CAIRO, 9 October 2007 — An Egyptian film festival has rejected an Israeli production and threatened to boycott any Arab movie festival that breaks a taboo on admitting films from the Jewish state.
Organizers of the Cairo International Film Festival, which opens next month, have loudly opposed an application by Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s Visit,” a fictional tale of an Egyptian police band that gets stranded in Israel.
The director has said his movie, which won praise at the Munich and Cannes film festivals, sends a strong pro-peace message.
But Soheir Abdel Kader, the festival’s vice president, told AFP: “It is out of the question that an Israeli film plays here.” The Israelis applied for a place at this year’s 31st edition of the Egyptian festival — whose motto ironically is “to advance understanding through the language of art between all the peoples of the world” — through the event’s representatives in Germany.
“They will no longer be on our contact list, we didn’t even answer their e-mail,” said Abdel Kader. “They should have known we are against the showing of an Israeli film.” A solid “anti-normalization” front exists in Egypt’s cultural circles, which reject collaboration or contact with Israeli artists or intellectuals, despite a peace deal signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to fuel anger amongst Egyptians who believe the US-sponsored peace deal changed Egypt’s role from regional heavyweight to mediator whose decision-making power is largely defined by Washington.
Three members of the festival committee did watch a preview of the “The Band’s Visit” but did so in their personal capacity, not as officials of the festival, which runs from Nov. 27 to Dec. 7.
The film delves into unlikely cross-cultural relations when an Alexandrian police band invited to perform in Israel gets lost in the Negev desert after their hosts fail to pick them up.
The musicians end up staying at a local cafe, and the initial, begrudging interaction between the Egyptians and the Israelis eventually develops into a warm exchange.
“We regret to hear that the film has not been accepted (in Egypt) for political reasons without consideration for its artistic merit,” Israeli Embassy spokesman Benny Sharoni told AFP.
The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said the movie had been expected to be shown at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this month. But the paper said this infuriated the Egyptians and the showing was quickly canceled after the Egyptian Actors Union threatened to boycott the Emirati festival if “The Band’s Visit” was aired.
