Heiny Srour  

Heiny Srour was born in Beirut in 1945. After studying sociology at the American University of Beirut, she obtained a doctorate in social anthropology from the Sorbonne. The first Arab female director to be selected at Cannes in 1974 with L’Heure de la libération a sonné (The Hour of Liberation Has Come), she denounced the obstacles faced by women in cinema in her manifesto Femme, arabe et… cinéaste (Woman, Arab and... Filmmaker). In 1978, together with Salma Baccar and Magda Wassef, she founded a fund to support the free expression of women filmmakers.

Filmography

1974 : The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived
1984 : Leila and the Wolves
1991 : The singing Sheikh (cm)
1994 : Les Yeux du coeur
1995 : Rising above : Women of Vietnam