The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (1974, Heiny Srour)

In the late 60s, Dhofar rose up against the Britishbacked Sultanate of Oman, in a democratic, feminist guerrilla movement. Heiny Srour and her team crossed 500 miles of desert and mountains by foot, under bombardment by the British Royal Air Force, to reach the conflict zone and capture this rare record of a now mostlyforgotten war. The Peoples Liberation Armybarefoot, without rank or salaryfreed a third of the territory, while undertaking a vast program of social reforms and infrastructure projectsschools, farms, hospitals, and roads were built, while illiterate teenage shepherdesses became feminists and 8yearold school children learned to practice democracy. A stilltopical portrait of a liberated society and an exploration of the role of oil in U. S. and British involvement in the Middle East, it was the first film by an Arab woman to screen at Cannes, where it was nominated for four awards.