Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s second feature film, Eshtebak, that was celebrated worldwide, sold to over 20 countries, and even nominated at Cannes Film Festival and Munich Film Festival is at stake! It’s only you and this hashtag #ادعم_اشتباك can help it survive.
After being dubbed as one of the 10 best films at Cannes Film Festival and nominated for Un Certain Regard Award (certain perspective) by worldwide magazines like Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and having it as the first Egyptian movie to be rated by Metascore; our government is taking a stand against the movie and trying their best to stop the movie from being distributed across the country or gain any box office income.
It all started when Eshtebak was still being screened at Cannes Film Festival, the Egyptian media just started attacking it and calling it biased and stirrer. After the premiered last Sunday, it was scheduled to be out in cinemas tomorrow but the film didn’t get the censorship approval till yesterday, giving it no time to be distributed. On top of that, the genius poster made by Ahmed Emad Eldin, the designer who created Pink Floyd’s last album cover didn’t get approved yet.
Then the censorship decided to put a sentence at the beginning of the movie that basically reads out “who’s good and who’s bad,” but Mohamed Diab refused to do so. How could you blame him? Eshtebak is a movie and movies are art and you can’t put labels on art. “Everybody has the right to direct because everyone sees life in their own way, said the late director Mohamed Khan. I’d like to clarify more and say that the movie isn’t biased but it shows each side of the society with its pros and cons without taking sides with anyone.
The distributors withdrew just a few days before the screening of the movie. People are saying that they want to screen the movie for two or three days then pull it again and blame the movie for not interacting with the people enough. Eshtebak is set to be released tomorrow, it was celebrated worldwide and it’s changing how the world sees us as Egyptians so how can we stand against it? Go watch the movie as soon as it is released because it’s you who will determine its fate either it succeeds or fails in its own country!
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