If you want to be notified the next time I write something, sign up for FREE email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Albawaba reports that Egyptian Parliament members decided to permit the screening of the film “Al Safara Fil Amara” (The Embassy in the Building), starring comedian actor Adel Imam, despite a request by the Israeli Ambassador to Egypt to ban the film.

Good for themQ! But what is the story? Why did the Ambassador ask to ban the film? an Why the Israeli press is calling Imam now as “Frog”?

The film tackles a very sensitive political issue, which is normalization with Israel. It revolves around an Egyptian petrol engineer, who has lived in Dubai for a quarter of a century and finally goes home to Egypt to discover that the Israeli Embassy is located right next door to his apartment.

The film aims at answering one basic question, which is why Egyptians refuse normalization until now? It is also seen as a message to Israel, to make them understand the point of view of the ordinary citizen and reflect the feelings of people.

Adel plays an amusing character that tries desperately to stay away from politics but to his disappointment finds himself engrossed in a major political affair.

Rumors claim that the actor received threatening phone calls demanding he stop the screening of the film, but Imam denied these rumors.

In the opening day, anti-Israeli slogans were chanted, which had an uncanny resemblance to the events of the film, which depicts Egyptian citizen�s reluctance to accept the peace treaty with Israel.

The actual Israeli embassy is located on the 18th floor of a similar building turned into a virtual bunker in Cairo’s Giza neighborhood — a stone’s throw from the University of Cairo which is a stronghold of anti-Israeli sentiment.

Having said all that, the interesting part is described nicely by this film review from Sphinx:

So is this a daring anti-government film by an actor who early in his career appeared to be serving state interests with films mocking the mindset of the militant Islamists? Is Imam trying to ingratiate himself with the public by giving voice to widespread disapproval of contacts with Israel?… Whatever the government thinks, it’s clear that any attempt to obstruct the film would have backfired and that any embarrassment the film might cause is easily manageable.

I wonder if the film is banned or not in other Arab countries which signed (or didn’t) a peace treaty with Israel? Can guys from these countries tell us?

Enjoy this post? Get future updates sent to you for free! Join by email or RSS.