"Starting with the inventive traditions of Arabic travelogues, the text traces the manifold pathways that converge in the cinemas of Syria, Palestine and Dubai. Syrian production bursts out of long-held practices of studying abroad, this time in the film schools of the Eastern Bloc. Palestinian movies react to international assumptions about the Holy Land, informed by pilgrimage accounts – ironizing the supposed freedoms of the road movie. Dubai launches its fledgling industry off the back of centuries' worth of trade route management, logistics expertise and labour migration." (Back cover)