'Feathers' Movie Is Defying Sisi's Narrative Abroad on Egypt's Reality

Omar el-Zohairy's film "Feathers," which was screened at the 5th edition of the El Gouna Film Festival, sparked a major controversy, especially after a number of artists withdrew from the show for allegedly humiliating Egypt.

The withdrawn artists, led by Sherif Munir, confirmed that the film has events that harm Egypt's reputation, in addition to its heart facts and artistic weakness.

For his part, the film's producer Mohamed Hafki said that the controversy raised is fabricated, and that the accusations are illogical, adding that the film is not a documentary about the lives of the poor in Egypt, but it is the imagination of the author and has nothing to do with a particular social reality but can be anywhere, at any time. 

Film critic Ahmed Saad Eddin said that the film should be presented and evaluated artistically, not politically, and the artist Sherif Munir has the right to reject the film but has no right to talk about Egypt's reputation.

He added that similar films have been produced before such as "It’s a Mess" and "When it’s easy", wondering if we watched these films now, can it be said that they harm Egypt's reputation?

 

 

Consistent With Standards

Despite the actors’ withdrawal, El Gouna Film Festival issued an official statement regarding the crisis, during which it confirmed that the selection of the film "Feathers" by Egyptian director Omar el-Zohairy, was consistent with the criteria for selecting films at the festival, based on its successes in some international forums.

The film had received the Grand Prize for International Critics Week at the world's largest festival Cannes, the first Egyptian film to receive such a prestigious award.

The statement added that the film received the grand prize of the Pingyao Festival in China and was selected to be screened in the days of Carthage Festival in its next session, and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture honored the film and its team in an event held before the start of the Film Festival El Gouna. 

The film’s director, Omar el-Zohairy, graduated from Cairo’s High Institute of Cinema and worked as an assistant director on feature films, including with one of Egypt’s most prominent filmmakers, Yousri Nasrallah. 

Zohairy’s first short film “Breathe Out” premiered at the 8th Dubai International Film Festival and won the Muhr Special Jury Prize for Short Films.

His second short film, “The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375,” was the first Egyptian film to be selected for the Cinefondation competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win several awards. 

 

Protesting Actors

The most closely related name to the controversy over the subject is the name of actor Sherif Munir, who left the cinema at the beginning of the special screening of Feathers in El Gouna.

Actors Ahmed Rizk and Ashraf Abdel Baki did so.

Munir said in an interview with journalist Amr Adeeb that watching the film tired him and that the "agony" and "filth" in which the family depicted in the film lives is exaggerated.

Munir said the slums "that existed before…should be discarded from the film in the new republic.

Munir attributed his anger at the film to "his love for his country, Egypt."

Munir expressed his dislike for the film even technically and was surprised that the film was awarded international awards.

The reasons why other artists justified their anger at the film were no different from Sherif Munir's: "The film discredits Egypt and denies the state's efforts to improve the situation there."

The controversy over the film has evolved so that MP Ahmed Mhenni said he would apply for a briefing to the speaker of parliament and the minister of culture about the screening of the film as "bad for Egypt, as it does not present the true image of Egypt and helps distort the internal image of Egypt globally."

The film is accused of tarnishing Egypt's reputation for presenting the image of a family living in extreme poverty, although the Egyptian state itself has never said it has eradicated poverty in Egypt.

The recent announcement of a decline in poverty does not mean its eradication and does not mean that there are no poor people living on Egyptian soil.

But those angry with the film say that cinema, especially those that spread out, should highlight "achievements and successes" and on the positives, not the negatives.

 

Sisi’s Propaganda

The actors’ positions come along with Sisi’s control over the media to distribute a certain propaganda that only broadcasts what others want to see in his state.

Since the military removed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 after popular protests culminated on June 30, the Sisi regime has been regularly mentioned for cracking down on opponents and suppressing their voices as the media is targeted.

The relationship between the press and the authority in Egypt has been through attempts to control, a journalist and writer who preferred to preserve his true identity, said: "There was often a perception that the media was part of the gap that led to January 25, 2011, which toppled former President Hosni Mubarak."

 

"There is an awareness expressed by President Sisi during a private meeting with the officers: We need to make the media arms work with us," Fouad said. 

He adds: "The stage of searching for arms was wide and loose and used several means such as temptation and fear, considering that the media contributed to the extent of partnership [with the regime] on the 30th of June [protests], there is a famous announcer [Tawfiq Okasha] who made a film on his channel, pointing out that the so-called Revolution of June 30 is made by Sisi."

In one of his open speeches, Sisi has confirmed the state's readiness to support the production of film work in the face of attempts to destroy and weaken the state. 

"We want to talk within the framework of an integrated strategy to produce work, and we, as a country, will help and make state institutions contribute to the solution with films that develop national sentiment,” Sisi said.

Sisi stressed that the people must have a "phobia" from the overthrow of the Egyptian state, and the media must work on this to protect Egypt from falling.

 

Media Siege

In interviews, a number of television executives and executives in the news sector described how Sisi's government tightened its control, which they describe as stricter than censorship under Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt with a strong grip until it was overthrown by a popular uprising in 2011.

One such means is to withhold photography permits and to prepare a list of topics prohibited from being dealt with in series that the operators must approve.

The government has also set up two WhatsApp groups to instruct news media and has appointed sergeants on television channels to oversee what is broadcasted.

The government's penetration into the entertainment industry itself has also increased. Since 2017, a new company, United Media Services, has purchased news outlets, television production companies and television channels, numbering at least 14 so far, giving it unparalleled control over the timing of television broadcasts.

More than a dozen sources in the television industry and in the government told Reuters that the United Media Services Company was founded by the state. Reuters found that two of its four board members had links to Egypt's General Intelligence Service and the intelligence director previously headed one of the company's units.

Representatives critical of the Egyptian government say they fear being arrested. Serial productions say their artworks have become as lackluster as petty clichés. Isolation or marginalization has become the fate of television talk show hosts who do not follow the government's approach.

One producer said that the authorities prevented him from working in television or in the cinema without mentioning why.

Film director Khaled Youssef, a member of Egypt's parliament, said the government "has begun to interfere with the same dramatic content" and has pushed private production companies to stop working to impose their control.

"They don't want anyone to think," said Youssef, a critic of Sisi who had previously lived in Paris in an optional exile.