Movies condense writer’s emotions, says literary critic, and being true to a culture is ‘the essence’ of movie success
In a session entitled “Cinema Between Then and Now”, moderated by Shaikha Al Mutairi, a panel of writers discussed the relationship between books and visual media and shared their views on popular film culture. in their country of origin.
Writing for the screen has yet to be adapted to Algerian cinema, noted critically acclaimed Algerian writer Samir Qusaimi. “In cinema, Algerians are often depicted as pious or gullible, which is far from reality,” he said.
He added that more films were produced in the 80s than today. “At that time, every producer had at least one movie coming out every year. Now it’s just one movie in five years. Financiers don’t have a taste for risk when it comes to financing films because they [did] earlier.”
For his part, Dr. Manya Suwaid, author and literary critic, said that cinema and literature share an inextricable relationship. “Each of them relies on the other for innovation. Novels are a reservoir of ideas and filmmakers put the spirit of creation into them,” she said.
She added that films condense the emotions of the writer and that being true to a culture is the very essence of successful cinema. “Nowadays, cinema comes to us in different formats. Our viewing habits have changed drastically, especially after the pandemic.
Today, we prefer to stay at home and watch films on OTT platforms rather than going to cinemas. From a production perspective, this is a crisis that needs to be addressed.
Highlighting the vital role of cinema as a “soft force”, Algerian writer and playwright Rushdi Radwan said it was vital for countries to use this soft power to portray the truth, not distort it.
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