In the heart of Cairo, a small cinema has for over a decade offered a unique space for independent film in a country whose industry is largely dominated by commercial considerations.Zawya, meaning “perspective” in Arabic, has weathered the storm of Egypt’s economic upheavals, championing a more artistic approach from the historical heart of the country’s golden age of cinema.Zawya was born in the post-revolutionary artistic fervour of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.”There was this energy where people wanted to produce and create, not just in cinema, but in all the arts, you could feel it,” said Zawya founder Youssef Shazli.In the time since, it has escaped a wave of closures — some forced — of art centres across the capital.Egypt had long been known as the Hollywood of the Arab world, but in the decades since its mid-century heyday, the domestic industry has largely been restricted to crowd-pleasing blockbusters.”It’s often said that we’re lucky to have a large film industry, with infrastructure already in place,” said filmmaker Maged Nader.”But the truth is this industry operates solely on a commercial logic,” leaving little room for independent filmmakers, he added.Yet Zawya has survived in its niche, in part due to the relative financial stability afforded to it by its parent company Misr International Films.Founded in 1972 by Egyptian cinematic giant Youssef Chahine — Shazli’s great uncle — the company continues to produce and distribute films.- Young talent -For Shazli, Zawya is “a cinema for films that don’t fit into traditional theatres”.But for young cinephiles like 24-year-old actress Lujain, “it feels like home,” she told AFP as she joined a winding queue into the larger of Zawya’s two theatres. Since 2014, Zawya’s year-round programming — including both local and international short films, documentaries and feature films — has secured the loyalty of a small but passionate scene.Its annual short film festival, held every spring, has become a vital space for up-and-coming directors trying to break through a system that leaves little room for experimentation.”I didn’t even consider myself a filmmaker until Zawya screened my short,” said Michael Samuel, 24, who works in advertising but says the cinema rekindled his artistic ambition.For many, that validation keeps them going.”Zawya has encouraged more people to produce these films because they finally have somewhere to be seen,” said the cinema’s manager, Mohamed Said.When Mostafa Gerbeii, a self-taught filmmaker, was looking for a set for his first film shoot, he also turned to the cinema.Without a studio or a budget, Zawya “just lent us their hall for free for a whole day”, he said, saving the young director 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around $2,000) to rent a location.- The heir -The light of its marquee spilling onto downtown Cairo’s Emad al-Din Street, Zawya is the 21st-century heir to a long artistic tradition that still lingers, though often hidden away in corners of the district’s broad avenues.”It’s a unique neighbourhood with an equally unique flavour of artistic and intellectual life,” said Chihab El Khachab, a professor at the University of Oxford and author of the book “Making Film in Egypt”.Starting in the late 19th century, the area was home to the city’s biggest theatres and cabarets, launching the careers of the Arab world’s most celebrated singers and actors.Today, its arteries flowing out of Tahrir square — the heart of the 2011 uprising — the neighbourhood is home to new-age coworking spaces and galleries, side by side with century-old theatres and bars.Yet even as it withstands the hegemony of mall multiplexes, Zawya cannot escape Egypt’s pervasive censorship laws. Like every cinema in Egypt, each film must pass through a state censors before screening. “Over time, you learn to predict what will slide and what won’t,” Shazli said.But even the censors’ scissors have failed to cut off the stream of ambition among burgeoning filmmakers.”Around Zawya, there’s a lot of talent — in every corner,” Shazli said.”But what I wonder is: are there as many opportunities as there is talent? That’s the real issue we need to address.”

On Beirut’s chaotic, car-choked streets, Lebanese student Fatima Fakih rides a shiny purple bus to university, one of a fleet rolled out by authorities to revive public transport in a country struggling to deliver basic services.The 19-year-old says the spacious public buses are “safer, better and more comfortable”, than the informal network of private buses and minivans that have long substituted for mass transport.”I have my bus card — I don’t have to have money with me,” she added, a major innovation in Lebanon, where cash is king and many private buses and minivans have no tickets at all.Lebanon’s public transport system never recovered from the devastating 1975–1990 civil war that left the country in ruins, and in the decades since, car culture has flourished.Even before the economic crisis that began in 2019 — plunged much of the population into poverty and sent transport costs soaring — the country was running on empty, grappling with crumbling power, water and road infrastructure. But public buses, now equipped with GPS tracking, have been slowly returning. They operate along 11 routes — mostly in greater Beirut but also reaching north, south and east Lebanon — with a private company managing operations. Fares start at about 80 cents.- Pre-war tram, trains -Passengers told AFP the buses were not only safer and more cost-effective, but more environmentally friendly. They also offer a respite from driving on Lebanon’s largely lawless, potholed roads, where mopeds hurtle in all directions and traffic lights are scarce.The system officially launched last July, during more than a year of hostilities between Israel and militant group Hezbollah that later slammed the brakes on some services.Ali Daoud, 76, who remembers Lebanon’s long-defunct trains and trams, said the public bus was “orderly and organised” during his first ride. The World Bank’s Beirut office told AFP that Lebanon’s “reliance on private vehicles is increasingly unsustainable”, noting rising poverty rates and vehicle operation costs.Ziad Nasr, head of Lebanon’s public transport authority, said passenger numbers now averaged around 4,500 a day, up from just a few hundred at launch.He said authorities hope to extend the network, including to Beirut airport, noting the need for more buses, and welcoming any international support.France donated around half of the almost 100 buses now in circulation in 2022.Consultant and transport expert Tammam Nakkash said he hoped the buses would be “a good start” but expressed concern at issues including the competition.Private buses and minivans — many of them dilapidated and barrelling down the road at breakneck speed — cost similar to the public buses.Shared taxis are also ubiquitous, with fares starting at around $2 for short trips.Several incidents of violence targeted the new public buses around their launch last year.