Region | Egypt
Film on Egyptian shantytown comes under fire
Its message is that moral deviation exists and the poor may be forced to sell their bodies in order to survive, says Heena Maysra actress.
- By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
- Published: 22:10 January 28, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- "I don't think that the scene is shocking or forced into the film," says Somaia Al Khashab, an Egyptian actress who appears in the controversial scene.
Cairo: "We have come unnoticed into this life and it seems we'll leave it unnoticed." This groaning, uttered by a cynical character in Egypt's latest controversial film, sets the tone for Heena Maysra (On Availability).
The film, playing at packed cinemas across Egypt, has brought its makers under heavy fire.
Heena Maysra, directed by Khalid Yousuf, revolves around the miserable living conditions for the inhabitants of a shantytown, echoing the daily grind of an estimated 15 million people living under similar circumstances in different parts of this country of 76 million.
The film has been particularly panned for a scene involving lesbianism, a taboo-breaker in Egyptian cinema.
"I don't think that the scene is shocking or forced into the film," Somaia Al Khashab, an Egyptian actress who appears in the controversial scene, told the privately owned Egyptian TV channel Mehwer recently.
"Its message is that this moral deviation exists and the poor may be forced to sell their bodies in order to survive."
A Muslim scholar has demanded the filmmakers be quizzed for 'corrupting public morals'. "Such films promote depravity," says Abdul Sabour Chahine, who accuses 'the US and Zionists' of standing behind them.
The film is full of personae involved in prostitution, drugs, promiscuous sex and Islamic extremism. It also deals with Egypt's growing problem of street children and scathingly criticises the police's response to the slum dwellers' miseries.
As the film draws to a close, the police and terrorists, locked in a showdown, remove the shantytown -each to their own advantage.
Apparently displeased by the film, MP Ali Attwa of the ruling National Democratic Party has accused its makers of tarnishing Egypt's name.
"If you can accept your children watching such a film, it'll be OK with me," said Attwa, addressing its director. The government-run magazine Rose Al Yousuf devoted its edition this week to reviews of the film, which the publication accused of being "against Egypt".
Heena Maysra was released for public viewing late last month, a few weeks after the release of Heya Fawda? (Is It Chaos?), another contentious film co-directed by Yousuf Chahine, which deals with police abuses.
Khalid Yousuf has hit back at his critics, accusing them of not having watched Heena Maysra. "Instead of attacking the film without even watching it, the detractors should first attempt to solve the problems of the 15 million Egyptians living in the shantytowns," Yousuf said in press remarks.
"These wretched people suffer from a lack of jobs and inhuman living conditions," he added.
In recent years, the Egyptian government has turned its attention to relocating slum dwellers to new communities. In his film, Yousuf concludes with an apology to viewers "for failing to depict the life of real slum dwellers". "Their life is far harsher," he says.
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