Egyptian film breaks taboos and tops box office

By Tom Perry

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian film based on a best selling
novel has pushed the boundaries of censorship and broken social
taboos in its frank portrayal of homosexuality, police torture
and government corruption.

“The Yacoubian Building” has topped the box office since
its June 19 premiere and tells the stories of Cairenes living
in one of the capital’s classic 19th Century apartment
buildings.

Set in the 1990s, its main characters include a homosexual,
an aged womanizer and the son of the building’s doorman, who
joins an Islamist group after his application for the police
force is turned down because of his lowly social status.

He is arrested while leading a protest and sexually abused
and tortured in prison, driving him to seek revenge by taking
up arms. Previous depictions of prison abuse in Egyptian films
have been kept to periods before President Hosni Mubarak came
to power in 1981.

“Usually the censors would put the condition that if you’re
going to deal with torture, it must be from the time of
President Gamal Abdel Nasser or the King,” said Alaa al Aswany,
author of the novel.

Film critic Tarek el-Shenawy said: “Extremists are always
portrayed as if they are a group born to carry weapons and kill
innocents. This film says that there are social factors which
drive the extremist.”

Islamic militants waged an insurgency in Egypt in the 1990s
in their quest for a strict Islamic state.

BLEAK PORTRAIT

The audience at the premiere clapped when the doorman’s son
avenged his sexual abuse by killing a security officer. Other
anti-government scenes were also greeted by loud applause.

Egyptian censors tightly control films’ political content.
Aswany, an anti-government activist, suggested the film was
allowed to air to give the impression of greater freedoms.

“They do this every now and then. They have an accumulation
of experience in decoration, to make the point that it’s a
democracy,” he said.

Sexual content is also closely controlled by censors in
Egypt and the detailed portrayal of a gay man and his love life
in the “The Yacoubian Building” is groundbreaking for the
country’s cinema.

“That you see his opinion and his feelings, this is new,”
said Khaled El Sawy, who plays the gay role. “There were films
before which discussed homosexuality in society, but from a
distance, without getting into the relationship,” he said.

“A film such as this says that we can discuss all issues
openly.”

Many cinema goers have described the film as bold and
courageous but have been depressed by its bleak portrait of
oppression, corruption and social problems in Egypt.

“I went for a long walk after the film, thinking, trying to
understand. It’s a very depressing picture,” said Amr
el-Shoura, a final year medical student.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Wright)