South Africa
The fifth (chronologically, since 2010) member of BRICS, it is still a developing film industry, but with enormous potential. It is connected with the fact that in recent years local studios have begun to be actively used by Hollywood to film blockbusters in South Africa. Here, for example, work was carried out on “The Avengers”, “Lara Croft”, “Bloodshot”, which means that the studios have orders, jobs appear, equipment is purchased, and, most importantly, professionals are being trained who will either leave South Africa for bigger film powers like Neill Blomkamp or Gavin Hood will either stay if the conditions are right. Today, South American studios create about 10–15 of their own films a year. But Hollywood reigns supreme at the box office, with “Barbie” and “Fast & Furious 10” topping the box office last year. The rental capacity is relatively small; suffice it to say that the Barbie total was less than $3 million.
Among those actually working in South Africa is director John Barker, who has been balancing between documentary and feature films for many years, experimenting with genres and is well known, for example, in Toronto, where Barker has been followed since 2006, when he brought there a film made in collaboration with MTV comedy "Bunny Chow". Barker's latest painting, Umbrella Men, was also in Toronto. If you want something tougher, then you can pay attention to Jamil X.T. Kubeku, who works a lot in social cinema, reflects on apartheid and for this in his homeland receives either awards or problems with censorship. Perhaps because of this, he made his last projects in the form of series for Western platforms, but remaining in his homeland. The same thing happens with Amy Jephtha, an internationally renowned playwright, screenwriter and director. Danny Boyle stages performances based on her plays in London, but Jephtha herself did not make her latest projects for the big screen.
United Arab Emirates
On January 1, the UAE, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia joined BRICS. Let's talk briefly about what is happening in these countries with the film industry. In the UAE, cinema has only just begun to develop. In addition to the Dubai International Film Festival, which is gaining authority and has a 20-year history, there are a number of smaller festivals and film clubs, all of which accumulate professionals around them. But in reality, the country produces one or two feature films per year, but the UAE actively purchases cinema and television content, including from Russia. Last year, 10 Russian films were released in the UAE, more than in any other BRICS country. According to Comscore data provided by Roskino, over the entire last year our films collected there (by the beginning of December) more than 500 thousand dollars, half of this amount was the cartoon “Cats of the Hermitage”. For comparison, only “Cats” came out of Russia last year in South Africa and earned half as much. Therefore, the UAE is a very attractive market for foreign copyright holders.
Film distribution is divided between Indian and Hollywood films. Last year, the top spots in the box office were occupied by the Bollywood blockbusters starring Shah Rukh Khan, Soldier ($9,2 million) and Pathan. Fight with Death" (8,2 million), each of these releases "worked" for six months, collecting full houses. Next, with a slight lag, are “Oppenheimer,” “Fast and Furious 10,” “Super Mario Bros. in the Movies” and other Hollywood releases, while “Barbie” earned a little more than $4 million. Russian releases are not yet in the top hundred, but are already approaching it.
Ethiopia
In 2015, for the first time in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, a film from Ethiopia was included in its competition (in this case, “Un Certain Regard”) - “Lamb” directed by Yared Zeleke. Afterwards the picture was shown in Toronto, and then Ethiopia nominated it for an Oscar. After this, Zeleke did not produce a single film. And Ethiopia has since nominated only one film for Oscar – “Running Against the Wind,” a co-production with Germany, and the film was also directed by a German, Jan Philipp Weil. Film production and distribution exist in Ethiopia: the country has several multiplexes, more than 30 studios and even two international film festivals. And there is an audience that enjoys watching films, often shot in an amateur manner with non-professional equipment, but in recognizable native places, and maybe even with friends or relatives in the lead roles.
Egypt
Hollywood on the Nile is what Egyptian filmmaking is sometimes called. Indeed, among Arab countries in Egypt it is established at a very high level, several dozen full-length films are released a year, mostly comedies. The highest-grossing film of 2023 was “The Ruby House,” directed by leading Egyptian director Peter Mimi. By the age of 36, he has directed a number of national action hits and several major TV series; in 2024, he will release a new series, “Assassins,” a historical action film about assassins of the 2th century. “The Ruby House” grossed almost $1,5 million worldwide, of which $0,2 million was earned in the UAE and $10 million within Egypt. Another recent hit is “Nabil El Gamil Dr.” Tagmeel,” a comedy about a plastic surgeon, and she also earned 1 times more in the UAE than in her home country – $XNUMX million.
Other popular genres in Egypt include thrillers and, more recently, horror, which occasionally make it to festivals around the world. But television production still greatly exceeds film production.
Iran
Iranian cinema has been one of the leading in the world for many years. All cinephiles know the names of Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Majid Majidi, Asghar Farhadi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Amir Naderi. The combination of poetic cinema and journalism often brings problems for authors in their home countries, so not all of them can continue to work in Iran. But still, their origin is usually felt in every frame. All documentary film festivals in the world regularly show Iranian films, often the most unexpected ones - for example, about underground hip-hop artists who film their videos on the street until the police see. Most Iranian documentaries are protest films that condemn the structure of modern Iranian society. These films are most often made with the help of Western institutions by authors who do not plan to return to their homeland in the near future.
At the same time, we are still talking about auteur cinema, and commercial Iranian directors are less well known in the world. For example, one of the most successful Iranian directors is Masoud Atyabi, his recent comedies “Lonely” and “Dynamite” are box office record holders. Or Karim Mohammad Amini, his film “Fossil” last year sold a record number of tickets - 3,4 million over several years. The films of Meran Ahmadi, a famous film and television actor who came to directing in adulthood, are very popular. His dramedy “Sag Band” is one of the big hits of recent years.
And the highest-grossing Iranian film in history so far is the comedy melodrama “Centipede” directed by Abolhassan Davoudi; it was watched in cinemas by 2018 million viewers in 4,25, and its duration was 3 hours 17 minutes.
More than 30 million tickets are sold in Iran every year, rentals are growing, and locally produced films predominate there. It is difficult to enter this market, given strict local laws and the population’s commitment to cinema in Muslim countries, but, for example, the joint project “Russian Cinema in Iran” showed that viewers are interested in Russian cinema. In 2022, a number of agreements were signed to promote the development of film industry ties between Russia and Iran, which means that there will be more Russian cinema on the local market.
