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Egyptian MPs call for film with gay character to be cut
14 July 2006- Egypt- Egyptian MPs are demanding cuts in a popular
new film, claiming it defames their country with its gritty portrayal of
corrupt politicians, police brutality, terrorism and homosexuality,
writes Brian Whitaker
The Yacoubian Building - the most expensive film ever produced in Egypt
- has been breaking box office records since its release last month,
although some viewers have walked out and others say they had to cover
their eyes.
Following complaints from 112 MPs, the Egyptian parliament has set up a
committee to review the film and decide what to cut. "This film is
spreading obscenity and debauchery, which is totally against Egyptian
moral values," independent MP Mustafa Bakri said. "As a citizen I felt
hurt when I watched it."
The film, which features some of Egypt's biggest stars, is based on a
novel by a Cairo dentist, Alaa al-Aswani, which became the Arab world's
best-seller and has been sold openly in Egypt for four years.
The book gives a warts-and-all portrait of modern Egypt told through the
lives of the inhabitants of a Cairo apartment block. There is a
womanising aristocrat, a corrupt nouveau riche politician, a woman who
is sexually harassed at work and a highly educated youth who becomes a
terrorist after being turned down for a job in the police because he
comes from a poor family.
The most controversial of all, though, is Hatim Rasheed, a cultured
newspaper editor with a taste for Nubian men. He falls in love with a
young married policeman who feels guilty about the relationship and
eventually murders him.
A swani's book caused additional frissons by the way it blurs fiction
with reality. The eponymous Yacoubian Building really exists and several
characters - including the corrupt politician and the gay editor - bear
a striking resemblance to prominent Egyptians.
"Why aren't Italy, France or the United States defamed by movies dealing
with homosexuality? Novels and movies are not made to promote tourism
but to deal with real issues of life," Aswani said.
Homosexuality has previously figured in novels by Naguib Mahfouz, the
Egyptian Nobel laureate, and in several films by Egypt's greatest
director, Youssef Chahine. In Yousri Nasrallah's 1993 film Mercedes the
central character had a gay brother with a lover, as well as a
drug-addicted lesbian aunt.
With the growth of religiosity in recent years, though, attitudes have
been hardening. Same-sex acts are not illegal in Egypt but laws against
"debauchery" and "immoral advertising" are used to bring charges. In the
popular press homosexuality is often portrayed as a western "disease"
that can be caught from foreigners.
In 2001 more than 50 men described as satanists were put on trial
following a police raid on the Queen Boat, a floating nightclub popular
with gay men. They were said to have imported their "perverse ideas"
from Europe.
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