CAIRO - To say that Egypt is a religious country is an understatement. Egypt is, without a doubt, the most religious country in the Middle East, regardless whether the reason might be due to its size, or population, or the amount of poverty of the country, because those who are poor actually tend to be ultra-religious. Indeed, it has been proven that poverty is a major contributing reason leading to religious extremism. When it came to vote for a constitution change on March 19, many wanted a whole new constitution, but fear of changing the second article, which tied the way the country is run (based on Islamic Law), many votes were "Yes," which was only to change some of the amendments, rather than create a new constitution. The country right now is going through a difficult time, but one of the biggest burdens is the Christian citizens often protesting in front of the State Television and Radio Building demanding their rights, which is understandable, since those rights include being treated equal, Building their churches as they wish, everything they should have as Egyptians. Those events will certainly make their way, at least in part, into a movie, but how will the Church respond when they are portrayed on screen? Will it be accepted as it is, as true events that occurred in front of our faces, on the news, and for many, even up close and personal? Or will it be shunned like many films that are made about Christians, which always seem to trigger an uproar from the Coptic Church. For example, in "Wahed-Sifr" (One-Nil, 2009), Ilham Chahine played a Christian character wanting to get permission from the Church to get married after her divorce, especially since she had already started a relationship with another man and is having a child out of wedlock. Yes, the character is controversial, but there have been many similar characters in Egyptian cinema who were even more controversial, but were Muslim. Perhaps this is due to the fact that since Christians are minority (though a sizeable one) in Egypt, they are super-sensitive about the way they are portrayed on screen, which is in itself not an unreasonable sentiment. Then of course, there was "Bahibb El-Sima" (I Love Cinema, 2004), which ignited many lawsuits against it, with the Church calling for it to be banned. The recent violence that has been perpetrated against churches and Christians is raising a lot of questions. Now that the former regime has been overthrown and reviled, it has come to light that much of the sectarian violence was actually sparked by that regime, in order to separate Egyptian citizens and keep the Emergency Law intact. Many believe this is still the case now, but it's growing harder to blame a regime that doesn't exist anymore. However, some say that in a way, it still does; it hasn't been completely abolished yet and won't be until all these "remnants" are uprooted entirely. In the upcoming Ramadan soap opera "Dawran Shubra," directed by Khaled el Haggar, the writer presented three different endings to the censorship board, but all of them were rejected because they touched on the recent events of the church burning in the district of Imbaba. The story of the soap opera is actually about a forbidden love story between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, which is allegedly what sparked much of the violence. So why was the censorship board against an ending that chose to show the truth? Is that not one of the main reasons for this revolution, to speak the truth, to shed light on reality without fear? Within this issue, there are three complicating factors that might cause the truth to be obscured. One is the previously mentioned remnants of the Mubarak regime; another is the Coptic Church objecting to portrayals of Christians that they don't deem "positive" enough. The last, which is much more subtle and complicated, is negotiating portrayals which don't offend the Christian community or spread discord among Muslims and Christians, but are since more than flights of fancy. Should Egyptian cinema just avoid having Christian characters in movies al-together? When Adel Imam played a Coptic priest in the film "Hassan we Markous" (2008), there was a Facebook campaign created, which objected to the role being portrayed by Adel Imam. I'm not sure if the objection came from that a Christian character was played by a Muslim person or Adel Imam in particular, even though the actor is loved by millions of Egyptians, but certainly that Facebook campaign was not supported by all Copts, and only represented the views of a small minority. So what types of Christian characters should be portrayed on the screen? Many argue that films like " Shafiqa El Qebtya" (Shafiqa the Copt, 1962) or "El Raheba" (The Nun, 1965), whose protagonists are Christians, have not done a good job of creating authentic impressions as to what Christians are like. I personally do not believe it should be seen that way. Egyptians don't look at each other and consciously attempt to pick out who is Christian and who is Muslim, and just like everywhere in the world there are just simply some bad human beings regardless of religion. If all the characters in a movie are good, where is the drama in that? It's impossible to please everyone, however, in these uncertain times, it's definitely necessary for filmmakers to create their Christian characters sensitively - but still realistically.
