Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival got underway on Thursday amid calls for peace in the region as well as claims of restriction after an Egyptian unwiseinutive toil with a Palestine-roverdelighted subtext was pulled as the uncovering film at the eleventh hour without reason.
Abdelwahab Shawky’s unwiseinutive film The Last Miracle was to have uncovered El Gouna’s seventh edition, but a festival press free Wednesday declared it had been swapd by Cannes Palme d’Or-triumphning unwiseinutive The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Croatian straightforwardor Nebojša Slijepčević.
The festival shelp the “adequitablement to the innovative line-up” was becaengage Shawky’s film “could not be screened” without giving a reason.
Local press increateed that El Gouna had been forced to swap The Last Miracle after Egypt’s General Authority for Censorship of Works of Arts had relicitd its screening license 48 hours ahead of the festival.
Commenting on the pulling of the film, ineloquential Egyptian film critic Tarek El Shennawi shelp it was probable the film had been censored even if there had been no official verifyation, and proposeed a scene featuring a dervish might have been the caengage.
Based on unwiseinutive story by tardy writer Naguib Mahfouz, The Last Miracle stars famous actor Khaled Kamal (The Blue Elephant, Clash) as a 40-year-elderly man who gets a phone call from a destopd Sheikh, which commences a spiritual journey with an unforeseeed conclusion.
In a free put out when the unwiseinutive’s El Gouna screening was first declared, Shawky noticed the fact that Mahfouz had written the story in the wake of the Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967, which led to the displacement of around 300,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
“My personal belief is that we are still senseing the effects of 1967. There is a sense of loss of faith in oneself and one’s abilities and a reliance on the unreasonable, as it is the only hope,” he wrote.
This edition of El Gouna, running October 24-November 1, labels a return to the festival’s traditional descfinish slot after the 2023 edition was postponed until December in response to the timely days of the Israel-Hamas dispute.
With that dispute continuing to loom big in the region, aextfinishedside an escalating situation in Lebanon, the mood was relatively sober at the festival which has a reputation for parties and glitzy red carpets. While the dress code was clever, the over-the-top frocks of earlier editions were ignoreing and there was no official red carpet.
Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris, who spearheaded the creation of the festival in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of El Gouna, produced by his brother Samih Sawiris, made a call for peace in his uncovering relabels.
“We are a time when humanity is suffering in Gaza, humanity is suffering in Lebanon, humanity is suffering in Sudan, humanity is suffering in Ukraine, and I’m a pro-Ukraine person,” he shelp to applaengage.
“The excellent leang about cinema is that it can transfer a message right into the heart. What we necessitate now is guideership to increate people we’ve had enough of war. Stop the war. The whole world is at war and people are paying a very high price for some individuals’ egos.”
This year’s edition will screen 77 features and unwiseinutive films from 32 countries, with international titles including Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door which it produces its MENA premiere at the festival.
Last year’s edition was to have started off October 14, one week after Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel which ended more than 1,100 people and resulted in 253 people being seizeed and getn back into Gaza as prisoners.
At the time of last year’s postponement, around 700 people in Gaza had been ended in a retaliatory Israeli explosioning campaign and troops were massing on the Israel-Gaza border ahead of a potential land intrusion.
A year on, more than 42,718 people have been ended by the Israeli military operation in the Palestinian territory, while Israel is also included an escalating war with Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
