Crisis Cinema in the Middle East is an absolute tour de force. Chaudhuri's account of the dynamics of creativity and constraint in Iranian and Middle Eastern filmmaking offers deep and compelling insights into the nature of freedom of expression. Engagingly written and theoretically astute, this is, quite simply, one of the best books I have read in a very long time.

Mette Hjort, University of Lincoln, UK

Shohini Chaudhuri masterfully captures the complex and paradoxical relationship between the notion of creativity and various constraints filmmakers face in Iran and the Arab world. This book offers a fresh and unique study of filmmaking practices across the region from production to distribution organised in nine chapters, each representing a creative solution these filmmakers have employed considering those constraints. This is an essential reading for anyone interested in cinema of the region and an important contribution to global and transnational cinema studies in general.

Maryam Ghorbankarimi, Lancaster University, UK

Elegantly written and highly informed, Chaudhuri's book first expands our understanding of the immense constraints - political, social, economical - facing Iranian and Arab filmmakers to quickly transcend them through meticulous examinations into an incredibly wide array of creative responses and strategies. A must-read in Middle Eastern Film Studies!

Viola Shafik, Head of Studies of the Middle Eastern and North African Programme Documentary Campus, Egypt.