Women Play Major Roles in Middle East Film Industry

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Women Play Major Roles in Middle East Film Industry

By Alia Ibrahim - WeNews correspondent

BEIRUT, Lebanon (WOMENSENEWS)--When the Lebanese government awarded director Randa Chahal-Sabbagh its highest honor, the Order of the Cedar, it recognized a determined and outspoken filmmaker whom it had once tried to censor.

The award, delivered in October, topped a stellar year for Chahal-Sabbagh, whose film "The Kite" about the challenges faced by a young girl in a village on the border between Lebanon and Israel won last August the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion.

Chahal-Sabbagh told Women's eNews that she was very proud to have received the Order of the Cedar, an award given by the Lebanese president to people who have contributed something to Lebanon, whether in the cultural, social or political sphere. She also said she had put behind her the 1998 controversy over "Civilized," her film about the Lebanese civil war.

That year, when state censors in Lebanon cut 47 of the film's 90 minutes, she refused to show the film in her native country. The Surete General, the authority in charge of censorship, argued that the film contained foul language.
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