CAIRO: The star-studded cinematic adaptation of Emaret Yacoubian (Yacoubian’s Building), will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival and is slated for a summer commercial release in its original version, which received the green light from Egyptian censors.
The film will compete for four awards with 21 other movies in the Panorama section of the film festival later this month; last year, the Palestinian feature Paradise Now won the Blue Angel award at the same festival. It later won the Golden Globe and was recently nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. Emaret Yacoubian will be also screened in the Cannes Film Festival along with Halim, another Good News production, during a celebration of Egyptian cinema. In a press conference held this week, the stars and producers of the film said censorship authorities have approved the film’s script and they do not expect any problems following the release.
Worries over censorship were first evoked when the scriptwriter, Wahid Hamed, announced that he purchased the rights to the best-selling novel, revealing an intention to turn it into a movie. The real life political references and the portrayal of the homosexual community in Egypt provided more than one reason to be worried.
Penned by Alaa El Aswany, the novel surveys the past 50 years of Egyptian history. Through the residents of a Downtown building against the backdrop of social and political changes that have engulfed the country; both the Arabic and English editions had topped book sales.
Adel Imam is portraying one of the main characters of the film and said that within the region there are significant censorship issues, noting how the definition and the affiliations of the censors are neither clear nor standardized; he said his films are shown on TV stations in different versions. He added that even theater owners cut from films to better suit their preferences.
“What if a party like Al-Wafd came to power? Imam asked, suggesting the censor would then have to protect Al-Wafd’s system. “Who is the censor? Is he a government employee? Is he a follower of the system?
He also stressed the importance of keeping religious censorship apart from art. He said artists should only seek the guidance of religious scholars if they are working on related productions like Islamic or Christian historical dramas for example.
Isaad Younes, one of the actors and also the film’s distributor, is the CEO of the Arab Company for Cinema Production and Distribution. She said censorship authorities should be “a roof to protect the freedom of creativity, explaining that without such authorities, each entity would impose its own censorship on art productions.
But worries regarding censorship were not the only issue occupying the minds of journalists and the films producers, since the announcement was made to turn the novel into a movie. In comparison to the original novel; the length of the film when shown in local movie theaters; productions costs versus expected revenues and the effect of bundling a great number of stars in one film and limiting their appearances to a few scenes were discussed during the conference.
The cast and crew assured that this film would be “different from any local production. They said that each actor and crewmember was happy and proud to be part of a film at this level.
Yet, regardless of the film’s quality, the popularity of the original novel will always remain an issue of concern, as many are expected to compare it to the film. Hamed responded that he “is not here to transcribe the novel as it is and that his vision is included in the script.
“I was enthusiastic [making] the novel to the point of adoration, said Hamed explaining why the film is three hours long. “I didn’t want to leave anything out.
He refuted claims that three hours might be perceived as too long, referring to several long films that have gained popularity in the past, saying the American blockbuster King Kong is about the same length, without affecting box-office revenues.
“The problem is in the movie theaters, Hamed said, adding that theater owners prefer to hold more screenings during a day and thus don’t welcome long movies.
The film is the first locally produced to cost LE 22 million. Adel Adib, who represented the production company Good News Group, said there is an elaborate distribution plan that spans the globe, so revenues are expected to transcend the usual box-office returns familiar within the local market.
As for the gigantic number of stars appearing in the film (12 are listed in leading roles and 22 are credited in secondary roles, with 160 assisting actors and 3,000 extras); the actors expressed their satisfaction. Youssra, one of the most popular actresses in the county, only appears in five scenes. She said the five are among the most important of her career.
Imam noted that each character has his or her significance in the plot, regardless of the number of scenes. He referred to the novel, saying each character was a leading one “from cover to cover.
But putting this number of actors in such a huge production at the hands of a young director such as Marwan Hamed, son of Wahid Hamed, has raised doubts, along with rumblings concerning nepotism, although Wahid explained that he hadn’t nominated his son. In fact, the producers saw his debut film Lily, a short feature based on Youssef Idris’ story, and thought of him as the best candidate for the job.
Lily has received a number of international awards and gained national prasie. Hamed could not attend the conference, as he was busy putting the final touches to the film at London studios. In a Good News press release, Hamed expressed concerns over working with big names and such a huge budget. Noting the professionalism of the participating actors, he said he had learnt from them. He also had to dismiss initially critical views to concentrate on the film and prove he is “up to the responsibility.
