Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - In a move slammed by the movie industry and critics, censors have blocked the screening of a film that tackles a sensitive subject in Egyptian society: the love between a Christian woman and a Muslim man. Religious tensions and relationships between the Christian minority and Muslim majority is in fact an issue that the Egyptian media avoid talking about.
"Cairo Exit " by Hesham Issawi was to have been presented yesterday at the Luxor African Film Festival, but it did not have written permission that Egyptian law requires for the screening of a film. Violation of this rule is also punishable by imprisonment.
The festival organizers have asked permission to screen the film at least to a select audience, composed of only the members of the jury, critics and journalists, but received no response.
The incident has prompted dozens of filmmakers, journalists and the world of cinema to report in writing the "authorities' decision to exclude the censorship of the film".
The document expresses "regret that such practices continue in Egypt after the revolution" that "has taken the concepts of freedom and civil State" and defines "the idea of censorship ridiculous " in a country emerging from dictatorship.
