In the space of a generation, Cyprus - the island of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love - has experienced an anti-colonial struggle, post-colonial chaos, internecine fighting and hatred, civil war, invasion, population displacements and physical partition. The narrative of Cyprus' recent history has created numerous attitudes and prejudices which run deep but which have never before been explored on a human level. Now for the first time Yiannis Papadakis, firmly planted in the Greek Cypriot world, sets out to discover 'The Other' - the much maligned Turks. Papadakis decided with some trepidation to travek to Constantinople (to his Greek worldview it was still Constantinople) to learn Turkish. There he discovered that actually it is Istanbul, and that Turkey is not the place of his once imagined demonology. Armed with new insights he returned to Cyprus and delved into the two communities, locked in their mutually contemptuous embrace, to explore their common humanity and to understand what has divided them. He focused on Nicosia where the people who used to live together in one neighbourhood found themselves separated by a 'Dead Zone', two armies and a UN force. His was a journey to the various sides of the Dead Zone and to the various zones of the dead, the realms of memory and history. This book is the moving, sometimes humorous and always fascinating account of that journey.

The island of Cyprus has been bitterly divided for more than four decades. One of the most divisive elements of the Cyprus conflict is the writing of its history, a history called on by both communities to justify and explain their own notions of justice. While for Greek Cypriots the history of Cyprus begins with ancient Greece and Hellenistic culture, for the Turkish Cypriot community the history of the island begins with the Ottoman invasion of 1571. The singular narratives both sides often employ to tell the story of the island are, as this volume argues, a means of continuing the battle which has torn the island apart, and an obstacle to resolution.

The Cyprus Conflict and History re-orientates history-writing on Cyprus from a tool of division to a form of dialogue, and explores a way forward for the future of conflict resolution in the region.

" U]shers the reader into the complexities of the categorical ambiguity of Cyprus and]... concentrates... on the Dead Zone of the divided society, in the cultural space where those who refuse to go to the poles gather." Anastasia Karakasidou, Wellesley College

The volatile recent past of Cyprus has turned this island from the idyllic "island of Aphrodite" of tourist literature into a place renowned for hostile confrontations. Cyprus challenges familiar binary divisions, between Christianity and Islam, Greeks and Turks, Europe and the East, tradition and modernity. Anti-colonial struggles, the divisive effects of ethnic nationalism, war, invasion, territorial division, and population displacements are all facets of the notorious Cyprus Problem. Incorporating the most up-to-date social and cultural research on Cyprus, these essays examine nationalism and interethnic relations, Cyprus and the European Union, the impact of immigration, and the effects of tourism and international environmental movements, among other topics."

Cyprus, the idyllic "island of Aphrodite," is better known as a site of conflict and division between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, rather than for its film production. Constandinides and Papadakis work to rectify this dearth of information by discussing the ouevre of filmmakers engaging with the island's traumatic legacies: anti-colonial struggles, post-colonial instability, interethnic conflict, external interventions and war. Starting with the cinema of the 1960s, when the island became a republic, the collection focuses on the recent decades of filmmakers exploring issues of conflict, memory, identity, nationalism, migration and gender, as well as the work of filmmakers who chose to cooperate across the ethnic divide. Cypriot Cinemas utilizes a methodology that engages all necessary perspectives for an illuminating critical discussion: historical, theoretical and comparative (Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot films in relation to regional film cultures/practices). While the volume develops a discussion based on the reading of the political in Cypriot films, it also looks at other film cultures and debates such as (s)exploitation films and transnational cinema.

Cyprus, the idyllic 'island of Aphrodite' is better known as a site of conflict and division between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, rather than for its film production. Constandinides and Papadakis want to rectify this dearth of information by discussing the work of filmmakers striving to engage with the island's traumatic legacies: anti-colonial struggles, post-colonial instability, interethnic conflict and war. Beginning from the cinema of the 1960s when the island became a republic, the collection focuses on the recent decades and filmmakers currently exploring issues of conflict, memory, identity, nationalism, migration and gender, as well as the work of filmmakers who chose to cooperate across the ethnic divide. In addition, films from a younger generation of Cypriot filmmakers, like Elias Demetriou, Christos Georgiou and Dervish Zaim, are beginning to feature in top regional and international film festivals and to acquire significant audiences in Cyprus, Turkey and Greece. "Cypriot Cinemas: Memory, Conflict and Identity in the Margins of Europe" utilises a methodology which engages all necessary parameters for an illuminating critical discussion: historical, theoretical and comparative (Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot films in relation to regional film cultures/practices). While the volume develops a discussion based on the reading of the political in Cypriot films it also looks at other film cultures and debates such as (s)exploitation films and transnational cinema.