Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival got underway on Thursday amid calls for peace in the region as well as claims of censorship after an Egyptian short work with a Palestine-related subtext was pulled as the opening film at the eleventh hour without reason.
Abdelwahab Shawky’s short film The Last Miracle was to have opened El Gouna’s seventh edition, but a festival press release on Wednesday announced it had been replaced by Croatian short film The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent.
The festival said the “adjustment to the original line-up” was because Shawky’s film “could not be screened” without giving a reason.
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Local press reported that El Gouna had been forced to replace The Last Miracle after Egypt’s General Authority for Censorship of Works of Arts had revoked its screening license 48 hours ahead of the festival.
Commenting on the pulling of the film, influential Egyptian film critic Tarek El Shennawi said it was likely the film had been censored even if there had been no official confirmation, and suggested a scene featuring a dervish might have been the cause.
Based on short story by late writer Naguib Mahfouz, The Last Miracle stars popular actor Khaled Kamal (The Blue Elephant, Clash) as a 40-year-old man, who receives a phone call from a deceased Sheikh, which begins a spiritual journey with an unexpected conclusion.
In a release put out when the short’s El Gouna screening was first announced, Shawky noted the fact that Mahfouz had written the story in the wake of Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states 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 feeling the effects of 1967. There is a sense of loss of faith in oneself and one’s abilities and a reliance on the irrational, as it is the only hope,” he wrote.
This edition of El Gouna, running from October 24 to November 1, marks a return to the festival’s traditional fall slot after the 2023 edition was postponed until December in response to the early days of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
With that conflict continuing to loom large in the region, alongside an escalating situation in Lebanon, the mood was relatively sober at the festival which has a reputation for parties and glitzy red carpet. While the dress code was smart, the over-the-top frocks earlier editions were absent and there was no official red carpet.
Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris, who spearheaded the creation of festival in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of El Gouna, created by his brother Samih Sawiris, made a call for peace in his opening remarks.
“We are a time when humanity is suffering in Gaza, humanity is suffering in Lebanon, humanity is suffering Sudan, humanity is suffering in Ukraine, and I’m a pro-Ukraine person,” he said.
“The good thing about cinema is that it can deliver a message right into the heart. What we need now is leadership to tell 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 short films from 32 countries, with international titles including Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door which it makes its MENA premiere at the festival.
Last year’s edition was to have kicked off on October 14, one week after Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel which killed more than 1,100 people and resulted in more than 253 people being abducted and taken back into Gaza as hostages.
At the time of last year’s postponement, around 700 people in Gaza had been killed in a retaliatory Israeli bombing campaign and troops were massing on the Israel-Gaza border ahead of a potential land invasion.
A year on, more than 42,718 people have been killed by the Israeli military operation in the Palestinian territory, while Israel is also involved an escalating war with Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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