Kuwait Times

Culture in the crosshairs of a changing Egypt

- — AFP

We won’t be able to continue like this

In movie theatres, concert halls or out on the streets, culture in Egypt is faced with increasing curbs as the government of the country expands censorship, critics say. Hossam Fazulla of the Associatio­n for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said artists were being subjected to increasing limitation­s. “What the government is trying to do is... to create a model of an obedient citizen who is tame, who is very convenient for this regime,” said Fazulla. The curbs have wiped out some art forms, especially street events, which were starting to flourish after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, he said.

A 2013 law banning unauthoriz­ed protests or gatherings has in effect been applied to culture, with street arts paying a heavy price, according to Fazulla. “It’s been a while now that we’ve been reporting that this period has witnessed more restrictio­ns than the previous one,” he said. In a notable example, censors have stalled the film “In The Last Days of the City”, although it has been screened in 60 countries and at 91 festivals, winning more than 10 awards.

Egyptian director Tamer El Said finished shooting the movie in December 2010, six weeks before the uprising that overthrew Mubarak. “The film was trying to capture this feeling that we had before the revolution... that something big is going to happen. We don’t know what it will be, but that it seems that we won’t be able to continue like this,” Said said.

Said applied for a license to screen the movie in October 2016, only for Egypt’s censorship authority to flood him with paperwork requests until it stopped answering his calls. “Now it’s been 12 years that I’ve been dreaming of this moment to come and it doesn’t come... it’s killing me,” said the director. This is the new method to ban films, said Fazulla. “They would keep delaying this for months until the movie does not get screened in the end,” he said. After initially agreeing to speak, the head of the censorship authority, Khaled Abdel Geleel, stopped answering calls and messages from AFP.

‘Bad idea’

Another award-winning film, “The Nile Hilton Incident” directed by Tarik Saleh, a Swede of Egyptian origin, takes place in Egypt but was banned from being shot in the country. The movie on police corruption is based on a true story, that of real estate tycoon and Mubarak associate Hisham Talaat Moustafa, who was convicted in 2010 of paying for the murder of his ex-lover, a Lebanese pop diva.

“It was my idea (to film in Egypt). It was a very bad idea,” Saleh said in an interview on the Munich internatio­nal film festival’s YouTube channel. “We were thrown out three days before we were going to start to shoot so we left to Casablanca” to film instead in the fellow North African state of Morocco, he said. Music has also been a casualty.

In July, Cairokee, a popular band, said the censorship authority had banned some songs from their 2017 album “A Drop of White”, which features calls for political freedoms. But the banned songs are widely available on the web. Heavy metal has been in the firing line of Egypt’s state-recognized Musicians’ Syndicate since it tried to have a gig called off in February 2016.

Its head, Hany Shaker, told Al-Assema television that his union had reported the event to police because of the presence of “devil worshipper­s in weird clothes”. In April 2016, a concert by Brazilian band Sepultura was cancelled and event organizer Nader Sadek spent several days behind bars on suspicion of having failed to secure a permit. “Our role is limited to notifying security... And Egyptian security is very alert,” syndicate spokesman Tarek Mortada said.

 ?? — AFP ?? People take part in the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City on October 28, 2017.
— AFP People take part in the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City on October 28, 2017.
 ??  ?? An undated handout picture released by Egyptian director Tamer El Said on October 24, 2017, shows Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla during a scene from the movie “The Last Days of the City” directed by Said.
An undated handout picture released by Egyptian director Tamer El Said on October 24, 2017, shows Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla during a scene from the movie “The Last Days of the City” directed by Said.
 ??  ?? Egyptian youths seen queuing outside Al-Sawi cultural centre.
Egyptian youths seen queuing outside Al-Sawi cultural centre.
 ??  ?? Egyptians attend a puppet-theater at Al-Sawi cultural centre.
Egyptians attend a puppet-theater at Al-Sawi cultural centre.
 ?? — AFP photos ?? Egyptians viewing paintings at an art exhibit at Al-Sawi cultural centre in the capital Cairo’s central district of Zamalek.
— AFP photos Egyptians viewing paintings at an art exhibit at Al-Sawi cultural centre in the capital Cairo’s central district of Zamalek.

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