Response to Abu Dhubai Film Commission now accepting Arabic scripts

At first, I thought I had mis-read the title of the article, and that it said that the organization had only begun accepting scripts in English. So I was surprised to discover that the Abu Dhubai Film Commission, an organization based in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates only recently decided to accept scripts written in Arabic, the native tongue of the land.

This situation certainly poses an interesting question. Why would a Middle Eastern film commission elect to only accept submissions in English over its native language, Arabic? I believe it may be related to the idea that certain languages are frequently associated with specific things, which in this case, is the film industry. Hollywood has long been considered to be the epicenter of blockbuster movies, and many of its productions have been translated or dubbed into different languages worldwide. So it makes sense that some people associate movies with English, as they often listen to the movie in English and only read the sub-titles in their native language.

So why start accepting submissions in Arabic now? A resurgence in nationalistic feelings? A growing sense of resentment to the Western world - the US included? A desire to establish new, independent standards for Arabic film rather than relying on foreign ones? As one examines the situation further, it's fascinating to see how a simple act of deciding to accept scripts in more than one language can seem to have countless implications.

On a side note, I'm trying to learn Arabic now, and it's so difficult! When I first glanced through the alphabet and started practicing the characters, I realized I was reading from left to right (and not right to left, as is customary in Arabic) and had learned the entire alphabet backwards. Also, when individual letters combine to form words, they morph into a force of its own, twisting into new shapes and producing new stripes, dots, etc. I wonder how far I'll get with this ...