Feature film
وطني حبيبي
Abdullah Kaoush · 1964
Synopsis
During the Israeli-Arab conflict, a young man leaves the woman he loves to go and defend the border with the Jordanian Arab Army. The film combines this melodramatic love story with the feats of arms of the soldiers facing the Israeli forces. Shot in the Amman of the sixties, it preserves rare images of it: the first Marka airport, the old military hospital, Salt Street, the clothes and cars of the period.
Context
The film runs for fifty-nine minutes. Found badly damaged and cut into several pieces, it was restored in Cairo at the expense of Jordanian television, then screened in 2011 by the Royal Film Commission. The filmmaker and critic Adnan Madanat ranks it among the major Jordanian films, as much for its subject as for its value as a document on Amman. Sources date it to 1964 or 1962.
Who it is for
A patriotic melodrama of one hour, in Arabic; it is of interest mainly for the history of cinema and of the city of Amman.
Prizes and reception
Its restoration in 2010 made it a major testimony to the beginnings of Jordanian cinema.