CAIRO, 26 June 2005 — The chaos that has erupted over the recent film “Ahlam Umrina” (Our Life’s Dreams) has not ended as tabloids continue to publish verbal attacks by stars of the film against one another.
The two leading actresses, Muna Zaki and Muna Shalabi, did not attend the film’s premier earlier this month.
Muna refused to attend, trying to disassociate herself from the film; Shalabi was away in England during the premiere.
The situation between the cast of the film had escalated to the point that Zaki made a public announcement stating that she will never work alongside Egyptian actor Mustafa Shaaban or any of the other cast member again.
Zaki’s anger with Mustafa was exacerbated after behind the scenes footage, which was filmed with his personal camera, was released to a number of satellite television channels. Mustafa has refused to comment on Zaki’s allegations, stating that his only concern is the film.
The film’s production has faced several problems over the past two years, some of which resulted from the producers and others which emanated from Mustafa and director Othman Abu Al-Laban.
Shaaban and Al-Laban cut several of Muna’s scenes, giving her only a minor role. As a result Muna refused to continue working on the film, leading the producer to file a lawsuit against her.
Muna, who is known to be a dedicated actress, threatened to file a counter suit against the producer based on his violation of her basic rights as an actress. The producer withdrew his lawsuit.
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