Egyptian censorship refuses to comment on film crisis ‘Cairo, Mecca’

Egyptian journalists who are currently in the second round of the Red Sea Festival In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, questions after excluding the participation of the Egyptian film.Cairo, Meccafrom the show, after being selected for the Feature Film Competition.

Several question marks were raised after this step, with no answers justifying the elimination of an Egyptian film from the competition after it was announced that it would participate among 17 other films.

Critic Tariq Al-Shennawy confirmed in an article that art censorship in Egypt, led by Khaled Abdel Jalil, was behind the ban on showing the film on religious grounds, despite the possibility that the censorship authorized its solo screening at the festival, but it didn’t, which forced the film’s producer, Mohamed Keep, to pull it. He added that the rejection by the censorship in Egypt came at a time when the censorship in Saudi Arabia agreed to submit it without comment.

The New Arab contacted Abdel Jalil to ask his reasons for refusing to show the film, but he refused to comment completely and refused any talk about the film.

As for the producer, Mohamed Hefzy, said in statements on the sidelines of the festival that the Egyptian censorship did not prevent the work from being presented, but there are some censorship notes that, once completed and a solution that satisfies the various parties reached , the film will be screened commercially in Egypt and Arab countries.

The film “Cairo Makkah” with each of Mona Zakiand Muhammad Mamdouh, and Muhammad Farraj, eKhaled El Sawyand the story is written by Muhammad Raja, directed by Hani Khalifa, and its events revolve around a trip from Cairo to Mecca, where Mona Zaki decides to go to Mecca to perform Hajj rituals with her father, but a week before the journey, a surprise occurs that changes the course of his life.