Najdat Anzour

Najdat Anzour
File:Najdat Ismail Anzour new.JPG
Born	1954 Aleppo
Occupation	Television director
Website	Najdat Anzour Homepage

Najdat Ismail Anzour is a Syrian television director of Circassian origins.

Biography

His father Ismail Anzour is 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
• Roof of the World (2007): based on Ibn Fadlan's tenth century travels and set in Scandinavia (which Ibn Fadlan actually never visited, having gone to Volga Bulgaria and Great Perm).
• Qamar Bani Hashim (The moon of Hashim tribe) (2008): the first ever television biopic drama series based on the life of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, it is also known as "Muhammad (P.B.U.H) The Final Legacy".

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.
• "King of the sands" (2012) is a history film in English that raised lots of criticism by Saudi house power and mass censorship not only in Saudi Arabia but also in countries who are allied with House of Saud in the Middle East and Western countries.

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 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. 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. The shooting of the film was announced to start on the Italian Tremiti islands on 2008-04-14 for 6 days , 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.

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.