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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Habitual evasiveness
By Magdi Ahmed Ali *
The Egyptian middle class took centre stage to declare its political aspirations in the middle of the last century. It asserted its eagerness to spearhead an intellectual renaissance and prepared to enter modernity. Thus was the ground set for the efflorescence of historiography and translation, and for the cinema industry's introduction to Egypt, only a year after its appearance in the West.
Governments were quick to grasp cinema's potential impact on a predominantly illiterate audience. Films were censored to convey a "safe" message. Films featuring unjust rulers or economic hardship were not released. Even the living conditions of the poor were not deemed suitable viewing material.
After the revolution, the public sector used art to transmit government policy -- a trend still in evidence today. At the time, however, most people believed prosperity and development were just around the corner, yet the totalitarian association of popular aspirations and government policies compromised the true value of art.
We have inherited a Higher Institute of Cinema, numerous artists and a repertoire of films that escaped repression and censorship, yet art in Egypt is an archive of frustrated hopes and expectations.
An official censor has absolute power to reject a work as of its inception. Yet even he is not the ultimate censor. Institutions claiming to represent the masses, religious institutions, the press... these bodies exercise censorship too. They dance to the ruler's tune, cling to the commonplace, and always play it safe. Is there any margin left for creativity?
*This week's Soapbox speaker is a cinema director.
