Najdat Anzour

Najdat Anzour
Born	1954 Aleppo
Occupation	Television director

Najdat Ismail Anzour is a Syrian television director of Circassian origins.^[1][2] He is most known in the Arab world for his prolific TV series with a distinct style. His father Ismail Anzour, the director who made Taht sama'a Dimashq (Under Damascus Skies), Syria's first silent film, in 1932. Anzour graduated as a mechanical engineer, but credits his father with encouraging him to direct films. Initially, he created TV ads (numbering over 1,000), and later went into TV series, then films.

TV series

Anzour directed over 20 TV series with a distinctive style. They are mostly set in an ancient era, in the Arabian desert or oases. The series has more realistic fighting scenes and lots of night shooting. They often tell the story of tribal conflicts, honor, romance, ...etc. Normally, his work is aired in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, where TV viewing is at its peak in the Arab world.

• Al Kawaser
• Al Jawareh (The Predators).
• Romh Al Nar (Spear of Fire)
• Searching for Saladin
• The Last Cavalier
• 2007 Roof of the World: based on Ibn Fadlan's tenth century travels and adventures in Scandinavia, and compares Northern European culture, primitive at the time, and Muslim culture, at its height then.

Films

Some of his recent films are aired by the Dubai based Middle East Broadcasting Corporation and aim to end the terrorism committed by Muslim extremists. Although his work is supported by many Muslims, others object to his vilification of terrorist actions  .

• Al-Hour al-Eyn (Beautiful Virgins) (2005) traces the lives of attackers, victims, and survivors of the November 2003 terrorist bombings of Riyadh, and challenged the popular belief among many terrorists that they would be rewarded with seventy-two beautiful virgins each in heaven. This film was viewed by an estimated fifty million people.
• "Renegades" (2006) is one episode is a series called Always by Hatem Ali. In Anzour's "Renegades" episode the subject is how the terrorists who bombed the London underground in 2005 were not true Muslims because they acted with violence. The episode also points out that good Muslims were killed by the attacks as well as innocent non-Muslims.

Future films

Oppression: Years of Torment (Arabic:الظلم : سنوات العذاب) is film whose production was due to start in 2008. The film is about the Libyan national hero Omar Al-Mokhtar, was written by Muammar al-Gaddafi, and was announced to be directed by Anzour. High-profile actors including Anthony Hopkins, Kevin Spacey and Ben Kingsley have been courted, albeit without any current confirmation.^[3][4][5] At first Omar Sharif had been also announced to be in the cast playing Omar Al-Mokhtar. However, He withdrew later stating that he had other engagements as a pretext.^[6] The shooting of the film was announced to start on the Italian Tremiti islands on 2008-04-14 for 6 days^[7] , which is the same islands many Libyans where deported to during the Italian occupation of Libya. There are no recent indications, however, that filming ever commenced, and it appears that the project may be on hold.

References

1. ^ Khaled Yacoub Oweis (Sep 7, 2010). "Veteran Syrian director takes on Muslim "extremism"". Reuters. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE68636M20100907?pageNumber=1. Retrieved Jan 10, 2011. 
2. ^ نجدة أنزور - Discover-Syria
3. ^ FilmStew.com • Al-Anzour Will Shoot the Sharif
4. ^ (Arabic)Alarabiya.net - Gaddafi okays Syrian director's war epic
5. ^ FILMMAKING.COM: The Filmmaking Portal - The Film and Video Industry's Most Trusted Resource - All about Filmmaking, Digital Video Production, Moviemaking, Digital Filmmaking, Film and Video Production Services and more!
6. ^ Yallabina! - Out of fear Omar El Sherif chooses Hasan We Morkos. Retrieved 2008-04-14
7. ^ (Arabic)Syria-News -"Anzour" to start shooting the film "Oppression: Years of Torment tomorrow on Tremi island(sic) "(sic)أنزور" يبدأ تصوير فيلم " الظلم - سنوات العذاب" على جزيرة "تريمي" . Retrieved 200-04-14

External links

• Donna Abu-Nasr. "New Syrian TV Show Angers Some Arabs". ABC News, October 10, 2005.
• Craig Nelson. "Arab miniseries takes on militants". Statesman.com, November 28, 2005.
• Michael Slackman. "For Ramadan Viewing: A TV Drama Against Extremism". New York Times, July 6, 2006.
• Deborah Amos. "Ramadan TV Special Sends Anti-Terrorism Message". NPR's All Things Considered, September 11, 2006.

Persondata
Name	Anzour, Najdat Ismail
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1954
Place of birth	Aleppo
Date of death
Place of death