Introduction

This chapter introduces a film catalogue titled Orient: A Survey of Films Produced in Countries of Arab and Asian Culture published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the British Film Institute in 1959. It presents the catalogue as the topic of study, using it to lay out the basic premises of the book. The chapter discusses the state/non-state dynamic and the problem of difference in the conduct of global politics as they are manifested in the UNESCO system. It introduces the notion of politicised cinema as a starting point for an inquiry into the potential cinema holds for speaking to the politics of difference as a mechanism of cinematic cultural diplomacy in the post-World War II UNESCO context. As such, it sets the stage for the main argument of the book: That even major cultural conflicts such as the Cold War and the decolonisation process, making concrete the problems rooted in the exaggeration of cultural differences, can be reframed in service of UNESCO’s cultural diplomatic agenda with the help of cinematic representations.