Cairo: More than a month after it hit screens in Egypt, the romantic comedy Bashteri Ragel (I Buy a Man) has triggered more controversy than laughter in this conservative country.
The film tells the story of Shams, a well-to-do banker in her mid-thirties, who wishes to be a mother but without entering into a conventional marriage — she has lost her trust in men after previous failed experiences.
Shams, played by celebrated actress Nelly Karim, turns to Facebook, looking to pay a sperm donor to go along with her plan: to fake being husband and wife until she is impregnated through IVF.
Shams’ choice is Bahgat, a male veterinarian, portrayed by acting sensation Mohammad Mamdouh, who accepts the offer in order to bail himself out of debt.
“This is a bold topic that has not been tackled before in any other Egyptian film,” Hanan Mokhtar, a medical student, said after she watched the film in a Cairo mall.
“It is a cry against a male-dominated society that insists on placing the woman into a narrow mold, regardless of her feelings and needs,” she told Gulf News.
Hanan’s friend Amani agrees.
“Our society is not ready to accept a woman on her own. Her educational and professional success is not recognised,” Amani, an accountant at a private firm, said.
“A woman’s existence is always defined by marriage even if she is married off to a man she does not like. What matters for the family and society is that she does not become a spinster. This way of thinking is responsible for high divorce rates in Egypt and the Arab world,” she added.
“This film prods society to reconsider this narrow definition of a woman,” Amani said.
She thinks social media has provided women in conservative societies with a platform to express their aspirations and vent their frustrations.
But, Hisham Salah views the movie as ‘morally subversive’.
“These films teach girls strange ideas imported from the West,” he told Gulf News.
“It encourages women to rebel against men and against religious and social tradition,” the 46-year-old father of three said.
But the filmmakers say they knew the movie would ignite controversy and criticism.
“This was my intent — to present the topic in a shocking way to awaken society,” Enas Lutfy, the scriptwriter of the film, said.
“The concept of having the girl saying she wants something is seen by society as intolerable,” she told private television station CBC.
‘Bashteri Ragel’ marks the debut of Lutfy as a scriptwriter.
She views the criticism as a success because the film has served its purpose.
“This reaction shows that the idea has shaken people’s minds. This was my original goal. I didn’t want to just make a comedy.”
Weeks before ‘Bashteri Ragel’ was released for public screening, its producers resorted to an unconventional publicity trick.
They set up a Facebook page carrying the name of the film where they uploaded a short video.
The footage featured a girl whose face was concealed as she said she was looking for a man ready to sell his sperm in return for an unspecified sum of dollars.
An estimated 50,000 users visited the page in a single day before it was removed.
The visitors, who reacted differently to the offer, were not aware that it was a publicity gimmick until the filmmakers disclosed it later.
“The idea of the film is great,” entertainment critic Tarek Al Shenawi said.
“It may anger the religious establishment and others. But it is necessary for us to coexist with such ideas and frankly discuss the problems they arise,” he told CBC.
There has been no reaction from religious authorities.
State censors have restricted showing ‘Bashteri Ragel’ to cinema-goers aged above 16 in line with a rating system that Egyptian authorities have instituted in recent years.