- Environment -Student and worker Daniel Imad, 19, said he welcomed the idea of public buses but had not tried them yet.People “can go where they want for a low price” by taking shared taxis, he said before climbing into a one at a busy Beirut intersection.Public transport could also have environmental benefits in Lebanon, where climate concerns often take a back seat to daily challenges like long power blackouts.A World Bank climate and development report last year said the transport sector was Lebanon’s second-biggest contributor to greenhouse gas and air pollution, accounting for a quarter of emissions, only behind the energy sector.Some smaller initiatives have also popped up, including four hybrid buses in east Lebanon’s Zahle.Nabil Mneimne from the United Nations Development Programme said Lebanon’s first fully electric buses with a solar charging system were set to launch this year, running between Beirut and Jbeil (Byblos) further north.In the capital, university student Fakih encouraged everyone to take public buses, “also to protect the environment”.Beirut residents often complain of poor air quality due to heavy traffic and private, diesel-fuelled electricity generators that operate during power outages.”We don’t talk about this a lot but it’s very important,” she said, arguing that things could improve in the city “if we all took public transport”.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has in six months established himself internationally and had crippling sanctions removed, but still needs to rebuild national institutions, revive the economy and unite the fractured country.AFP looks at the main challenges facing Sharaa, whose Islamist-led coalition toppled longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad on December 8.- State building -After ousting Assad, Sharaa has had to navigate four political entities, each with their own civil, economic, judicial and military organisation: the central government in Damascus, the incumbent president’s former rebel authority in the northwest, Turkey-backed groups in the north, and a Kurdish-led autonomous administration in the northeast.Radwan Ziadeh, executive director of the Washington-based Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that creating relative stability in this fragile context was “a significant accomplishment” for Sharaa.But guaranteeing the success of the five-year transitional phase will be “the most difficult challenge”, Ziadeh said.The new authorities’ ability to maintain stability was cast into doubt when deadly sectarian clashes hit the Syrian coast in March and the Damascus area the following month.More than 1,700 people were killed in the coastal violence, mostly members of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. The clashes near Damascus involved the Druze minority.The treatment of minorities remains “one of the greatest internal challenges”, Ziadeh said, as “building trust between different components requires great political effort to ensure coexistence and national unity”.Badran Ciya Kurd, a senior official in the Kurdish-led administration in the northeast which seeks a decentralised Syrian state, warned against “security and military solutions” to political issues.The transitional government should “become more open to accepting Syrian components… and involving them in the political process”, Kurd told AFP, calling for an inclusive constitution that would form the basis for a democratic system.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned last month that Syrian authorities could be weeks away from a “full-scale civil war” due to the acute challenges they faced.Sharaa’s “greatest challenge is charting a path forward that all Syrians want to be part of, and doing so quickly enough without being reckless”, said Neil Quilliam, associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank.- Security -There are pressing security challenges, with kidnappings, arrests and killings sometimes blamed on government-linked factions reported by the Syrian Observatory and on social media.The recent bouts of sectarian violence have raised concerns over Sharaa’s ability to keep radical fighters among his forces’ ranks in check.Washington wants foreign jihadists to leave the country, but Sharaa may find it difficult to let go of fighters who stood by his side for years, and some countries refuse to take them back.Six foreign fighters have been promoted in the new defence ministry, sparking international criticism. A Syrian source with knowledge of the matter said however that Damascus had told the United States it would freeze the promotions.Washington also wants the Syrian government to take control of Kurdish-run prisons and camps where thousands of suspected Islamic State group jihadists and their relatives are detained, but Damascus lacks the personnel to manage them.- Economy, diplomacy -Sharaa is leading a country battered by 14 years of civil war, with its economy depleted, infrastructure destroyed and most people living in poverty.Under the new authorities, Syria has seen an increased availability of fuel and goods including certain fruits whose import had previously been near impossible.After Western governments lifted many sanctions, Sharaa’s priority now is fighting poverty in order to “stabilise the country and avoid problems”, according to a source close to the president.Economist Karam Shaar said that beyond political stability which is essential for economic growth, other obstacles include “the regulatory framework and the set of laws necessary for investment, which unfortunately seem vague in many parts”.Authorities have said they were studying legislation that could facilitate investments, while seeking to attract foreign capital.Rehabilitating Syria’s infrastructure is key to encouraging millions of refugees to return home, a major demand from neighbouring countries and others in Europe.Syria must also contend with neighbouring Israel, which has carried out attacks and incursions since December.According to Quilliam, Damascus is “light years away from considering normalisation” with Israel — a prospect pushed by Washington, after several other Arab states have done so in recent years.Syria has admitted it held indirect talks with Israel, but the government has avoided taking a stance on normalisation.