Leila and the Wolves (ليلى و الذئاب), Heiny Srour, 1984

Drawing on the Arab heritage of oral tradition and mosaic pattern, Leila and the Wolves is an exploration of the collective memory of Arab women and their hidden role in history throughout the past half century of the Middle East, both in Palestine and in Lebanon. The film is a modernday fairy tale about the suppressed history of Arab people and especially Arab women. Through the eyes of Leila, a Lebanese student dissatisfied with the official, colonial, maledominated version of history, the film reconstructs womens daily unglamorous and silent sacrifices as much a part of history as mens military heroic action.