Egypt sets work quota for foreign screen stars

Cairo: Syrian actor Jamal Sulaiman caused indignation among several Egyptian colleagues more than a year ago when he played the lead role in an Egyptian TV series.

Sulaiman got good reviews for portraying an Upper Egyptian strongman in "Hadayek Al Shaytan" [The Gardens of the Devil], which was shown in Ramadan when viewing rates usually peak in the Arab world. Last Ramadan, his compatriot actor Taym Al Hassan received similarly good reviews for playing [King Farouk] Egypt's last monarch in a bio-TV series. The show earned Al Hassan the Best Actor Prize at Egypt's Radio and TV Festival last year.

Complaining about being sidelined in their country, Egyptian actors pressed for restrictions on hiring Arab entertainers in local works.

Their lobbying has just borne fruit. "As of this month [April], non-Egyptian actors will be allowed to appear in only one work each a year," Ashraf Zaki, the Chairman of the Egyptian Actors' Association told an emergency meeting of the union's board at the weekend.

He added that the decision was part of "a new phase" to regulate the entertainment industry in the country and "save it from interlopers".

Zaki said that no local show would be licensed if it hired more than two non-Egyptian actors.

"These measures are aimed at providing work for hundreds of the association's members who do not have a job at present."

He threatened that Arab actors, who are hired for local works without a licence from his association, would face the prospect of deportation from Egypt.

Decision

"This decision will be of no good for the Egyptian entertainment industry as arts do not thrive with decisions from above," Mahmoud Qasim, a noted entertainment critic, told Gulf News.

"That many Arab actors have appeared in Egyptian dramas and movies over recent years is due to the fact that several Egyptian actors quit the profession allegedly for it being haram or against Islam's teachings," Qasim argued.

For him, the latest restrictions contradict Egypt's history. "Egypt has always been an attraction for Arab actors and singers who have made a name for themselves here," he said. "Besides, I wonder how Egypt, the hub of the Middle East's cinema industry, took such a chauvinistic move, though no other Arab country has done the same."

Qasim recalled that Lebanon "opened its doors from 1963 until the civil war in 1975" for Egyptian actors to star in movies there.

"These regulations will set the record straight on hiring actors," said Sayed Helmi, the chief of the government-owned Media Production City.

"We in the Media Production City had asked for these regulations and even put them into effect before they were issued," the official said.

"Last year, only one non-Egyptian actor was hired for one of our productions. This year, all our work depends on Egyptian actors."