The Orthodox Coptic Church has welcomed the news that scriptwriter Faiz Ghali has ended writing the script of the movie "El-Masih fi Misr" [Christ in Egypt], which deals with Jesus' life until he was six. Bishop Mark, chairman of the Church's Media Committee, asked Ghali to keep the promise he had made to Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III to show him the script before starting shooting the movie. "If this movie is like Ghali promised, it'll be a great opportunity to strengthen love and peace in the region" Bishop Mark said. "Ghali promised us he would write the script with the Christian Egyptian soul which has spread love across the world", he added, pointing out that in case the script is approved, the Church will definitely agree to have it screened in cinemas. Faiz told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he was writing the movie from a Christian point of view and that Christianity does not ban the personification of prophets in movies. "I've talked to officials at al-Azhar [chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world] and explained to them my point of view and no one objected, as Islam says: You have your religion and I have mine." "The movie talks about Christ's life from his birth until he was six" he added. "The Holy Family spent most of this period (3 years and 11 months, to be precise) in Egypt. Before that, the story is set in Palestine until he was two. "I've so far written 90% of the script and I'll be over at the end of this month. The whole script will then be submitted to the censorship authority and by the end of April at the latest the shooting of the movie will start". Ghali said the movie addresses the masses but from a Christian perspective. "I expect the censorship authority will transfer it – as usual - to a competent organ, namely the Church" he affirmed. Ghali said the movie should have been directed by Mahmoud Ashoub, Samir Sabri and Isaad Younis. However, Samir Sabri came under unjustified fire and pulled out of the project, while Isaad Younes just took care of the distribution. Mohamed Ashoub was left alone as director, but he has been joined by director Mohamed Jawhar, Ghali went on to say. Ghali said he had no objection to other partners joining the project, as this movie must exalt Egypt and its cinema. The scriptwriter said it was still too early to talk about the choice of the actors, although a possible candidate for the role of Joseph was Omar Sharif. He said that as soon as the film was approved, a child with oriental features and a woman would be looked for to play the role of the Christ Child and the Virgin Mary. He added the movie would be shot in Egypt, Syria and Jordan, while it would be difficult to do so in Palestine, Jesus' birthplace. Ghali said the movie would not deal with whether or not Jesus was crucified, but not because this is a controversial issue between Christians and Muslims, but because the movie focuses on a specific phase of Jesus' life which ended when he went back to Palestine at the age of six. However, he said an image of Christ crucified would appear in some scenes as flashbacks.
