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Piracy is Killing the Egyptian Film Industry
The Cairo International Film Festival opens this week amid soaring film theft, dwindling viewer interest
Egypt’s film industry, which once had a stranglehold on the Arab world’s silver screens, is suffering a bloody nose as viewers shun cinemas and watch their films on pirated DVDs or downloaded from the Internet.
Once a booming source of income and a symbol of the country’s cultural and political leadership in the Arab world, the Egyptian industry is facing new competition emerging from other Arab countries.
The Cairo International Film Festival, which opened Tuesday, offers viewers five weeks of screenings and other events in celebration of Egyptian film. But the industry is in such trouble that the government will be coming to its rescue with financial assistance, the first time the government has intervened in many years. Only four new films were released for the recent Eid Al-Adha holiday, which traditionally marks the high season in Egyptian film calendar.
“The international economic crisis has harmed the cinema industry in Egypt,” Mousaad Fouda, president of the Egyptian Cinema Syndicate, told The Media Line. “But in the coming days, after we get all the documents in order, the government will intervene and fund the industry to rescue it from the current crisis.”
Fouda admitted that increased production from Arab countries over the past few years has hurt the Egyptian film industry, but he said he welcomed the competition.
“This is noble competition, and it doesn’t detract from Egypt’s leadership role in the field of cinema,” he said.
Fouda welcomed the help of the government, asking for “assistance without intervention.” He cited the main problems facing the cinema as a rise in artists’ salaries and piracy, which he said “scared the producers.” According to Fouda, this was exactly why government help was so important – to combat piracy.
“The Egyptian film industry is experiencing crises, but it will come through,” Sayid Fathi, chief executive officer of Egypt’s Chamber of Cinema Industry, told The Media Line. “After all, Egypt is one of the world’s biggest film producers.”
The 21st century saw a huge peek in Egyptian film production. In 1997 only 16 were produced in the country, but by 2007 that number jumped to 40, earning some 50 million dollars in the box offices. 64 films were released in 2008.
Fathi discounted the fact that so few films were released during Eid, saying that many films are still in production and couldn’t be released in time for the holiday vacation. Downplaying the importance of film piracy in Egypt, Fathi said it was commonplace all over the world. He added that the Egyptian government is successfully combating piracy by prosecuting felons.
“People who copy CDs are arrested and prosecuted in court,” he said.
But some artists are not convinced the problem is negligible. Actress and producer Iss’ad Younis launched a public campaign to shut down websites offering pirated versions of Egyptian films, saying that piracy was behind the great losses suffered by the Egyptian film industry in recent years.
Younis told the Al-Shofra website that she succeeded in shutting down 17 servers of piracy websites. Her campaign targeted advertisers, convincing them to remove their ads from the illicit websites.
“Much fewer movies are being produced due to the losses producers are incurring as a result of piracy,” Mousaad Fouda, president of the Egyptian cinema syndicate told the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. “This could lead to the destruction of the cinema industry.”
Sariel Birnbaum, an expert on Arab film at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said that nothing could turn back the wheel on the Egyptian film industry.
“Today the Internet is the enemy of the film industry,” he told The Media Line. “Search for a film online, and the first twenty sites you’ll find will offer you to download it for free.”
Birnbaum said that in an attempt to make a profit, Arab producers are now selling to satellite channels that specialize in full length films, such as Rotana and Melody Aflam.
But piracy is not the only problem facing Egyptian film. Low budget Arab productions can never compete with multi-million dollar Hollywood flicks.
“Egyptian cinemas always screened more American films than Egyptian ones,” Birnbaum said. “Attempts to protect the local industry have never succeeded. All over the world cinemas are being demolished and replaced by smaller, multi-purpose halls.”
The annual Cairo International Film Festival was established in 1976 as the first international film festival in the Middle East. This year’s theme, “Egypt in the eyes of world cinema,” will feature Hollywood classics such as Cleopatra, Valley of the Kings, and The Egyptian. .
Only three Egyptian films will be screened in the festival – Lust, a film that deals with social and sexual repression of women in Egypt and the Arab world; Microphone, a romantic drama set in Alexandria; and Ring Road, a film that tackles medical corruption and organ trafficking in Egypt.
Cynical critics say that considering the current state of Egyptian film, it was not surprising that organizers decided to focus on the past glories of Cleopatra, Tutankhamen and Ramses.
“Cairo International Film Festival has grown to symbolize everything wrong with modern Egypt itself: corruption, favoritism and chaos,” wrote Egyptian film critic Joseph Fahim in the Daily News Egypt prior to last year’s festival.
David E. Miller
The Media Line