Najdat Anzour

Najdat Ismail Anzour (Arabic: نجدة إسماعيل أنزور‎) is a Syrian television director of Circassian origins. [1][2]

Najdat Anzour
Born (1954-11-26) November 26, 1954
Aleppo, Syria
OccupationSpeaker of the Syrian parliament, and Television director
WebsiteNajdat Anzour's Homepage

Biography

His father Ismail Anzour was the director of Taht sama'a Dimashq (translates to : 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.

Najdat created TV ads (numbering over 1,000), and later went into TV series, then films.

On 6 June 2016, Anzour was elected as Deputy Speaker of the Syrian Parliament [3][4] together with Syria's first female Speaker of parliament, Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Ph.D., who was elected by the People's Assembly to head the parliament.[3][5][6]

On 21 July 2017, Najdat was appointed as an interim Speaker of the Syrian parliament.[7]

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 much 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: 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 (2013) is a history film in English which was criticised 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.[8]
  • "Fania wa tatabaddad (Mortal and Dispersing)" (2016), the story of an 11-year-old girl abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and then rescued by the forces of the Syrian Arab Army. The movie shows tortures and abuses operated by Daesh in its conquered territories.[9]
  • Re judiciary 2016 (in Arabic : رد القضاء)

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.[10][11][12] 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.[13] The shooting of the film was announced to start on the Italian Tremiti islands on 14 April 2008 for 6 days[14] , 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. Retrieved Jan 10, 2011.
  2. نجدة أنزور - Discover-Syria
  3. Syrian parliament elects 1st female speaker
  4. Update 1-The People’s Assembly of the second legislative round holds its first session
  5. Hadiyeh Khalaf Abbas elected as first woman speaker of People’s Assembly
  6. Hadiyeh Khalaf Abbas Elected as First Woman Speaker of Syrian People’s Assembly
  7. Speaker of Syria's parliament sacked for poor performance.
  8. Albert Aji; Bassem Mroue (12 December 2013). "Film that depicts founder of Saudi monarchy as bloodthirsty womanizer opens in Syria". City News. Damascus. Associated Press. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  9. "Premiere of Najdat Anzour's new film "Mortal and Dispersing" held at Opera House-Video". Syrian Arab News Agency. 30 January 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  10. FilmStew.com • Al-Anzour Will Shoot the Sharif
  11. (in Arabic)Alarabiya.net - Gaddafi okays Syrian director's war epic
  12. 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!
  13. Yallabina! - Out of fear Omar El Sherif chooses Hasan We Morkos. Retrieved 2008-04-14
  14. (in 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 14 April 2008
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