Heiny Srour

London-based Lebanese director Heiny Srour was the first female Arab filmmaker to have one of her works, Saat El Tahrir Dakkat (1974), selected for the Cannes Film Festival. The film chronicles one of the Arab world's most radical conflicts, the guerrilla war in Oman. To make the film, Srour walked 400 km, through a roadless wasteland as it was being bombed. Although the film earned international acclaim, it was banned in most Arab countries. Prior to becoming a daring director, Srour studed social anthropology in Paris where she then worked as a journalist and film critic. It was there that her interest in Third World cinema began to blossom. Saat El Tahrir Dakkat was the first feature length documentary the untrained director ever made. It took her seven years, working in often dangerous situations to make her next film, Leil Wal Zi'ab (1984), an examination of the role of Arab women, often hidden, in contemporary Palestine and Lebanon, told with a structure similar to the 'Arabian Nights.' ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide