CAIRO – Ramadan, the so-called “Official Television Season” (for whatever reason) is over with, and then after it came the Eid, with new films emerging as they always do around the holidays. These films are considered good for business, so these films are not fading away; indeed, there is no urgency or rush to see them, and to be frank, no real reason to see them anyway. No new films will hit theatres until the beginning of November, when the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha rolls around, and with it, a new film season begins. The only film that is getting an early release is the new Khaled Yousef new film “Kaf Al-Qamar” (“Palm of the Moon”) which is supposed to be released two weeks early, and even that's not for certain since its release date has been changed a few times. Until then, there is a gap for the average Egyptian's entertainment. Let's not lie to ourselves, entertainment here mostly consists of observing; whether it's a television programme or a movie, reading is not a top choice – not that it shouldn't be one, it certainly should. Let's just observe it from what the current trend is. If there is nothing on TV, and nothing new in theatres, what should we do? We are a country which for all our history essentially operates without high culture, or even regular culture for that matter. Even the culture that we pretend to have is mostly a show for touristic reasons. For example, galleries full of paintings and art. In whatever form it takes, these gallery halls are mostly filled with foreigners. Whenever museums put on new exhibits, they do this to want to appeal solely (or at the very least, primarily) to the foreign market. Those who might want to argue that the foreign market must be sought after due to the fact that the Egyptian economy mostly depends on it should take a closer look at what that means. A country's entire economy should never solely depend on tourism and to do so is culturally crippling because it means that this culture is transformed into a kind of fakery. We live in a country where we think of ourselves as culturally challenged, and we are to a certain extent – but we lived under a regime where you lived as a second class citizen, not just in your basic human rights, but in terms of Culture and Education as well. For example, how many Egyptians would want to visit the Egyptian museum? Meaning: how many Egyptians would visit it to enjoy it, and not just because they have some foreign friends? For some Egyptians, that visit to the museum because of their foreign friends might be the first time. New Yorkers might not have all seen the statue of Liberty up close and personal, but it's be rare to find someone who has not visited the Metropolitan Museum, or the Natural History Museum or any of the many others museums in New York – or at the very least, someone who has not been to at least one of these places. We, as a country, are not hungry for culture. We have been programmed as to when it is the time to watch movies, and when to watch a soap opera. This is actually a major issue that has led to a lot of stagnation in Egyptian society, and the lack of desire to new things. It's human to get stuck in routines, but to resist trying or taking a risk, that won't just add to the decline in Egyptian cinema, but the quality of life in general. Cinema reflects reality, not just in the way the story is told, or how the characters are written, but also the quality of films greatly reflects the state of this country. As a film lover and a journalist, it's sometimes a struggle finding even something to write about without sounding too redundant; perhaps that's why most entertainment magazines here are mostly just filled with ridiculous, tedious gossip about tedious, wannabe stars. People do not discuses films coming out in the theatres anymore; they just talk about the stars in the film, and not even in relation to what they just saw. Has the industry reliance on the status of their stars made them indifferent to the quality of the films, or to the lack of sophistication and culture? Perhaps that is true, but this revolution won't do anything to the Egyptian culture, because it is not a top priority; many will argue poverty, hunger, and unemployment are the main concerns, and perhaps that is true too. However, the problem is not the place where enriching our culture falls on the list of concerns – the big problem is that it's not even on the list at all.
