history and navigate the in-between spaces of global identity.

 

0:00 An Identity Formed in the Sahel

06:05 The Ethics of the Storyteller

12:07 Comparative Dialectology and Global Connections

22:56 Comedy as a Tool for Cultural Critique

29:33 Filming the Sudanese Revolution from Afar

40:08 Water, Trauma, and the Chadian Landscape

55:03 Chadian Music and the Synthesizer Revolution

 

Bentley Brown is a filmmaker and scholar whose work revolves around disidentification, language, and artistic translations of science. A Berlinale Talent, Durban Talent, and Africa Movie Academy Awards nominee, Brown’s past films include Behind the Sun (Hot Docs 2023), First Feature (International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019), and Oustaz (Berlinale 2016). Brown holds a PhD in Emergent Technologies and Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado Boulder and has served as an Assistant Professor at the American University of Sharjah since 2023.

 

Connect with Bentley Brown 👉 https://instagram.com/waldbrown

 

Hosted by Mikey Muhanna

 

Connect directly with Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu

 

Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns

FOLLOW & RATE THE KAWALIS PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/afikra-movie-night/id1646405109
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6wG6CeZgE9LGtOVKwB6d5U
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1044639402

THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl7IMTj6Jk7yAJXCMMqxaP5A&feature=shared

ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Filmmaker Lana Daher explores Beirut’s multifaceted soul through an archive-based journey centered on the haunting rhythms of the Bendali family’s 1978 track "Do You Love Me". This cinematic investigation navigates the intoxicating yet toxic duality of a city defined by generational cycles of trauma and creation.This massive undertaking involved over 4,000 hours of research into Lebanese independent cinema and journalistic archives to piece together a non-linear history of Lebanon. The investigation delves into why the Lebanese Civil War remains absent from national textbooks, leaving generations to uncover their history through the eyes of artists and oral testimonies. Lana Daher deliberately challenges Western media tropes of Beirut, focusing on the nuanced experiences of civil society through a meticulous blend of sound and image. The film offers potential for collective release by confronting trauma to move beyond it, standing as a celebration of the artists who documented and preserved Lebanese life when institutions failed to do so.

 

0:00 Introduction

1:33 A Filmmaker's Cinematic Archive

3:45 Navigating an Intoxicating and Toxic Duality

6:35 Relationship Between Music and War

8:48 Unpacking the Bendali Family’s Iconic Track

14:59 A Massive Eight-Year Undertaking

18:19 Over Four Thousand Hours of Research

22:54 Ode to Documentarians and Artists

26:30 Absence of History in National Textbooks

32:01 Layered Soundscapes as a Creative Pulse

34:12 Challenging Western Media Tropes

42:40 Intergenerational Trauma and Collective Release

51:50 Reclaiming a Personal and Shared Past

54:53 Essential Cinematic Recommendations

 

Lana Daher is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. With a background in filmmaking (MA, Goldsmiths, University of London) as well as fine arts & graphic design (BFA, American University of Beirut), she has long been active in Beirut’s vibrant art and music scenes, working across sound, image, and archival practices. Her work is grounded in deep research and intuitive storytelling, exploring the space between documentary and fiction by bringing different time periods and emotional landscapes into dialogue. Do You Love Me her debut feature had its world premiere in September 2025 at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. It is an archive-based essay film built from Lebanon’s rich but fragmented audiovisual history. Alongside the film, she created a website, a curated index of the resources and materials behind the project, aimed at reconnecting Lebanese film heritage with both local and wider audiences. An IDFAcademy alumna, Lana also co-produced the film through her company, My Little Films, founded in 2024.

 

Connect with Lana Daher 👉 https://instagram.com/lanamakesfilms

Hosted by Mikey Muhanna

 

Connect directly with Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu

 

Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns

FOLLOW & RATE THE KAWALIS PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/afikra-movie-night/id1646405109
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6wG6CeZgE9LGtOVKwB6d5U
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1044639402

THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl7IMTj6Jk7yAJXCMMqxaP5A&feature=shared

ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.