{{Short description|Syrian filmmaker}} {{Infobox person | name = Mohammad Malas | image = Mohammad Malas, Sayada, September 2015 (cropped).jpg | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1945}} | birth_place = Quneitra, Syria | native_name = محمد ملص | native_name_lang = ar | birth_name = | years_active = 1970– | spouse = | partner = | awards = '''Carthage Film Festival – Tanit d'Or'''<br />1984 ''Ahlam al-Madina''<br />'''Berlin International Film Festival – Interfilm Award – Honorable Mention'''<br />1985 ''Ahlam al-Madina''<br />'''Carthage Film Festival – Tanit d'Or'''<br />1992 ''al-Lail''<br />'''Fribourg International Film Festival – Distribution Help Award'''<br />1993 ''al-Lail''<br />'''Marrakech International Film Festival – Special Jury Award'''<br />2005 ''Bab al-Makam'' }}

'''Mohammad Malas''' ({{langx|ar|محمد ملص}}; born 1945) is a prominent Syrian filmmaker. Malas directed several documentary and feature films that garnered international recognition. He is among the first auteur filmmakers in Syrian cinema.<ref name=Ginsberg>Ginsberg; Lippard, 2010, p. 264.</ref>

==Early life== Malas was born in Quneitra on the Golan Heights.<ref>{{cite web|title=Biography|url=http://mecfilm.com/index.php?id=1656|publisher=mecfilm|access-date=18 February 2019}}</ref> He worked as a school teacher between 1965 and 1968 before moving to Moscow to study filmmaking at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). During his time at VGIK Malas directed several short films. After his return to Syria he started working at the Syrian Television.<ref name=Ginsberg/> There he produced several short films including ''Quneitra 74'', in 1974 and ''al-Zhakira'' ("The Memory") in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|title=MOHAMMAD MALAS (SYRIA)|url=http://www.dancingontheedge.nl/artists-listing/mohammad-malas-syria|year=2011|publisher=Dancing on the Edge Festival|access-date=26 November 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130222123639/http://www.dancingontheedge.nl/artists-listing/mohammad-malas-syria|archive-date=22 February 2013}}</ref> Along with Omar Amiralay he co-founded the Damascus Cinema Club.<ref name=Ginsberg/>

==Filmmaking career== Between 1980–81 Malas shot a documentary film, ''al-Manam'' ({{Langx|ar|المنام|lit=The Dream|links=no}}), about the Palestinians living in the refugee camps in Lebanon during the civil war.<ref name=cooke116>Cooke, 2007, p. 116.</ref> He interviewed refugees on their dreams, living alongside them in camps.<ref name=cooke116/> He stopped working on the film after the Sabra and Shatila massacre, where multiple interviewees were killed.<ref name=cooke117>Cooke, 2007, p. 117.</ref> He edited and released the film in 1987.<ref name=Ginsberg/> ''Al-Manam'' won first prize at the 1987 Cannes International Audio Visual Festival (FIPA) but was not widely distributed.<ref name=cooke117/>

Malas directed his first feature film, ''Ahlam al-Madina'' ({{Langx|ar|أحلام المدينة|translit=|links=no|lit=Dreams of the City}}), in 1983. The autobiographical coming-of-age film set in Damascus in the 1950s was co-written with Samir Zikra and received first prize at the Valencia and Carthage film festivals.<ref name="Ginsberg" /><ref name=Wedeen>Wedeen, 1999, p. 203.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Alkassim |first=Samirah |title=The Cinema of Muhammad Malas : Visions of a Syrian Auteur. |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |others=Nezar Andary |isbn=978-3-319-76813-7 |location=Cham |oclc=1043658062}}</ref> In 1990 Malas shot ''Nur wa Zilal'' ("Chiaroscuro"), a documentary film about Nazih Shahbandar whom he described as "Syria's first filmmaker."<ref name=cooke117/> The film was banned by Syrian authorities and was only allowed to be screened once in 1993 at the American Cultural Center in Damascus.<ref name=cooke118>Cooke, 2007, p. 118.</ref>

Malas's second feature film, ''al-Lail'' ({{langx|ar|الليل|lit=The Night|links=no}}), was realized in 1992. The autobiographical film was set in Quneitra in the years between 1936 and the Arab–Israeli War of 1948. It forms, along with ''Ahlam al-Madina'', the first and second parts of an unfinished trilogy project of Malas's.<ref>Armes, 2010, p. 12.</ref> ''Al-Lail'' received international recognition and won first prize at the 1992 Carthage Film Festival. However, the film was banned in Syria and was only screened for the first time in 1996.<ref name=Wedeen/> Malas also collaborated with Omar Amiralay on the 1996 documentary film, ''Moudaress'', about the Syrian pioneer painter Fateh Moudarres. ''Bab al-Makam'' ({{langx|ar|باب المقام|links=no|lit=Passion}}), released in 2005, was Malas's third feature film.<ref name=Ginsberg265>Ginsberg; Lippard, 2010, p. 265.</ref>

==Filmography== * ''A Dream of a Small City'' (1970) * ''Quneitra 74'' (1974) * ''The Memory'' (1977) * ''Dreams of the City'' (1983) * ''The Dream'' (1987) * ''Chiaroscuro'' (1990) * ''The Night'' (1992) * ''Moudaress'' (1996) * ''Passion'' (2005) * ''Ladder to Damascus'' (2013)

==See also== *Cinema of Syria

==References==

===Notes=== {{reflist|2}}

===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |last1=Ginsberg |first1=Terri|first2=Chris|last2=Lippard |title=Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema |year=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810860902}} *{{cite book |last=Cooke |first=Miriam |title=Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official |year=2007 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822340164}} *{{cite book |last=Wedeen |first=Lisa |title=Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria |year=1999 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226877877}} *{{cite book |last=Armes |first=Roy |title=Arab Filmmakers of the Middle East: A Dictionary |year=2010 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253355188}} {{refend}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0538955}}

{{Mohammad Malas}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malas, Mohamed}} Category:Living people Category:1945 births Category:Syrian film directors Category:People from Quneitra Category:Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography alumni Category:Syrian expatriates in the Soviet Union