Jordan is a country with strong political support and a variety of locations that have been used by filmmakers from all over the world. Films that have been shot in Jordan include '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' which was filmed in Petra' in 1988. ''

Lawrence of Arabia Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...

'' directed by David Lean was filmed in the

Wadi Rum Wadi Rum ( ar, وادي رم ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ar, وادي القمر ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, about to the east ...

desert in 1961.Filmed in Jordan
/ref> Recent films that were shot in Jordan are ''

The Hurt Locker ''The Hurt Locker'' is a 2008 American war thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Guy Pearce. The film foll ...

'' directed by

Kathryn Bigelow Kathryn Ann Bigelow (; born November 27, 1951) is an American filmmaker. Covering a wide range of genres, her films include '' Near Dark'' (1987), '' Point Break'' (1991), '' Strange Days'' (1995), '' K-19: The Widowmaker'' (2002), ''The Hurt Loc ...

, '' Redacted'' directed by

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...

, some second unit scenes from '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'', '' Fair Game'' starring

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008). Penn began his acting career in televisi ...

, and '' Battle for Haditha'' directed by

Nick Broomfield Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he cal ...

."Combat Zoning: Hollywood Conjures the Middle East" Entertainment Weekly, By Youyoung Lee, September 28, 2007
/ref>
/ref> Jordanian films such as ''

Captain Abu Raed ''Captain Abu Raed'' ( ar, كابتن أبو رائد) is a 2007 Jordanian film directed and written by Amin Matalqa. It is the first feature film produced in Jordan in more than 50 years. The Royal Film Commission of Jordan endorsed ''Captain A ...

'' were also conceived and filmed in the country. In 2003, Jordan developed the Royal Film Commission – Jordan to encourage filmmaking in the country and to train Jordanian filmmakers in the art of making cinema. Before the RFC, the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative had been active in promoting digital filmmaking through free workshops in Amman and marginalized communities in Jordan. Films by the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative have been well received internationally and won numerous awards. The commission was created to promote Jordan as a place where people from the Middle East can freely make films in collaboration with the world's most talented filmmakers. Although Jordan lacks significant support services such as studios, labs and film equipment vendors, the country has recently been used to recreate many areas in the Middle East which might be too unpredictable to film in, such as

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and the

Palestinian territories The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The ...

. Director

said that choosing Jordan to fill in for Iraq made sense; "The terrain is very similar to Iraq; plus they have close to a million Iraqi refugees there.""Combat Zoning: Hollywood Conjures the Middle East" Entertainment Weekly, By Youyoung Lee, September 28, 2007
/ref> 2007 was a big year for the Jordanian filmmaking community, with 10 feature films having been shot on location there, three of the films having been homegrown productions. In 2008, Jordan created the

Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

, a graduate school offering a Master of Fine Arts in Cinematic Arts. In 2015, Jordan has received praise for its film called

Theeb ''Theeb'' ( ar, ذيب ''dhīb'' , "wolf") is a 2014 internationally co-produced period drama thriller film written and directed by Naji Abu Nowar. It is a coming-of-age story about a Bedouin boy, Theeb, who must survive in the wide-open Wad ...

directed by

Naji Abu Nowar Naji Abu Nowar ( ar, ناجي أبو نوار; born 1981) is a British-Jordanian film director, writer and producer. Best known for his works ''Death of a Boxer'' (2009), ''Till Death'' (2012) and ''Theeb'' (2014) for which he received wide spre ...

which talks about the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, when a young Bedouin boy experiences a greatly hastened coming of age as he embarks on a perilous desert journey to guide a British officer to his secret destination. In January 2016, for the first time ever for Jordan, the film was nominated in the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

References

{{Asia in topic, Cinema of

See also

References