Research Guides: Middle Eastern Studies: Films

Finding Movies

To find movies at the FSU Libraries, visit the library homepage and select "Advanced Search" under the "Books" tab near the top of the page.

Next, make sure to limit the format to "Video (DVD)" or "Video (VHS)," or select "Video (all formats)" to broaden your search. To see all of the library's holdings, leave the title, author, and subject search fields blank.

Otherwise, you can search in one of several ways:

Title (Syriana)
Author
- Actor (Guinness, Alec)
- Director (Mendes, Sam)
Subject (Feature films)

Once you find the movie, write down its Library of Congress Classification Number (LCCN), or call number. You will find this information near the bottom of the catalog record.

Finally, you will need to make note of where the movie is kept. Most movies related to Middle Eastern Studies are in the Scholars Commons in the basement of Strozier Library, where you will bring the call number to the staff member at the desk.

However, if the record says "Open DVD Collection" to the left of the call number, you will find it on the main floor of Strozier. Bring the case to the staff member on the main floor, who will check out the movie to you.

Please ask a staff member for assistance, or Ask a Librarian with any other questions. Our Film Research Guide will also help you.

Selected Films

Below is a small selection of films available through FSU Libraries. To find other films related to Middle Eastern Studies, use the library catalog, or ask a librarian for further assistance.

Bikur ha-Tizmoret : The band's visit
Call Number: PN1995.9.C55 B558 2008
Publication Date: [2008]
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event. Once there, they find the expected delegation is not there to meet them. Arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva have not been taken care of either. They find their own ride and arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning's bus, the band, lead by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in the best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them.
Edward Said on orientalism
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr DVD -- DS12.S24 1998
Publication Date: c2002
Edward Said's book Orientalism has been influential in a diverse range of disciplines since its publication in 1978. In this interview he talks about the context in which the book was conceived, its main themes, and how its original thesis relates to the contemporary understanding of "the Orient."
Jarhead
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr Open DVD Collection, 1st Floor -- PN1995.9.W3J37 2006
Publication Date: [2006]
Follows "Swoff," a third-generation Marine enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through the Middle East deserts. There is no cover from intolerable heat or from the Iraqi soldiers, who are always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand, against an enemy they can't see, for a cause they don't fully understand. Sergeant Sykes, a Marine lifer, heads up the scout/sniper platoon, while Troy, Swoff's friend and mentor, is a die-hard member of STA - the elite Marine Unit.
Journey to the sun
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr DVD -- PN1997.J668 2004
Publication Date: [2004]
Mehmet is a cheerful young man from Western Turkey, and Berzan is a Kurdish rebel in the underground, who become fast friends while living in Istanbul. Mehmet is unjustly arrested, but the experience makes him aware of his country's political realities. When the situation heats up, and Berzan is involved, Mehmet embarks on a sweeping, spiritual journey across Turkey to his friend's Kurdish homeland.
La bataille d'Alger : The battle of Algiers
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr DVD -- PN1997.B38 B38 2004 v.1-4. (v.1-3 DVD, v.4 Guide)
Publication Date: c2004
Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.
Lawrence of Arabia
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr Reserves -- PN1997.L353 2000
Publication Date: [2000]
Presents the story of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), the heroic and troubled man who organized the Arab nations to fight the Turks in World War I and then, having reached a pinnacle of power in Mideast politics, retired to postwar military obscurity.

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the heroic and troubled man who organized the Arab nations to fight the Turks in World War I and then, having reached a pinnacle of power in Mideast politics, retired to postwar military obscurity.
Syriana
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr Reserves -- PN1995.9.A3 S97 2006
Publication Date: [2006]
As a career CIA operative, Bob Barnes begins to uncover the disturbing truth about the work he has devoted his life to. An up-and-coming oil broker, Bryan Woodman faces an unimaginable family tragedy and finds redemption in his partnership with idealistic Gulf Prince Nasir al-Subaai. Corporate lawyer, Bennett Holiday faces a moral dilemma as he finesses the questionable merger of two powerful U.S. oil companies Across the globe, a disenfranchised Wasim Khan, a Pakistani teenager, falls prey to the recruiting efforts of a charismatic cleric. Each plays their small part in the vast and complex system that powers the industry, unaware of the explosive impact their lives will have upon the world.
Turtles can fly
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr DVD -- PN1995.9.F67 T87 2005
Publication Date: c2005
A young teenage boy's life in rural Iraq is thrown into flux by the impending U.S. invasion, his crush on a local girl, and the seemingly-magical abilities of one of his friends.

Set in a refugee camp on the Iran-Iraq border in 2003 just prior to the US invasion, the film shows the refugees' obsession with acquiring a satellite dish to keep abreast of America's plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein. 13 year-old Soran, the accepted leader of the kids in the camp, finally acquires the equipment they need by trading in the land mines the children have cleared from the area. On meeting Henkov, a boy from a neighboring village and a landmine victim himself, Soran discovers Henkov's prophetic powers, which turn out to be more reliable than twenty first century technology.

Soran is a 13-year-old boy who orders other children around as he installs an antennae for villagers keen to hear of Saddam's fall. Eventually, he falls for Agrin but is disturbed by her brother Henkov who can seemingly predict the future.
We loved each other so much
Call Number: FSU STROZIER, Multimedia Ctr DVD -- ML420.F32 W35 2008
Publication Date: [2008?]
"For nearly half a century, the Lebanese singer Hoda Nouhad Haddad, better known as Fairuz, has been a living legend in the Arab world. [snip] [The film] tells the stories of diverse Beirut inhabitants who, regardless of their political or religious affiliations, have always felt a deep emotional connection with Fairuz and her music, which expresses such universal themes as romantic longing, family attachments, nostalgia for simpler times and love of country. By explaining their attachment to the music and the myth of Fairuz, they tell their life stories, often recounting violent incidents from the civil war. Their reminiscences, combined with portions of many of Fairuz's songs, provide a moving commentary on Lebanon's tumultuous history, traces of which are still visible in Beirut's devastated cityscape and bullet-scarred buildings"--Container.