Directed by: Nabil Maleh
Script: Nabil Maleh
Cinematography: Hanna Ward
Music: Vaheh Damrejian, Samir Helmi
Editing: Mohammad Ali el-Maleh
Cast: Samar Sami, Bassam Koussa, Mohammad el-Shaikh Najib, Wafa’ Mouselli
Production: General Organization for Cinema, Syria

A staunchly Damascene native, Nabil el-Maleh is a filmmaker, poet and painter. He is a pioneer in contemporary Syrian cinema in many respects. First to leave the country to study cinema at the film institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s, he paved the way for a new cinematographic language and was the first to clash with the General Organization for Cinema, the sole producer in the country.

El-Maleh graduated in 1964 and returned to Damascus, a year after the establishment of the General Organization for Cinema, emboldened to forge a new cinema in Syria. He also worked for Syrian television where directed three long features, al-Mufaja’a (The Surprise, 1964), Ahlam (Dreams, 1965) and Rajolan wa Imra’ (Two Men and a Woman, 1965). At the General Organization for Cinema, he directed a number of short films, documentary and fiction, including, Ikleel al-Shawk (Wreath of Thorns, 1969), a powerful testament on the tragedy of Palestinians. El-Maleh was the first to make experimental films under the aegis of the General Organization for Cinema. His 90 second film Napalm (1970), a political piece in response to the wars raging in Palestine, Vietnam and the world at that time, had a tremendous impact on audiences in Syria and worldwide. His second experimental film, titled Sakhr (Rocks, 1970), courageously documented the labor conditions of quarry workers.
Also in the spirit of mobilization for the Palestinian cause, in 1970, el-Maleh directed one of three chapters of a tryptic titled Rijal Tahta al-Shams (Men Under the Sun) in which he directed al-Makhad (Parturition) while Qays al-Zubeydi and Mohammad Shahin co-directed al-Milad (The Birth) and Marwan al-Mu’athen directed al-Liqa’ (The Encounter). In 1972, inspired by a novel by renowned Syrian author Haydar Haydar, he wrote the script for his first full-length feature to be produced by the General Organization for Cinema, al-Fahd (The Leopard, 1972). Filming was turbulent, but the film earned wide critical and popular success. Charged with suspense and drama, it gave a realistic account of spontaneous rebellions in the countryside common in the recent history of Syria. The hero of the film, a lone rebel who is willing to be martyred for the cause of redressing injustice, echoed loudly with the figure of the Palestinian combatant. It won the first prize at the Locarno Film Festival that year, the first production of the General Organization for Cinema to receive recognition from a prestigious international festival. In 2005, The Leopard was selected by the Pusan International Film Festival to be included on the list of films of the Pantheon of Asian Cinema as one of the greatest masterpieces in Asian cinema history.

His next feature produced by the General Organization was titled al-Sayyed al-Taqqadumi (The Progressive, 1974), and the one following, co-scripted with colleague Samir Zikra, an adaptation from a novel by renowned Syrian auteur Hanna Mina, was titled Baqaya Suwar (Fragments, 1979).

In 1981, as tensions mounted in the politically turbulent confrontation between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood, el-Maleh took leave of Syria and spent time in the US, teaching in Texas and California, deciding later to settle in Geneva, Switzerland. A year and a half later, he packed up his life and drove to Greece, where spent a little over a decade.

He wrote the script for his most acclaimed film to date, al-Comparss (The Extras, 1993) while in Greece and during a visit to Syria proposed it to the Generation Organization. The film took twenty five days of shooting and was finished just in time to premiere at the Damascus Film Festival. It played for three months in movie theaters in Damascus to wide popular appeal. The film earned el-Maleh a number of awards at the Cairo International Film Festival, the Biennial of Arab Cinemas at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, and the Rimini International Film Festival in Italy.
For the past few years, el-Maleh has settled back in his native Damascus and has been working exclusively with producers in the private sector, largely from Europe. He has completed the first British-Syrian coproduction, a fiction feature titled The Hunt Feast (2004) that awaits distribution and release, and is currently working on a number of projects, the most ambitious of which is a dramatic television series based on the life of singing legend Asmahan.