A heated debate concerning religious censorship in Egypt’s film industry divided attendants and speakers alike in an open discussion last Saturday at Prince Taz Palace.
Featured speakers included producer Hany Gerges Fawzi, film critics Tarek El-Shennawy, Nagy Fawzi and Magda Maurice and actor Mohamed Metwally. Sheikh Gamal Kotb, former head of the fatwa committee at Al-Azhar, and Ikram Lamae, an evangelical priest, represented the religion side.
The conference was organized in response to the controversy created by the unreleased film “Wahed Sifr (One-Zero). In the film, actress Elham Shahin plays a Coptic woman denied a marriage license by the church after obtaining a divorce through a civil court and who eventually has a baby out of wedlock.
Earlier this month, a number of Coptic lawyers and activists, who haven’t watched the film, called for it to be banned.
El-Shenawy started the discussion by stating that “the absolute absence of the Christian character from drama has led to this form of extreme sensitivity.
According to El-Shennawy, Christian characters have either been sidelined or portrayed negatively in some occasions.
Nagy Fawzi cited the notorious 1952 movie “Lailet El Qadr, produced, directed and starring Hussein Sidky. “Sidky made a mistaken comparison between faiths. He attributed corruption, immoral sexuality and drunkenness to the Christian faith, Fawzi said.
Taken out of cinemas only after two days, Sidky tried to screen it again after the 1952 revolution, but President Mohamed Naguib banned it. “In 1954, he tried to hoodwink people by renaming the movie to El Sheikh Hassan, but he failed as well. It was the intellectuals who opposed this rather than religious personalities, Fawzi said.
Some of the most critical points of the debate were fired by Kotb, who said that the futility of having any kind of censorship since it simply doesn’t work in the modern age of satellite TV and internet.
“No faith forces someone to suppress their feelings and opinions, he said.
Nevertheless, he objected to the governmental financing of arts that contradict with society’s general view of moral values, singling out cinema as a ubiquitous medium with a wide reach that surpasses the messages of religious institutions.
Kotb believes that since the source of the government’s art productions is the taxpayer’s money, the projects produced by the government should represent the beliefs of the general public instead of becoming another tool promoting a set of ideologies.
He asserted that art production should always remain a private enterprise.
He illustrated his point with one famous example, “When professor Nasser Abou Zaid injected his personal opinion and philosophies as part of the curriculum he used to teach in the Arabic language and literature, there was a lot of commotion about creative rights, freedom of expression and so on.
“Abou Zaid can write all he wants and publish it privately outside the realm of governmental institutions. If anyone objects to that I will personally give them a physical beating, he said, “but to write something as controversial as that and impose it on our children is telling them if they don’t accept his opinions, they fail. What has this got to do with creativity?
El-Shennawy remarked that art can only be measured solely via aesthetic values since all art forms under the scrutiny of religious measures would mostly be considered haram (a sin). Kotb disagreed, disputing the notion of evaluating art in mere aesthetic terms.
Kotb believes there’s nothing wrong with people having moral qualms with art since artistic merits are not the sole yardstick used to evaluate or create art. That artistic significance, he continued, isn’t necessarily considered by producers who refrain from taking on certain projects for financial reasons or directors choosing to omit certain lines from their scripts for various considerations.
He added that it’s hypocritical for artists or writers to accuse proponents of religious institutions of being closed-minded and calling them enemies of creativity while, at the same time, exempting their works from criticism.
Hany Gerges Fawzi, producer and director of the movie “Bedoon Reqaba (Uncensored) sounded his annoyance with having to acquire script approval not just from the censorship, but from every official authority the plot tackles. He recounted the setbacks he faced when producing “Baheb El Cima (I Love Cinema) – the controversial Egyptian movie featuring Christian protagonists – and his refusal to obtain the church’s approval, claiming that “it’s not their job.
Lamae said that the church should not have the right to censor any form of art because this is clearly against freedom of thought and could kill creativity. Lamae believes the general public should be the only judge.
“People should be more trained to criticize, he said. “We are now experiencing a downfall in religious values in society and thus it’s only natural that art, being a mirror of society, reflects that.
Actor Mohamed Metwally had a different opinion. “I’m not against censorship, and creativity is great, he said. “But when it comes to religions, there must be approval from the church or Al-Azhar. Censorship should focus on filtering the poor quality films and leave room for real creativity to prevail.
The issue of “Wahid Sifr was not tackled in the debate as the majority of the attendants haven’t seen the film yet. Nagy Fawzy earlier accused the debate of being a publicity stunt to boost the movie’s profile.
