Days of anxiety/Days of Sadat: Impersonating Egypt's Flawed Hero on the Egyptian Screen
2002; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 54; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1934-6018
Autores Tópico(s)Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
ResumoA STORY OF A NATION. A story of a man. A love story. Three separate posters outside virtually every theater in Cairo in the summer of 2001 promoted separate facets of an epic biopic of former Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat, whose eleven-year reign-and whose life-ended in a hail of bullets on October 6,1981. Days of Sadat al-Sadat, dir. Muhammad Khan 2001) is the second major Egyptian feature film in recent years to break a longstanding taboo against depicting contemporary political leaders. Seven years ago, Nasser 56 (Nasir 56, dir. Muhammad Fadil 1995) set attendance records and created a flurry of enthusiasm for big-screen historical drama.1 The record did not last long; the Nasser film was soon unseated by a popularyouth comedy about a country bumpkin who attends the elite American University in Cairo.2 Now the record has again fallen to a work of serious docudrama. According to a weekly fan magazine, Days of Sadat recouped 5 of its LE$6 million cost during its first ten days in theaters (Ayyam al-Sadat 12). Box office receipts tell only a small part of the story. For all the public praise and official approbation that the film garnered, including state medals bestowed personally by President Hosni Mubarak on the film's principal stars and project developers, Days of Sadat has exposed old, acute wounds within an intelligentsia that still cannot, even two decades after Sadat's killing, discuss his career or legacy in measured tones. If the Sadat biopic hoped to rehabilitate the leader-as critics insist, and as many Sadatists hoped-it has succeeded only in preaching to the converted. If, as the principals behind it assert, the film was intended to explore a complex character of great courage and audacity, here too results have been mixed. Is this the visionary hero of war and peace trumpeted by the film's chief promoters, or the increasingly egocentric ruler whose political swings ultimately alienated vast sectors of his people? With the life story of so controversial a ruler at stake, the ground is ripe for debate, dissent, and dissatisfaction. But in so heated a context can any criticism escape charges of partisan spin? Like the Nasser film that preceded it, Days of Sadat raises classic questions concerning the production and popular reception of a historical biography of a modern, revolutionary, nationalist leader, particularly in an authoritarian, postcolonial state still governed by the descendants of that revolution. Biopics-telling history through the individual life-as George Custen has argued, have provided a particularly powerful venue for the construction of public history; have reflected shifting notions of fame; and, through the conventions of genre (which allow great poetic license in the name of drama), have packaged novel lives in recognizable, familiar guises (1-31). Custen writes of Hollywood, where a particular political economy influenced film production. But his general outline holds true for Egypt as well, where filmmakers have faced different obstacles, including continual government censorship of films deemed too politically provocative.3 In September 1998, the censors rejected without explanation the script for a film entitled The Day Sadat Was Killed (Sabra). Eight months earlier the Days of Sadat script had been approved, but even with a major star committed to play the lead, no one would bankroll the project. Ahmad Zaki, who had starred in Nasser 56 and now sought to play Sadat, found himself forced to put up his own money to see the project to fruition (Adwy). He will undoubtedly recoup his investment, but only after a protracted dispute with his selected director and in spite of a growing critical onslaught against a fine performance in a deeply flawed film. In retrospect, Days of Sadat seems to have been a dubious venture from the outset, destined to please few and leave many, as at Sadat's death, ambivalent.4 Nasser vs. Sadat-A Tale of Two Films Part of the problem is that the genre of historical biographies remains relatively new in the Egyptian cinema. …
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