The director spoke Yousry Nasrallah About cinema rights in Egypt, and the reason for banning many films, the most recent of which is the film The Atheist by producer Ahmed Al-Sabki, recently.
Yousry Nasrallah said during his seminar at the Cairo Film Festival: Since the year 2011, we have been holding meetings and writing reports to recover cinema rights, and in the end you leave. Ok, why?! Today I hear strange and amazing things like raising the censorship fees on films, meaning that whoever makes a film will ruin his house, and today Khaled Abdel Jalil is being tried because the decision regarding the censorship fees is not approved by the censors.
Prevent atheist
Yousry Nasrallah continued his speech: Let me make my own film and then watch it. We have a great situation that we are experiencing with the film The Atheist, and the censorship has declared the atheist, and today the censorship is demanding that it condemns freedom and permission to film. Al-Azhar is not filing the case. The one who filed the case is the two lawyers on charges of contempt of religions. I mean, the head of censorship can enter. Imprisonment because he declared an atheist show in which there was nothing offensive to religion, as was the case with Youssef Chahine’s films.
Yousry Nasrallah added: Just like the days of Youssef Chahine and his films, anyone would file a case against him on charges of contempt of religion, and when I used to say I am against censorship, he would say, “No.” Censorship, when it gives you permission, is immune and removes responsibility from you. Then the head of censorship of works, Dr. Khaled Abdel Jalil, responded to him, saying: I have 7 lawsuits filed because of the movie The Atheist.
The artist Basem Samra also spoke about his relationship with director Yousry Nasrallah on the sidelines of the symposium, pointing out that we have a problem with banning films in Egypt, saying: I hope to direct the word to those responsible for the film industry and there are people who start cinema in their country and this is their right. We are going back to the level of banning our films. Or the studios that burn or suppress us.
