SCZONE showcases investment opportunities to eight Japanese companies    Egypt urges Israel to accept Gaza deal amid intensifying fighting    Egypt, ADIB explore strategic partnership in digital healthcare, investment    SCZONE, Tokyo Metropolitan Government sign MoU on green hydrogen cooperation    Al-Sisi, Macron reaffirm strategic partnership, coordinate on Gaza crisis    Egypt welcomes international efforts for peace in Ukraine    Contact Reports Strong 1H-2025 on Financing, Insurance Gains    Egypt, India's BDR Group in talks to establish biologics, cancer drug facility    AUC graduates first cohort of film industry business certificate    Egypt to tighten waste rules, cut rice straw fees to curb pollution    Indian tourist arrivals to Egypt jump 18.8% in H1-2025: ministry data    Egyptian pound down vs. US dollar at Monday's close – CBE    Egypt's FM, Palestinian PM visit Rafah crossing to review Gaza aid    Egypt prepares unified stance ahead of COP30 in Brazil    Egypt recovers collection of ancient artefacts from Netherlands    Egypt harvests 315,000 cubic metres of rainwater in Sinai as part of flash flood protection measures    Egypt, Namibia explore closer pharmaceutical cooperation    Fitch Ratings: ASEAN Islamic finance set to surpass $1t by 2026-end    Renowned Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim dies at 88    Egyptian, Ugandan Presidents open business forum to boost trade    Al-Sisi says any party thinking Egypt will neglect water rights is 'completely mistaken'    Egypt's Sisi warns against unilateral Nile measures, reaffirms Egypt's water security stance    Egypt's Sisi, Uganda's Museveni discuss boosting ties    Egypt, Huawei explore healthcare digital transformation cooperation    Egypt's Sisi, Sudan's Idris discuss strategic ties, stability    Egypt to inaugurate Grand Egyptian Museum on 1 November    Greco-Roman rock-cut tombs unearthed in Egypt's Aswan    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Actors' Union to investigate movie star for appearing in miniseries with Israeli
Published in Daily News Egypt on 31 - 08 - 2007

CAIRO: The chairman of the Actors Union said Thursday that the group planned to investigate one of the country s brightest young movie stars for appearing in an upcoming miniseries with an Israeli actor.
The controversy began when the group discovered that Amr Waked, who starred in the Hollywood film Syriana, was in Tunisia filming a four part series on Saddam Hussein s life opposite Yigal Naor, an Israeli of Iraqi descent.
We found out Amr Waked was participating in a movie with an Israeli artist and so when he returns from abroad he will be investigated, Union Chairman Ashraf Zaki told the Associated Press. The Actors Union here is against normalization with Israel.
Media and artistic circles here remain deeply opposed to improving cultural relations with Israel even though Egypt is one of only two Arab nations that have made peace with the Jewish state.
Nearly a dozen articles have appeared in the past week condemning Waked for participating in the series, entitled Between Two Rivers and backed by the British Broadcasting Corp. and Home Box Office.
Who will hold Amr Waked accountable? read a headline Monday in Egypt s opposition daily El-Wafd.
Zaki said Waked would be questioned by a committee made up of two members of the union s board and a senior judge from the country s Administrative Court.
Waked declined to comment on the upcoming investigation, but in earlier interviews with local media, the actor said he did not know the nationalities of every person involved in the project.
The Egyptian actor also indicated he has no intention of leaving the series, in which he plays the role of Saddam s son-in-law Hussein Kamel, who defected from Iraq to Jordan but eventually returned and was executed.
Naor, who played a Palestinian character in Steven Spielberg s film Munich, stars as Saddam in the series. Many in the Egyptian press found it disturbing that an Israeli was playing the former Iraqi leader, who is still lionized by many Arab nationalists.
Though Egypt was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, professional and artistic associations have resisted opening up to the Jewish state, citing the continued occupation of Palestinian lands.
Anti-Israeli sentiment flared in the country during the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, much of it led by left wing academics and artists who have long been the Jewish state s fiercest critics in Egypt.
The [film] industry is in general very left wing and stays away from normalization as a whole, said Richard Woffenden, the former cultural editor of the local Cairo Times weekly.
Woffenden, who hailed Waked s emergence on the Egyptian film scene in 2001 as part of a new generation of actors, noted that he was one of the few Egyptians in recent years to surmount the language barrier and cross over to Western films.
Egyptian actor Khaled El-Nabawy appeared briefly in Ridley Scott s crusader movie Kingdom of Heaven - for which he was also criticized by the Egyptian media.
The investigation could have serious ramifications for Waked s career in Egypt, where the majority of his films are still made.
When Egyptian actress Sawsan Badr appeared in the 1980 film Death of a Princess about Saudi Arabia, it caused a furor for allegedly being anti-Arab and it was years before she appeared again in an Egyptian film. Associated Press


Clic here to read the story from its source.