CAIRO - The Copt will no longer be portrayed by filmmakers in Egypt as a quiet, submissive person, who silently and helplessly endures oppression and social injustice. According to Coptic filmmakers, the recent revolution has revealed the true qualities of the Coptic people. Film director Atef Bishoi proudly says that the Coptic demonstrators in Al Tahrir Square and elsewhere were just as enthusiastic as their Muslim brothers in calling for ousting Mubarak's regime. Bishoi is also pleased that the Coptic demonstrators appreciated the need for uniting with their Muslim neighbours to frustrate attempts by the former regime and its police to terrorise the protesters and force them out of Al Tahrir. “Vividly remembering the way Jesus stood up against despotic Roman and Jewish rulers, the Coptic demonstrators rebelled against the head of the Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda, who told them to leave the square and go home.” Bishoi is confident that the determination showed by the Coptic revolutionaries during the recent revolution will inspire his colleagues in the filmmaking industry to shed light on the Coptic character in the cinema. “During the dramatic events of the revolution, the Copts deepened their sense of belonging to their motherland,” the director explains. “The Copts' suggestions for dealing with domestic problems, like contaminated drinking water, economic hardship and skyrocketing prices, should be debated in new social films and dramatic works,” he says, adding that these Coptic voices will deepen the principle of citizenship in the country. Recalling days he spent in Al Tahrir Square during the revolution, Bishoi says that the one of the most touching things he saw a Coptic girl pouring water on the hands of a Muslim man who was performing the ablutions before his prayers. He would love one of his fellow directors, whether Muslim or Coptic, to include this scene in a new film, as it admirably highlights the solidarity between Egypt's Muslims and Copts. He also expects the post-revolution cinema in Egypt to launch a healthy debate into the controversy between Salafists (diehard Muslim fundamentalists) and Copts. A recent sectarian violence in a poor district in Greater Cairo left 12 dead and more than 200 injured. Egyptians from both sides rushed to defuse sectarian tensions, which have surged of late. However, although a Coptic film critic confesses that Egyptian cinema has stereotyped the Copts, she rejects Bishoi's suggestion that films should tout all that is positive about them. Magda Morris, who reviews films in various local newspapers, says that she doesn't want new movies to portray the Copts as saints. “Just as in movies and dramatic works about Muslim characters, the weaknesses of Coptic characters should not be overlooked,” Magda told the Radio and Television magazine. “The Copts need to be presented in a balanced manner. After all, they're human beings, just like anyone else.”
