This article is part of a dossier in partnership between SyriaUntold and openDemocracy's North Africa, West Asia page, exploring the emerging post-2011 Syrian cinema; its politics, production challenges, censorship, viewership, and where it may be heading next.
For decades, cinema in Syria was subjected to particularly harsh censorship by the Assad regime. The Soviet-influenced ideological compass of the Ba’ath Party strongly believed in the power of cinema to shape and ignite hearts and minds, to its own detriment.
Filmmaking was restricted to official productions from the National Film Organisation, which produced no more than two films per year, commissioned to a handful of regime aficionados operating under strict regime censorship and ideological agendas.
